corsair double barrel pistol cal 45

[flibuste]

hello,

Armisport manufactured this pistol in 1980. Quality is very good but the look of the wood was not as nice as the one of this picture :

I polished the barrels, removed the varnish of the wood, inserted some brass inlays and darkened the wood (which was poor quality) :

Soon some results from shooting ..............

 

[trickshot]

How much does it weigh? Do the locks work okay? I've been looking for a lighter weight howdah pistol and I see these sometimes come up for sale on gunbroker.

 

[BHP FAN]

I've got one just like the picture.Now I need another to make a pair.I had one in .36,about ten years ago.

 

[flibuste]

hello,

The quality of steel part is perfect : the internal parts of the locks (traditional spring) are high quality and compare with Pedersoli standards. External looking is very nice as you can see.
Barrels are threaded and first shooting test are showing good accuracy (more test coming soon). It should accept 450 ball or patched 440.

Shooting with 450 ball and 30gr BP gives real recoil because gun is light (#1kg) . Pedersoli Howdah is probably twice heavier.

My particular gun presented a very clear wood with thick varnish and looking was not to my taste so the modification.

I would say that only wood may be on a lower standard on Corsair but that is easy to detect. Probably too strong BP loads may damage the grip so 30gr is a max and probably 20gr will suffice for accuracy and fun...

As for shooting, it will probably compares positively with the Pedersoli Howdah cal.50 : the weigh ratio gun/ball is in favor of the corsair.
On the other hand the Howdah cal20 shoots a heavier ball (cal0.63 ?) so comparison is still to be done.

This particular gun was from a collector and is no more manufactured.

More shooting test coming soon..........

 

[flibuste]

here is some shooting at 25 meters.

I used 20gr BP, 10gr cornmeal, a wet patch and 0.445 ball. Shooting is very pleasant

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=90656&stc=1&d=1231516087


After this shooting, I have grinded slightly the springs to lighten the triggers which were quite heavy and added a dovetailed rear sight, so I hope to improve the accuracy

 

[BHP FAN]

I like your 20 gr charge,but use .440 patched balls...mine is sans inlays,did you do those ?

 

[flibuste]

I am still improving it :

- I am curently grinding, step by step, the springs to lighten the triggers because they were very heavy
- I have added a dovetailed rear sight.

You are right as for 445cal patched ball : they are slighly too large and difficult to load ; I will test patched cal.440 ball when I get some

It seems that luckily both barrels are shooting the same point but next shooting session should confirm.

As for inlays they are from TOW or DGW

More coming soon........

 

[BHP FAN]

Thanks! I'd get my son to take some pictures of mine,but it looks exactly like the first one,in your original post....VERY impressive shooting,by the way.

 

[madcratebuilder]

That's good shooting and a beautiful pistol. I wish I could shoot my Howdah that well.

 

[arcticap]

Barrels are threaded and first shooting test are showing good accuracy

Are the barrels rifled or not?
If not what does "threaded" mean?

Thanks for sharing the nice range report.

 

[BHP FAN]

They are rifled.

 

[flibuste]

Last shooting report :
- rear sight has been added and lock springs grinded : now I can aim and triggers are smooth :

aiming just under the black circle, 20gr BP and patched 445 ball ; 14 (2X7) shots, two hands hold :

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=90890&stc=1&d=1231862700

To improve on that, I will need to be more careful with loading and to be a better shooter. But each barrel probably has the potency to cluster within 5".........................

How would a Howdah compare ?

Regards

 

[flibuste]

Hello,

Some test shooting with Real Lee 200gr. cast bullet .
Load : 30gr. BP, 15gr. cornmeal, crisco and bullet on top
Shooting 2x 9 bullets, duelist at 25meters aiming consistently at the bottom of black circle.

The left barrel is named "gauche" and the right one " droite".

The rear trigger (left) is harder although the spring has been grinded like the right one : the problem is that the angle is different and not efficient (but it was not supposed to be a target-pistol !!) and so it should be pressed in direction of top instead of rear as usually. hence some flyers with the left barrel due to trigger flinch.

Although the pistol is 44cal, the 45 bullet fits in it without problem although a bit tight ; due to crisco, the barrel keep clean and no fouling would stop the bullet down the bore.

Recoil is very pleasant and at the limit of having the triggerguard knocking the knuckle ; It does not seem to be harsh on the gun . Contrary to what happens with the balls, it seems that both barrels are not exactly aiming at the same point but the left one to the left and the right one to the right ................

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=103953&stc=1&d=1251035698

Regards

 

[Das Jaeger]

Obviously

your a damn good shot
75 Feet is nothing to turn your nose up to on that pistol , thats just good grouping there with a gun like that . Obviously its more the shooter though than the gun .
I like your PET names for your barrels . Only a Frenchmen would name his barrels and not his gun you know , hee hee hee . How very gauche
More pics and reports , fascinating stuff !

Jaeger

 

[Das Jaeger]

Clue me in here

would ya , but I have heard and done put cream of wheat on top of my powder in a Revolver to get ball to end of cylinder , but why are you putting Cornmeal in that gun ? Breakfast ? I fail to see any point doing that in there . Clue me in would ya ? You just tryin to keep the Crisco off the bullet ?
If so , you'll get much better accuracy from a card wad .

Jaeger

 

[higene]

Double Barrel Corsair

Beautiful pistol and well done.

There was one of these at the Portland gun show. The guy wanted $95 for it and I passed at $75. It also had cheap wood with gobs of varnish on it. It had been shot 10 years ago and put away dirty. The real deal breaker was that the left hammer would not hold full cock.

It would have made a neat wall hanger. I am not a person who can have a non functioning gun and it looked like it would take too much money to bring back. Had I seen the "after" pictures I probably would have bought the gun.

Again, nice job on the completed project.

Higene

 

[flibuste]

Cornmeal protects the BP from the crisco ;
15gr cornmeal allows for enough crisco to get the fouling soft but with 10gr cornmeal crisco pass through cornmeal and spoil BP unless I put very little of it but in that case fouling appears.

This method permit shooting all day long without ever cleaning the bore (when I clean the bore of a muzzelloader I get sometimes in trouble with nipples obstruction) ; the clue is having a ring of grease at the crown of muzzle which attest that fouling is soft all along the bore.

Regards

 

[Das Jaeger]

Cool

thanks for the Clerification .

Jaeger