The Firearm Blog

[ I am pleased to present this guest post written by James A. Zachary Jr. James blogs at The Next Chapter ]

Norm Flayderman’s Guide says that Williamson Derringers have serial numbers running into the 20,000 range but speculates that the Moore Patent Firearms Company / National Arms Company produced fewer than 10,000 of these pistols from 1866 – 1870. The subject of this post has serial number 10621. Perhaps unique to this Williamson are the decorative rhinestones, the heart inlays, and an Ace of Hearts playing card engraved on the backstrap. Further, there is a treaded-plug in the butt of the grip; I have not seen this on any other Williamson Derringer. I would be interested to hear any ideas on what its purpose may be. Someone suggested that it might be for mounting the derringer as a “burglar trap” with the trigger wired to a doorknob.

David Williamson’s design adhered to the aesthetic lines of the original Henry Deringer pistols but he decided to fill a niche market created during the period of transition from ball and percussion cap pistols to those designed to fire metallic cartridges; his derringer would be able to function with both. If .41 rimfire cartridges were not readily available, a reusable metal cartridge adapter allowed the use of loose black powder with a lead ball and a percussion cap.

The pistol requires no adjustments to switch between the ball-and-cap adapter and the .41 rimfire cartridge. During rimfire cartridge ignition, as you would expect, the extended blade firing pin on the hammer strikes the rim of a chambered .41 cartridge. When using the cap-and-ball adapter, the flat of the hammer whacks the percussion cap that is on the nipple of the adapter. The cap nipple, which extends into a hole in the breach when the barrel is closed, keeps the hammer from going forward far enough to damage the extended blade firing pin which otherwise would slam against the adapter’s rim.

To load the Williamson Derringer, first pull the hammer back about one quarter of the way until it clicks into its safety position, then push up on the barrel release lever that is on the underside of the pistol (just in front of the trigger guard) and slide the barrel forward. Insert either a .41 rimfire cartridge or the cap-and-ball adapter (after first charging it with ball and powder; it is probably best not to cap the nipple until after the load is in the barrel chamber). Slide the barrel back to the closed position and you are then ready for an 1866 night out on the town.

[ I am pleased to present this guest post written by Wayne Watson. Wayne blogs at Oswald Bastable's Ranting and New Zealand Back Country ]

Uberti's 1847 Walker Colt

A volunteer in the U.S. Army at the begining of the War in Mexico, another tall hero emerges from the Legendary Texas Rangers, Captain Samuel Walker. Experienced with the advantages of a repeating arm in combat, Walker teamed up with Samuel Colt in 1846 to develop what was to become the most sought after of the Hartford Model Colt percusion revolvers. As a Texas Ranger and Dragoon officer, Walker knew first hand that the early designs that Colt had produced were the key to an even more awesome light cavalry sidearm. The combined knowledge and experience of Walker and Colt brought out the first six-shot .44 caliber revolver, successfully arming a growing nation with a firearm it desprately needed and sealing the Army contracts that would pull Colt out of bankruptcy and secure his future. Captain Walker died in October of 1847 at the Battle of Juamantha, Mexico, but his legacy lives on in all Single Action revolvers and is honored with the Uberti Walker revolver, an exact and faithful reproduction of the original. ~from the Uberti Website

I fell for this hog-leg, when I first picked one up from a display at the Wairarapa Pistol & Sports Shooting Club- Trail's End 2004. The New Zealand Uberti agent, Neil Hayes, promises that every customer will go away smiling after firing one of these!

Certainly that has been my personal experience and that of every one I have loaned my Walker for a try.

There is always the appeal of the biggest, loudest and most powerful hand-howitzer that makes the red-blooded shooter just HAVE to fire that piece. The beauty of the Walker is that it won't leave you with torn thumb webbing, sprains or strains and medical bills! It WILL get folks peering into your bay to see what on earth you are shooting!

True to the original, The Walker has its faults- fortunatly the metallurgy is not one of them. The loading leaver does sometimes drop when firing, a problem corrected in the Dragons. I found that this can be fixed by dropping the charge back from 60 to 55 grains, but a simple fix for those who have to fire full house loads (and why would you buy a Walker if you weren't going to) is to tie it up with a short piece of leather thonging- no doubt as the Texas Rangers did.

The sights are basic,but that doesn't stop this shooting iron from delivering some grat groups- I have shot 2' groups at 25 yards, which is about as good as I can do with any non-target pistol. I evem manage to hit out 1/2 sized buffalo sillouette at 200 yards three times out of five- on a good day!

Wayne's Walker Colt

The Colt degign is a breeze to strip and clean. My method is to tap out the wedge, remove the nipples and place cylinder and nipples in a tin can with a little household detergent.

I then pour boiling water through the barrel and IMMEDIATELY spray liberally with WD-40- though the barrel and everywher else. Helps to have a rag to hold the hot steel!

The cylinders are scrubbed with a small bottle brush, then the water is drained and cylinder and nipples get the WD-40 treatment. Speed is the trick- rust sets in FAST.

From there it is wipe well and lubricate with a good quality oil, with a good quality grease on the arbor pin. Don't spare the cleaning cloth- it's cheap enough!

Four years later, My Walker still looks like new and it gets PLENTY of use.

This piece of history is available here in New Zealand for $595 NZ.

It is just too depressing for me to look up a US list price, so I will leave that to you!

Wayne Watson New Zealand

Perfect for muzzle loader hunting season and living out your South Seas whaling fantasy Just $22,000 (shipping from Norway not included in price).

More about it at Snowflakes in Hell.

Watch this video ...

Surely this is very dangerous? Apparently the sport is more fun than sex.

Many thanks to Sven for the link.

Just a joke. The EOTech sight is not attached

SayUncle was given a 1873 Trapdoor Springfield which belonged to his great grandfather.

Read about it here and the follow up post here.

I recently blogged about boot pistols, a type of early CCW gun carried during the Civil War and postbellum era. The feminine equivalent of the boot pistol was the muff gun. (the name refers to the original definition¹ , not the modern day slang). They were the same sort of concept just smaller and would have probably fired a smaller load (please correct me if I am wrong).

This matched set was recently up for auction at GunBroker. The reserve price of $1525 was not met.

Photos by "zocalo"

Many thanks to Fred for the info.

This under hammer percussion pistol was manufactured, probably in the mid-late 1800's, by Bacon & Co. These types of guns where known as "boot pistols". I don't know for sure where the name comes from, but would guess these were backup guns that could be stowed away inside your boot - in other words an early sub-compant CCW

I love the clean lines on this gun.

For those of you who are interested, its markings are "Bacon & Co. Norwich C-T" and "Cast Steel".

Thanks to Heath for the photos.

No other shoulder fired firearm throws a bigger mass of lead than the mighty 2 bore rifles. Ever since learning about the existence of these monster arms I have been fascinated by them. Sir Samuel Baker, the famous British adventurer, wrote about his personal 2 Bore rifle named, ironically, "Baby".

I was afraid to use it, but now and then as it was absolutely necessary, it was cleaned after months of staying loaded. On such occasions my men had the gratification of firing it, and the explosion was always accompanied by two men falling on their backs (one having propped up the shooter) and the "Baby" flying some yards behind them. This rifle was made by Holland and Holland, of Bond Street, and I could highly recommend it for the Goliath of Gath, but not for the men of A.D. 1866."

- Sir Samuel Baker -The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin Of The Nile, 1866 pp.138

Colin, of Stolzer & Son's Gunsmithing, apprenticed under Master Gunsmith Steve Zihn. I have previously covered the amazing 2 Bore that Steve built. Colin assisted Steve with some of the parts for that 2 Bore and recently has been building a 2 Bore himself and chronicling the build in detail on his website.

8 bore ball (middle), approx. 3500 grain 2 Bore ball (right)

He had two main design goals. The first was to slim down the profile of the pistol grip so it was easy hold. This was achieved by building a solid steel boxlock action with dimensions similar to that of an 8 Bore (.835″ in caliber vs. the 1.326″ of a 2 bore¹ ), but which could support the massive 2 bore barrel.

Note the beautiful animal's head hammer.

The second goal was to reduce the recoil as much as possible. In pursuit of lower felt recoil, Colin tried to make the weight of the rifle as close to 30 lbs as possible. By the time it was finished it weighed 24 lbs. For comparison that is more than a loaded M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW)! A recoil pad was added, something purists of these guns avoid (for reasons I cannot fathom).

Adding lead to the stock for weight and balance.

The finished rifle is a beautiful work of art and engineering.

The stock was made from a piece of American Black Walnut cut on Collin's own property.

Colin made matching accessories.

This blog post has only scratched the surface of the detailed documentation, photos and videos that Colin made while building the rifle. I highly recommend reading Colin's account of the process.

Colin told me that he plans on selling his creation. I do not know how much these custom rifles are worth, but I am sure he will discuss it with you if you are interested. His contact details can be found at Stolzer & Son's Gunsmithing.

A big thank you to Colin for providing me with information and letting me use his photos.

This pistol belonged to a member of EOKA, a group who fought against the British and Turkish for Cypriot independence during the 1950’s.

The barrel on the pistol is a 20mm cartridge case! I think the general idea was to pack a very small charge of blackpowder at the back of the “barrel” by the touch hole and jam some sort of projectile in the front, sort of like a blackpowder cannon. As the text in the above photo says, it would have need to be held right up to the victims head.

I do wonder if it was ever fired because a cartridge case is not designed to hold up against pressure, it is designed to expand. I suspect this would do as much, if not more, damage to the operator than it would to the intended target.

Hat Tip: weissent @ MP.net

Master gunsmith Steve Zihn, who made the huge 2 bore rifle I have blogged about before, emailed these photos of this magnificent .54 caliber flintlock rifle he built.

Look at the trigger blade. Beautiful.

It has a 44″ swamped barrel.

The rifle along with a matching custom made knife is being raffled off to raise money for the Cowboy Church in Riverton, Wyoming. Tickets for the raffle cost $10 each or 3 for $25 and can be purchased from CJ Vandermuehlen. He can be contacted at 1-307-851 8829 or at the below email address.

Colin Stolzer, who owns Stolzer & Son’s Gunsmithing, emailed me photos of a custom 8 Bore Boxlock muzzleloader he was recently build for a client. It is a true work of art.

Click to expand the photos (the small thumbnails do not do it justice):

8 Bore (.835″) 1:104 twist Octagon to wedding band transition then straight tapered round to the muzzle.
Jeff Tanner Ball Mould (.805″).

The finished rifle weighs right at 11 pounds.

The Action is a Pete Allan Boxlock Casting, it is representative of the 1860’s Edwin Wesson Boxlocks. The metal finish is rust blued.

The Ramrod is Rosewood w/ a steel button on one end and a threaded steel tip on the other for accessories.

It has a full length underrib to add a little weight.

The Stock is rock maple, stained with a dark walnut stain and then oil finished and then waxed to a sheen.

The forearms has an ebony tip, all the pipes, underrib, front sight and sight base were custom made in my shop.

The action was also reshaped, and the original triggerguard was removed and replace with the more elegant and classic one in the finished pictures.

The butt plate is a wide English style plate. The checkering is flattop.

I asked Colin to email me some photos to give a sense of scale to large bore size.

8 bore balls. These would weight 875 grains is they were pure lead.

A nickel on the barrel.

Many thanks to Colin for emailing me this photos. If you are wanting a custom muzzleloader designed I am sure Colin could make you one. His contact info is on his website.

Traditions Performance Firearms have developed a new muzzleloader called the Vortek.

The rifle utilizes a break open action and has the proprietary Accelerator Breech Plug installed, which allows the user to quickly dump an unfired load. The barrel is ported 360 degrees to reduce muzzle rise and has Williams fiber optic sights installed.

MSRP ranges from $390 for the blued, standard stock model, to $470 for the soft touch camo stainless model.

The Winchester 1885 single shot rifle, designed by the one and only Mr John M. Browning, has been in and out of production for over 120 years. Winchester is once again manufacturing it. A variety of models are available:

1885 High Wall Sporter


Creedmoor Black Powder .50-90 Sharps

Short Hunter


High Wall Trapper

Not pictured is the Traditional Hunter model.

They are available chambered in:

* 45-70
* 50-90 Sharps
* 38-55
* 405 Win.
* 30-40 Krag
* 32-40
* 45-90

I really like the short barreled trapper model. It is available chambered in 38-55, 30-40 Krag and 45-70. Weights only 6 lbs and has a 16.5″ barrel.

MSRP is $1514.99 to $2226.56 depending on model and caliber.

Billll finished off a working replica of a .36 cal. pepperbox pistol and has review it over at Billlls Idle Mind. The Pepperbox is a repeating firearm design that was the forerunner to the true revolver. The design was mainly used for pistols but it was also used for repeating rifles.

Billls blackpowder pepperbox replica.

Mark Twain wrote about a pepperbox:

“If she didn’t get what she went after, she would fetch something else.” And so she did. She went after a deuce of spades nailed against a tree, once, and fetched a mule standing about thirty yards to the left of it. Bemis did not want the mule; but the owner came out with a double-barreled shotgun and persuaded him to buy it, anyhow. It was a cheerful weapon–the “Allen.” Sometimes all its six barrels would go off at once, and then there was no safe place in all the region round about, but behind it.”

Billl’s is not much more accurate! Seems more like a gun to scare off your enemies than to do them damage.

Read his review here.