Tower flintlock pistols

How much do you want to spend? That is the question.

The Pedersoli made guns are superlative and a .69 caliber French horseman's pistol from them is on sale at Dixie Gun Works:



https://www.dixiegunworks.com/index/page/product/product_id/8397/category_id/320/category_chain/312,318,320/product_name/FH0890+Pedersoli+French+"AN+IX"+Military+Pistol

Not cheap but a fraction of the cost of a custom made gun, and tremendously superior in quality to any Indian or Japanese made pistols. Pedersoli customer service is excellent and parts and service are available for them in the rare instance you would need it. I own one of their .54 caliber Harper's Ferry U.S. military pistols and it's a damn peach in every sense of the word:



Not sure if that's a big enough bore for you but it will certainly run birdshot and buckshot loads just fine.

All Pedersoli pistol use interchangeable parts and are factory proofed, unlike the imported Indian guns that usually don't even come with drilled touch holes and are not even sold as working firearms. The Indian guns also do not normally use interchangeable parts and getting the parts in the first place will be very difficult for you.

With the beautiful Italian made Pedersolis, you can email them and more often than not they'll send you the parts for free (as long as they're small) in the mail no questions asked. I have dealt with them personally.

If you are serious about this and want a gun to pass down to your children and grandchildren, it behooves you to get a Pedersoli. If you want a curio that will mostly be a wall hanger and get shot maybe once or twice and don't mind bad locks, broken parts, not being able to get parts, trusting unproofed barrels, having to have your own touch hole drilled (usually), then go ahead and cheap out and get an Indian or Japanese gun.

You can also get a custom made gun built buy a gunsmith to your exact specifications, but expect to pay well in excess of $1000 for one with a wait time often in the months or even years.

There’s one on gunbroker now that I’m watching. It looks low end but ok in the pictures. It probably is one of the junky ones you mentioned above. But...at the current price I believe it to be a fair deal. A basic lock mechanism costs more than that pistol is currently priced at. https://www.gunbroker.com/item/740133808

Cooldill said:

I own one of their .54 caliber Harper's Ferry U.S. military pistols and it's a damn peach in every sense of the word:

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Agreed. Pedersoli's percussion version of the Harpers Ferry pistol is .54 smoothbore, as opposed to the .58 rifled bore of their flint version. (That makes it better for using shot.) The percussion version is easily converted to flint, because the locks are interchangeable, and you can replace the percussion drum with a screw-in touch hole liner, also made by Pedersoli. (The cost of the parts for such a conversion is about $175, in addition to the $550 cost of the percussion pistol.)

Cooldill said:

You can also get a custom made gun built by a gunsmith to your exact specifications, but expect to pay well in excess of $1000 for one with a wait time often in the months or even years.

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John Zimmerman will make a much more authentic version of the M1805 Harpers Ferry pistol on special order, but his price is $2,775 and there's a 2-year wait. http://harpersferrycivilwarguns.com/services

AlexanderA said:

Agreed. Pedersoli's percussion version of the Harpers Ferry pistol is .54 smoothbore, as opposed to the .58 rifled bore of their flint version. (That makes it better for using shot.) The percussion version is easily converted to flint, because the locks are interchangeable, and you can replace the percussion drum with a screw-in touch hole liner, also made by Pedersoli. (The cost of the parts for such a conversion is about $175, in addition to the $550 cost of the percussion pistol.)

John Zimmerman will make a much more authentic version of the M1805 Harpers Ferry pistol on special order, but his price is $2,775 and there's a 2-year wait. http://harpersferrycivilwarguns.com/services

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Well I hope the case-hardened locks and browned barrels are omitted on delivered examples, because neither are historically correct.

WestKentucky said:

There’s one on gunbroker now that I’m watching. It looks low end but ok in the pictures. It probably is one of the junky ones you mentioned above. But...at the current price I believe it to be a fair deal. A basic lock mechanism costs more than that pistol is currently priced at. https://www.gunbroker.com/item/740133808

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That one is bad news all the way around. Everything about it is wrong. Just look at the crudity of the frizzen spring, for example! I'd be afraid to fire it.

Cooldill said:

Well I hope the case-hardened locks and browned barrels are omitted on delivered examples, because neither are historically correct.

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Very true. I don't know if you've met John Zimmerman, but he does not take kindly to any criticism of his work. He doesn't need your business and he's very quick to tell you so. However, he does have a cult-like following among reenactors and skirmishers.

AlexanderA said:

Very true. I don't know if you've met John Zimmerman, but he does not take kindly to any criticism of his work. He doesn't need your business and he's very quick to tell you so.

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I also know that even though he is a defarber, some of the things he does and builds are actually known to be pretty farby... he can keep his business, frankly.

AlexanderA said:

The percussion version is easily converted to flint, because the locks are interchangeable, and you can replace the percussion drum with a screw-in touch hole liner, also made by Pedersoli. (The cost of the parts for such a conversion is about $175

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I'd like to know where you get your parts since the Pedersoli Harper's Ferry Pistol lock for flint is currently $180.00 from VTI Gunparts and $165.00 from Dixie Gunworks (if that lock is the same as the one in the pistol).

LD

Loyalist Dave said:

I'd like to know where you get your parts since the Pedersoli Harper's Ferry Pistol lock for flint is currently $180.00 from VTI Gunparts and $165.00 from Dixie Gunworks (if that lock is the same as the one in the pistol).

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Yes, I got my Pedersoli flint lock for $165 from Dixie Gun Works, and the touch hole liners are 3 for $19.95 from VTI. That's how I came up with the $175 total figure. This is a drop-in installation and takes 5 minutes.

Thanks for the source!

LD

The Miroku Civil War muskets (long discontinued) have an excellent reputation -- probably the most authentic reproductions of those weapons ever made. The Tower flintlock pistol was an early attempt by Miroku, and they evidently had a learning curve.