Hand Cannon

Status
Not open for further replies.

jmar

Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2016
Messages
262
I'm looking for an .80 cal or so percussion or flintlock pistol. Or a cut down rifle of the same caliber made into a mares leg. I feel like this would be a fun versatile gun that could be loaded with shot or even large round balls. What comes to mind is a Brown Bess cut down but that's way to expensive just to waste 1/5th of the rifle. Also a blunderbuss comes to mind but iv'e only seen one reproduction for sale and it's only a .50.

Basically i want sawn off single barrel shotgun. Does anyone know where i should start looking, was this ever done in 18/19th century? Cant think of much better to stop a charging bear or bison.



This is not at all what i'm looking for but i took these pictures and thought i'd share this real hand cannon..

 
296256eaf30baa58cd15e5b04e17759c.jpg
 
Jmar, the picture you posted is of an 18th-century grenade launcher. Very cool in its own right, but maybe too big for your purposes. I launched a tennis ball out of one once. :D
 
I've been considering a 4 bore (about 1" for a 1/4 lb lead ball) blunderbuss barrel, these are offered frequently on gunbroker, in 14" and 18" lengths.
It would be up to you to decide what kind of furniture to build onto it.
I've been considering an underhammer w/ shotgun stock....but a Hand Cannon stick, or a pistol grip are intriguing....
 
Clicked on this thread thinking you were speaking metaphorically. Definitely not lol!
 
Thanks for the replies everyone, however i'm not looking for anything too crazy. Yet... I think posting that grenade launcher caused some confusion, that was just for fun, because threads without pictures aren't fun.


This is more what i'm going for, i saw this on gunbroker and missed my chance to get it.

 
Thanks for the replies everyone, however i'm not looking for anything too crazy. Yet... I think posting that grenade launcher caused some confusion, that was just for fun, because threads without pictures aren't fun.


This is more what i'm going for, i saw this on gunbroker and missed my chance to get it.


What that is is a cut down rifle, looks to be a Traditions brand, most likely no larger than .58 caliber.

Really short of having one custom made, I don't know what to tell you. The largest caliber pistols I can think of that would be worth buying would be the .69 caliber Pedersoli made French military pistols (the An IX and An XIII). You might also be able to find some Indian-made replica pistols with bores in the .75 caliber range but I wouldn't buy one due to questionable materials and quality.
 
Last edited:
TOW has an antique Ketland .70 smoothbore pistol at the time of this posting. They want about 1500 or so for it. Found a 12" .62 smooth barrel, get two siler locks ( one flint one percussion ) buy a stock and trigger and maybe for about the same money wind up with a new 'hand cannon'.
The only fed I knew that carried sawed off had a little sawed off 20 gauge remington auto. Somebody put some time into getting it to cycle. He swore by it.
So I would likely go with the howdah or have a .20 gauge hand cannon made. I understand the desire for a bigger bore, my own experience around hombres that trade lead with other hombres leads me to believe that at hand cannon ranges a 20 with standard loads is easy to control and devastating in effect.
But that one in the O.P. is intriguing.. ETA - Here is the antique Ketland, finally figured out how to post the pic :/ This is .70 bore... some cracks in the stock.....
aan-489_1.jpg
 
Last edited:
What that is is a cut down rifle, looks to be a Traditions brand, most likely no larger than .58 caliber.

Really short of having one custom made, I don't know what to tell you. The largest caliber pistols I can think of that would be worth buying would be the .69 caliber Pedersoli made French military pistols (the An IX and An XIII). You might also be able to find some Indian-made replica pistols with bores in the .75 caliber range but I would
n't buy one due to questionable materials and quality.
I would buy in Indian made gun without hesitation if I was in India and could meet the craftsman. Out of THREE hand forged Indian made Kukri knives I've bought since age 18 ONE of them is more knife than anything I've ever owned. The other two were good duck decoy anchors... :/
Point being you can score first quality work in leather or guns in India or Pakistan, but if you don't have eyes and boots on the ground... :( Yeah... being that I'm here, I would totally concur.
If I had to have a belt capable smoothbore today it would be one of those french flintlocks or one like you have.
 
This is a smaller bore, .62 cal but I would go for something like this for a flintlock Mare's leg. In caplock I'd have to catch a sale on the howdah at Cabelas.. But this is a finished kit from Sitting fox.
IMG_1983.jpg

A bit longer and smaller bore than what you were after, but lethal enough and how about that bludgeon potential?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top