This article appeared first in the November Issue of Muzzle Blasts Magazine in 1976 NMLRA Members can read this and every other article ever published. Sign up today

W.A Carver

We have considered a variety of pistols whereby one might engage in serious pistoling with black powder and 1·ound ball. You have now, perhaps, a good black powder revolver and a single shot pistol such as a Thompson-Center Patriot Pis­tol or a Kentucky style pistol made from a kit. Probably, too, you have been doing enough shooting that you are beginning to wonder just how well you can shoot. Neither revolvers nor Kentucky style pistols are easy to shoot, and the revolvers not quite as accurate as the sin­gle shots. So, if you have ac­quired some discipline with the pistol, it is quite likely that you have come to question some of the shots that have gone a little astray. It is time to consider building a target pistol-a pistol that is not only inherently ac­curate but facilitates realization of its potential.

Where to begin? With the barrel. My shooting compan­ions and I have designed and built many target pistols ex­ploring the possibilities of bar­rels, lock works and design. I do not believe we've ever made a single shot target pistol that did not shoot reasonably well. Which, I reported at the outset, you might have confidence in what we are about to do. So, what barrel? A .45 calibre one­turn-in-twenty-two-inches. Such, doubtlessly, seems a little dog­matic, but I believe you will find much agreement with such a se­lection. Other calibres and other twists will, indeed, work well, but in the above sugges­tion, you can be most confident. Let the barrel be of nine to eleven inches in length and per­haps something like .800" in diameter-octagonal pleases the eye of most and offers some advantages in construction.

For this first target pistol let us use a side lock, and set aside for the moment other possibili­ties. Although such are not so readily available, locks from old shotguns, good shotguns, Park­ers or Remingtons, make excel­lent pistol locks, for they are well made and easily fitted to a pistol. Locks of current manu­facture are available, too, and many of them are well made and easily adapted to our pistol. Wood and hardware are of little significance in the ten ring, so they can be left to the eye.

Having made the selection of barrel and lock, we can now consider the basic design of the pistol. If there is any common design feature to be found in target pistols, it is that ther all provide some protrusion of the stock over the webbing of the thumb. That single element provides the security of grip that is wanting in the revolvers and Kentucky style pistols. Per­haps the next most significant element is the angle formed by the barrel and the grip. The angle of the grip is effected by the contours of the grip; there­fore, determination of the angle becomes somewhat empirical. The net result must be a natural alignment of the pistol to the target. The wrist should not be broken to maintain sight alignment. Hold your arm out in a natural pointing position to determine an unbroken wrist. Having done so, grip a piece of wood in that position and see what approximate angle is form­ed with the horizontal arm. An­other method of determining grip angle is that of trying what modern target pistols can be brought to hand. The variety of .22 automatic target pistols to be had will serve you well ic angles, those to be seen in the older Colt's, High Stand­ards, and the Ruger and the new High Standards and Smith & Wesson's. You can only try the several and select what seems best suited to you or what mod­ification seems necessary.

A third design element to be fixed, and it, too, is important, is the length of pull, the ranch to the trigger. From that part of the grip into which the web of the thumb fits to the face of the trigger should be of such length, and the thickness of the grip effects the linear distance, that when the pistol is firmly forced into the hand, the trig­ger finger, contacting the side of the pistol only lightly, en­gages the trigger with the last joint at the near side of the trigger. The last pad of the trigger finger should comfort­able rest across the face of the trigger. The result of a good position will be a straight back draw on the trigger with very little side pressure. Again, handling pistols will provide some close estimate of what is needed.

The dimensions and shape of the grip very much effect the angle of the grip to the barrel and the length of pull; there­fore, these several factors must be determined in relation to each other. What we seek is a combination of elements that points naturally, holds securely, and facilitates a good letoff.

There is yet another impor­tant matter, the "hang" of the piece. The balance of the pis­tol. On this point, one might encounter some differences of opinions. I prefer, and I believe that most prefer, a somewhat muzzle heavy hang. Such a bal­ance, I believe, has a stability not to be had with a center of gravity close to or over the hand. To obtain a desirable balance simply requires moving the bar­rel forward or backward, and this can be done with a mock­up.

Two other not-so-important decisions to make determine the contour of the grip and the fore­end of the barrel channel. Should the grip provide a thumb shelf and finger grooves? Should the barrel channel be half-stock of fullstock? To the first question, I suggest the ans­wer, "No." Not emphatically, but, perhaps more so to the fin­ger grooves than to the thumb shelf. It is not a matter of whether or not the work is to some advantage; in my opinion, it is whether or not the work is to some clisaclvantage. I think that the pistol which is too com­fortable, wh􀀴 seems to "float", lulls one into an indifference. To the second question, I suggest the answer, "fullstock". The fullstock fore-end, if it serves no other purpose, makes possi­ble, if designed to do so, a se­cure hold while ramming the ball home. And, what we con­sider a good loading requires a secure hold as the ball is ram­med down the barrel.

Having selected the barrel and the lock and determined the basic dimensions and contours, you will do well to reduce your decisions to paper. Lay the barrel on the paper and hold the lock above it so that the hammer will strike the nipple squarely. Keep the lock as high as possi­ble, for the higher the lock in relation to the barrel, the lower the barrel can be in relation to your band. Having fixed the barrel and lock in relation to each other, the contour of the pistol can be drawn. Perhaps the side lock pistol shown with "Pistol Shots" in the December Muzzle Blasts will suggest grip and rear stock pattern. The ac­companying silhouette offers a fullstock fore end design which will provide that secure grip needed during loading.

Having profiled your target pistol to your satisfaction, you must give some thought to its building. At once, you may be puzzled by the rearward position of the lock in relation to the trigger. Look closely at the side lock pistol referred to above and you will see that the trigger engages the sear by means of a push rod angling up through the grip from the trig­ger to the sear. In such a de­sign, a ten or eleven inch bar­rel can used without forcing an overly long pistol. The longer barrel can be kepi back by sim­ply reversing the lock, that is, mounting a right hand lock on the left side of the pistol and directly engaging the sear with the trigger.

That matter decided upon, the construction of the pistol is quite straight forward. I sug­gest that the stock be made of two pieces, a barrel chassis and a grip. These two can be simple blocks or they may be laminat­ed. However you choose to pro­ceed, the grip will not be glued to the barrel .chassis until after the barrel has been bedded.

To the barrel chassis. Deter­mine what rectangular solid would enclose the barrel chan­nel, the lock area, and whatever protrusion over the web of the thumb you intend to incorporate. This base block might be some­thing like 1 3/8" wide, 1 1/2" deep, and 12" long. A table saw carefully used will exactly channel the block for the barrel. Run the cuts the full length of the block and then fit a piece back of the barrel to fill the channel around the tang. (I use a half ball on the breech end of the barrel which, bedded in epoxy glue mixed with saw­dust, creates a roll-up lift out to me. Be that as it may, con­verting an air pistol to a muz­zle loading pistol is not diffi­cult and it does produce a pistol of good handling properties and, if the choice of barrels has been a happy one, a good shooter.

If you have not yet a good side lock caplock, perhaps some of the suggestions above will have appealed to you, and you may be now moved to be about such or a similar project. Do not delay too long; as you read this, summer will be coming.

How goes your shooting? Is your holding improving? Is your let-off "clean"? Perhaps we shall meet on the firing line. I shall be pleased if it is so.

MUZZLE BLASTS, March, 1976