What can you tell me about these "Snake Eyes" derringers?

Dixie Gun Works sells the kits. Altho they're .36 caliber they take a .350 patched ball and are smoothbore.

It says currently unavailable. https://www.dixiegunworks.com/index...ame/PH1301+Classic+Arms+Snake+Eyes+Pistol+Kit

The company that made these was called Classic Arms (their guns were marked CMC) and they have been out of business for at least 10 years---maybe more. They also made a single barrel box lock percussion pistol, a three barrelled duck foot version with the same base design, and one with a blade under the barrel--sort of a poor man's Elgin Cutlass. They were one of the few muzzleloaders sold in both kits and finished forms which were actually commercially produced in the US. Dixie still had some kits long after the company went out of business but they eventually deactivated the pages when they ran out. Thus if you do a search for the kit you will find a link to what is essentially a deactivated Dixie page.

Conversely, if you simply sign on to Dixie and search you will not find them at all. I'm not sure why Dixie does it this way. I don't know how many times I've searched the net for something and found one of these deactivated Dixie catalog pages only to realize that it had been long discontinued by Dixie.

Both the kits and the finished guns come up for sale occasionally in auctions and on Gunbroker. The most popular these days seems to be the three-barrelled duck foot---probably since nobody else has ever replicated these oddball pistols. Their plain single shot and the single-shot with the knife blade had the same frame and grips as this model



Cheers

I got one of those about 45 years ago and still have it. You can get parts for it, and several other obsolete guns, at deercreekproducts.net. I have had 2 main springs break, and needed new nipples and trigger spring over the years. I could never hit the broad side of a barn with it, so it has been a 4th July noisemaker using pyrodex and paper wads.

I had a Twister over and under. I gave 40.00 or 49.00 for it back in the 70's when they sold completed guns. The left grip broke on the first shot. I made a set of grips out of a mouse trap and shot it a few times but it was so wimpy that once the novelty of it wore off I never shot it again. During one of my moves I stored some stuff in moms attic and it was in a box with some other junk and rusted up. I found it a few years ago and cleaned it up some and got a set of grips for it intending to make a shadow box out of it but I ended up giving it to somebody else that wanted it.

noelf2 said:

I could never hit the broad side of a barn with it, so it has been a 4th July noisemaker using pyrodex and paper wads.

Click to expand...

Dagnabbit it Noelf2, you need to go INSIDE the barn! And close the door! Dang. You will find that it is very accurate.

When I was a kid in the early 60's, I bought a cap gun that resembled the twister over and under. It had a sliding plastic bayonet that was where the fluting is on yours. It had two brass-colored bullets that you attached your stickum caps to. I always thought it was a neat design.

I've always liked those "Lincoln" derringers. If I was to get one, that would be it.

Just to add to Forward Observer’s post.

They also made a Pepper box with four smoothbore barrels. It was DA only and had a horrific trigger pull. It was also NOT self indexing so one had to rotate the barrels by hand.

They also had two models of the single shorts , one was smooth bore and one rifled. They used slightly different sized balls. They had no sights. They had two rings at seven o’clock to hold a ramrod.

On my phone I am having difficulty posting images of them…. but have on THR in the past.

Perhaps later in the week I may have my desk top back up and running.

-kBob