A silly thought just dropped into my head....

[BCRider]

Someone in a thread I was just reading mentioned the NAA Super Companion. This got me thinking on a tangent......

What I see in my mind is a .177 or .22 THICK WALL air pistol barrel set up with a breach plug to allow muzzle loading. Or maybe hinge out breach loading of a suitable size pellet and a few grains of black powder behind the pellet before hinging the action closed onto a vertically held barrel. The charge would be something like 3 to 5gns of 4Fg depending on how the chronograph results go. But with an eye to achieving something around 600'ish fps. Then a regular percussion cap is added and the hammer drops.

My thinking is that the cheapie old style thick wall break action pellet gun barrel should be up to the light pressures involved. But with more of a kick than the likely 300 to 350 fps it sends the pellets out with at present.

Or do you think the shuttle cock like shape would just swage out to more of a small coffee cup like shape under such pressure?

LATE ADDITION! -

Or perhaps a .22 air rifle barrel could be cut down and form the basis of a nice small size flintlock sort of along the lines of the NAA mini .22's? If I were to find the right size of lead shot and patch it with a small patch of fine cotton or maybe even a bit of silk or some other flimsy material that would resist burning or melting too fast?

 

[Busyhands94]

I have seriously thought about that so many times, both pistol and rifle. I thought about doing that to one of these: http://www.pyramydair.com/s/m/Tech_Force_S2_1_Air_Pistol/2360

I also think it would be cool to bore out the chamber and make it so I could fire it with shotshell primers, then put a firing pin on the end of the plunger to set it off. I bet with magnum primers that thing would be pretty powerful!

 

[Mizar]

Those cheap Chinese .22 air pistol barrels can be safely reamed for .22LR. I have even seen a .22 air rifle converted for .22WMR! But you will have several problems - usually the cheap spring piston pistols (like the pistol from Levi's link) weight a lot and the balance is awful. If you want to use the pistol as it is you must consider that the barrel meets the receiver at an angle - sometimes the barrels are even pointing down. The piston spring is too strong and heavy and left stock will distort you sight picture. You must redesign the barrel locking mechanism - it's too weak and don't have a mechanical lock - just spring and plunger. The barrels are rough inside and they must be lapped for good results. I think that you will be better with purchasing just an air rifle barrel and building the rest of the action from scratch. Bullet type pellets with solid base are sold which will serve you better than the "minie" type pellets. The rest is your technical skills and imagination. Good luck!

Boris

 

[BCRider]

That's too funny since that Tech Force thing is the same air pistol I've got sitting in a box here but without the fancy sights. Mine just has a rear sight like the cheap spring style found on many rifles that uses a little stepped ramp to index to different elevations.

My idea is to ONLY use the barrel and build up all the rest. I want to try to stick to more of a classic single shot style of appearance. Possibly even something that works more like a Martini action or rolling block to allow me to breach load the pellet, charge and cap or primer.

Mind you I suspect you're right about a 209 primer being enough to reach some pretty decent velocity. The trick would be to figure out how to seal it and hold it in place while hitting it with a firing pin then arrange for some sort of extractor for something that short.

I'd have to see how the modern inline muzzle loaders do it.

 

[arcticap]

Dr. Stephen Wardlaw, the same person who performed the famous experiment trying to ignite black powder with static electicity, built a prototype converting a Ruger 77/22 into an electrically-fired Black Powder Breechloading Rifle.
He posted the test results of firing various .22 projectiles with it, which included achieving up to 1350 fps with buckshot and 4 grains of compressed Swiss 4F.
Loading only 2 grains produced velocities in the range of 900 - 1000 fps with both .22 pellets and buckshot.

Here's the article, and there's a link to his other experiments at the bottom of the page:

An Electrically-Fired, Black Powder Breechloading Rifle

http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/electric_ml/electricml.html

 

[BCRider]

SWEET! Thanks Arcticap.

I have no idea where this will go or if it'll ever see the light of day. Right now the chiseled open floor in my basement to install much needed parallel drainage is a "little" more important...

But it's fun to muddle about with ideas. I may even CAD up something if it gets a little farther.

 

[StrawHat]

No idea if the air rifle barrel or other parts would work. What I can offer is: I built a 22 caliber underhammer rifle, with a Long rifle case as a measure I would load one measure of powder and an air rilfe pellet. It was decently accurate and made a bit of noise and smoke. The problem was, I did this prior to Steve Garbe and his wonderful lube so the lack of lubrication was one thing I had to deal with. The other was in ramming the pellet down from the muzzle, all the fouling would be pushed on top of the powder. Sometimes it effected the powder othertimes not. It always made loading harder than I liked so I would swab out between EVERY shot. Not as much fun as it sounds. If I were to revisit this idea, I would use a BP friendly lube and air rifle pellets. ANd maybe a shorter barrel, mine was 27".

Never tried a PRB as I did not have a small enough mold.

In a flintlock, the touch hole would be nearly as big as the bore, lots of gasses leak from there.

One thing, it was a lot of fun to build and shoot. I think it is still around here somewhere...

 

[BCRider]

The concern over the small charge and leaks was well brought up in that article link from Arcticap. Looks like some form of breach loading along with likely a cap firing through a fairly small opening such as a revolver cylinder nipple would be the best way to go.

His method of allowing the round ball to start a touch big and swage down is also a good one. As is the idea of slightly compressing the powder. I'd have to think a little on how to manage that since a bolt of the sort he's using seems like the way to go. I just don't want to deal with the electrical firing issues though. Although using electrical firing over caps sure has it's positive side..... Get it? "Positive side"? Oh man, I just kill me sometimes....