Unkown Old Pistol

[68K]

My dad found this really old pistol along a river where he fishes. He finds all sorts of old coins, artifacts and arrow heads in the same area. Here are a couple of pics of the pistol. I know it is a percussion cap pistol, probably from the early 1800's. If anyone could help me possibly identifying the make and model that would be great. Thank you.

 

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[SkaBa]

Nice.

 

[villagenut]

No idea but I would take some steps to preserve it or likely it will become a pile of rusty metal pieces. Iron artifacts look good for a while after recovery but are no longer stable, and without intervention they will only deteriorate more and more. That is a nice one, and I would hate to see it fall apart.

 

[Mr.T]

Sounds like the dream spot to detect!
Aquachigger has a good youtube video showing how to preserve using hot wax method!

 

[Breezie]

Below is a pic of a percussion cap pistol from the 1850's. This one has a straight trigger, while yours is curved. Judging by that, I would say yours later, probably closer to the Civil War era.



There's a possibility is can be restored. As you can see, mine turned out beautifully!
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/r...are-sambo-cap-gun-1897-before-after-pics.html



View attachment 1086575

Neat find
Breezie

 

[sutphin]

It looks to be a spur trigger pistol??/vanzutphen

 

[BosnMate]

Percussion caps were invented in 1836, and weren't instantly popular, and I would expect your gun is from after 1840, to perhaps the 1860's. That's a guess, it certainly might date later than that. Generally a box lock muzzle loading pistol that size and style, is called a muff pistol. Ladies used a hand warmer called a "muff," and the self defense pistol fit right in the muff. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about.
There is ample space in there to hide one or two small pistols.
The next photo is of a box lock muff pistol.

The genteel lady, or even the high falootin gentleman that might be carrying a hideout gun wasn't expected to load the gun themselves. The gun was strictly self defense, and they didn't target practice with them. Once a month you stopped by the local gunsmith or gun store, and you would fire your pistol into a barrel, then the gunsmith would clean it, and loaded it for you, and you were good for another month, and potentially your only practice was shooting into a barrel once a month. In the photo of the pistol, note the lug under the barrel. That was for a wrench to unscrew the barrel, and essentially it was a breech loader, and the barrel had a chamber, in which a slightly over sized ball was placed first, then the powder, and the barrel screwed back on, making it shoot much harder than a muzzle loader. A muzzle loading pistol would be treated the same, and was sold without a ramrod because the owner wasn't expected to load it.

 

[Reed Lukens]

Telling exactly what it is at this time isn't possible but you will have a much easier job of identifying it after it has been cleaned. BosnMate and Breezie have it nailed as close as can be at this time

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Actually your find is fairly distinctive. Bos'nMate gave you a good run down.

Your has a distinctive frame angle down into the grip and the barrel appears to be hex to round (if I am seeing it right - hard to tell). That might have looked like this.



But here's the sad part - even the one shown is "make unknown" because places like Liege in Belgium turned out gozillions of these and did not mark them. No manufacturer & no serial.

 

[68K]

Actually your find is fairly distinctive. Bos'nMate gave you a good run down.

Your has a distinctive frame angle down into the grip and the barrel appears to be hex to round (if I am seeing it right - hard to tell). That might have looked like this.

View attachment 1086641

But here's the sad part - even the one shown is "make unknown" because places like Liege in Belgium turned out gozillions of these and did not mark them. No manufacturer & no serial.

That looks like a match to me! Thanks! I will show my dad. I will talk to him about further preserving it as well.