Firstly, I know nothing about guns. My husband has wanted an "old timey" flintlock pistol kit for awhile, but complains about how expensive they are. He cited that they used to be 100 and now are 250-300. I saved up and thought I could buy one for him this Christmas as a surprise, but the ones I am googling are more like 500+??

So, I guess I am asking if kits like this really are 500+ now :( and also is there anything else I can get that might fit the bill that is 200-300 versus 500 that he might like? Like, could I get a part of a kit or a component?

What do you think a dude who likes building weapons might like? lol. Thank you for any help or suggestions!!!

I read that the Pietta cal.36 version of the Remington 1858 uses the same frame as that of the .44 and that would make the Pietta larger than it should be. Has someone a photo or other size comparison between a Pietta 1858 .36 cal and a Uberti 1858 .36 cal ?

In the past me and a buddy used to make BP quite often, it was his biggest hobby. Sadly he passed away a week ago, and his funeral is in 2 days.
In his will he wanted fireworks set off at his funeral, and I want to make them myself (Just like we used too).

Getting charcoal is no problem, same goes for sulfur, however potassium nitrate is a problem.
As I said, I only have a few days before his funeral starts so I am trying to buy them locally but I cant find the commonalty used spectracide stump remover (potassium nitrate). The closest thing I could find is this brand (thats in stock):
https://www.farmandfleet.com/products/226730-gordons-stump-remover.html
Im not sure as to the purity since the description is non existent but my guess would be 90%, is there any way to refine it to a higher purity so I can make great fireworks for the funeral? Would 90% even work?

Which pistol has the highest power in Joule? In my country only these classic 18th century-kind weapons are legal. I want to buy one for self-defense in the case of emergency (in which society collapsed).

I want to do another build, kinda wanted to go big and do a 1" bore rifle (kinda like a 4 bore but less serious.) just have a big tube I can stuff whatever down. Simple because it's ridiculous and why not.

Or do a really long barrel shotgun,

Both would simply be fuse ignition. So I suppose more akin to an extremely early arquebus, as it would have a stock.

What would y'all build? I definitely would have a hard time finding a round ball in .9-something diameter

A 12 gauge i could get slugs or a mold for and would eat less powder.

But then again 1" bore rifle would be more like a cannon and would just be a "send it" gun for scattering. Plus I always wanted to have something of a poor man's blunderbuss.

What do I do now? Already drilled through stock

Just tried out my first batch of paper cartridges I made using a kit from cartridgekits.com. Upon cleaning I noticed quite a bit of paper leftover in the cylinder. Pictured is about how much I found in each chamber. I was under the impression that it’s supposed to burn away almost completely. Granted, I shot 20 cartridges total so each chamber had about 4 cartridges loaded and fired before cleaning. Thoughts/suggestions?

So I wanna shoot my Brown Bess for New Year's Eve but dont want to use a real bullet or something else that is dangerous. I want it to be like firework, loud and bright but nothing dangerous.

So what should I use to get a real loud boom without it being dangerous?

As an owner of a Single Action Army, I am curious how this black powder variant compares.

When I was in high school (a million years ago) I bought a Colt Navy revolver kit and never finished it. It has since been lost to the mists of time.

Does anyone make revolver kits you can assemble, finish etc today?

My Google-fu has failed me on this.

Thanks!

Hi i bought a Plains Pistol Kit from Investarm in .54 Cal

i never tried Patched Round Balls before what load And what thicknes would you sugest for .535 RBs?

Thx in Advance ^^

looking to buy a percussion shotgun, but the options i’m seeing are all quite expensive. Anyone know of one under 1k?

bonus question: can i just put buckshot in like a regular muzzle loader? i dont see a reason why that wouldnt work besides maybe the rifling?

My first cap and ball, as far as black powder guns, I’m not a complete stranger, I have a T/C Hawkins and a ky long rifle I built from a kit. Hoping it works well and I didn’t pay too much for it, but I saw that all that patina and had to have it!

The description was a little vague, but apparently the date of manufacture is 1970. Manufacturer was listed as “Italian” they say it’s in good mechanical condition. Am I correct to believe this is an Uberti? Any thing I should know about this before I load it up? Is the cylinder brass? I figured they would all be made from steel.

Hey all,

My Pedersoli 12 SXS (which I still can't seem to hit a pheasant with) doesn't have a great barrel to stock fit. It's loose enough the retainer can slide out freely if not paid attention to.

I've been using a piece of business card as a shim, in front of the retaining lug. It works fine for keeping things tight but I'm wondering if there's some reason I shouldn't do this and what more permanent solutions I might explore.

Thanks!

On my last post a few of you made a good suggestion on using wax balls rather than 3d printed balls and it didn’t even dawn on me for that as an option. The real question I have is: how safe is shooting wax balls? Especially in doors.

Would it be safe to shoot wax balls onto a paper target in the basement wall? I imagine the ballistics will be much lower but is it worth it? Do they richochet or just splatter/get smushed on the paper target? For reference I’ll want to try and use them with an 1851 colt navy .44 caliber I assume a 25 grain load.

Last question I have is what would be good material to put in an 1851 colt navy to shoot blanks? I was thinking newspaper just to hold the powder in but I assume that will just burn up and possibly cause a chain fire which kinda ruins the fun of shooting blanks in a revolver

Thank you guys again.

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I’ve seen some forums that say that a 10 ga black powder shotgun can reach 1300 fps with 1 1/4 oz of shot, which would basically make it the same as some heavier modern 12 ga cartridges. But I was wondering, since you aren’t limited by cartridge space, how hot could you load the gun? Would it be possible to exceed what a smokeless 3 or 3.5 inch shotgun shell could do? How many grains of black powder can you load before pressure becomes dangerous or you just can’t burn all of it (let’s say the gun in question is a 10 ga Pedersoli sxs with 28 inch barrels)?

Hi I was wondering if anyone had any information on gunmakers from new jersey in the 17-1800s, or any information on what pattern of muzzleloaders would have been common

1861, shot it a few times and I’m enjoying the hell out of it!

Will we ever have a non-corrosive black powder substitute? I’ve been hearing that the holy grail has been around the corner for forty years. While I’m making impossible requests, I’d like to see a copy of the Savage and North revolver.