So here is the deal. I bought a percussion pistol, my wife "confiscated" it and now she wants to shoot it, lol. Single shot, Derringer style. The bore measures .430 on the lands and it looks like that size would fit in but not sure. Teach me please.
How to measure the caliber on a percussion pistol?
- Thread starter scianna54
- Start date
You have two choices; screw barrel type guns which use a ball that is slightly over bore diameter (ie approaches groove diameter) and the true muzzle loading types which would use a patched ball that is about .010" under bore diameter. The screw barrel types use a ball that will not fall down the barrel when loaded but if the threads are rusted or too tight to remove the barrel, you would load them from the front with a patched ball. Screw barrels in particular use pretty light charges; with the barrel off, you fill up the cavity in the receiver and place a ball on top. Think in terms of 10 or 15 grains of powder
cheers mooncoon
cheers mooncoon
NorthCoastBigBore
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Northwest BC (Rural) 103-I-##
Try the Powder Keg in Kamloops they had good stock of BP supplies last time I swung through....that was a few years ago though.
250 554-3425
250 554-3425
without seeing the gun, my guess would be in the 10 - 20 grain range with the emphasis being towards 10 grains. Most of the handguns with hidden triggers are pretty small guns.
Just occurred to me that even with rusted threads, screw barrels can be identified by often having a lug near the muzzle (for a barrel wrench) or indentations at the muzzle for an internal wrench or key
cheers mooncoon
