CMC Pepperbox

[Billll]

Just had this CMC 4-bbl pepperbox drop into my lap. It looks like a finish-it-yourself kit that has never been fired. Or finished, if the sharp burrs all over it are any indication.
It's a percussion cap, index-it-yourself, and could be either .36 or .38 caliber, depending on how one cleans up the barrels. Barrel inside finish is drilled to .354, and could be reamed to .357 or .360. Top-slap hammer, heavy trigger pull, and edges on the trigger sharp enough to be painful.
Anybody know anything about this piece? I found a reference to a CMC P/C duckfoot 3bbl here:
http://www.joesalter.com/detail.php?f_qryitem=3612
So it looks like they made several of this sort of thing.

 

[Chawbaccer]

Is this yours? http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=41905612

I have one similar to this one.http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=41687532

They were selling these as kits back in the 70's and 80's, maybe still are. I paid something like 30 or 40 dollars for mine. mostly as a novelty, with out sights kinda hard to hit anything.

 

[Manyirons]

Mark Twain's comment on pepperboxes might have been best in history!

 

[Billll]

The first gunbroker link is what I've got. That provides a bunch of info I didn't have before. Lack of sights is just the start. No ramrod either. The trigger works best if you hold it at about waist lever, or just under the poker table, I guess. I understand that .36 cal balls are normally .361 to .365, and are a force fit into a .360 barrel, so the thing needs reaming to trmove the drill marks in the barrel. I'll probably fire it a few times, and only bring it out for the "Blow Up The World" BBQ once a year.

 

[ewb45acp]

Mark Twain's comment on pepperboxes might have been best in history!

....(sound of a cricket chirping) .....Well? Are ya gonna keep us up all night waiting?

 

[Manyirons]

Thought everyone knew it! Something to the effect of; "As dangerous to the user (If not more) than anything in front of it".

This said after he purportedly testfired one of the versions around in his era.

 

[Manyirons]

Well silly me! What a trecherous thing memory is! Found this in respect to "Allen Pepperbox".

George Bemis . . . wore in his belt an old original "Allen" revolver, such as irreverent people called a "pepper-box." Simply drawing the trigger back, cocked and fired the pistol. As the trigger came back, the hammer would begin to rise and the barrel to turn over, and presently down would drop the hammer, and away would speed the ball. To aim along the turning barrel and hit the thing aimed at was a feat which was probably never done with an "Allen" in the world. But George's was a reliable weapon, nevertheless, because, as one of the stage-drivers afterward said, "If she didn't get what she went after, she would fetch something else." And so she did. She went after a deuce of spades nailed against a tree, once, and fetched a mule standing about thirty yards to the left of it. Bemis did not want the mule; but the owner came out with a double-barreled shotgun and persuaded him to buy it, anyhow. It was a cheerful weapon--the "Allen." Sometimes all its six barrels would go off at once, and then there was no safe place in all the region round about, but behind it.

 

[Manyirons]

And another one!

Don't meddle with old unloaded firearms. They are the most deadly and unerring things that have ever been created by man. You don't have to take any pains at all with them; you don't have to have a rest, you don't have to have any sights on the gun, you don't have to take aim, even. No, you just pick out a relative and bang away, and you are sure to get him. A youth who can't hit a cathedral at thirty yards with a Gatling gun in three-quarters of an hour, can take up an old empty musket and bag his mother every time at a hundred. Think what Waterloo would have been if one of the armies had been boys armed with old rusty muskets supposed not to be loaded, and the other army had been composed of their female relations. The very thought of it makes me shudder.
- Advice to Youth speech, 4/15/1882

 

[Chawbaccer]

so the thing needs reaming to trmove the drill marks in the barrel.

Those drill marks ain't rifling are they?

Here is what I found from Dixie, maybe they will send you instructions.

 

[Billll]

Chewie:

Not unless the twist rate is around 20/inch.

Ah wish ah wuz in Dixie (Gun Works?).

 

[Billll]

The DGW piece is mechanically identical to mine. I see that .36 cal balls come in .350, .360, and .375 dia.

Hone or ream the bores to clean up, apply finish, and determine how much 2 or 3f to put in behind, then chase away all the mules near the range....

 

[Billll]

Got it cleaned up and finished out, then tried it with a very light load and some quickie plastic bullets. Load was 8 gr of 3f under a fabricated teflon bullet about 3/8 in long with a pointy nose. Not very scientific, but hey, watch the results. Target is an empty cardboard box, 14 x 14, with one top flap up, so overall target is 14 wide x 21 high.
1st shot, me shooting at about 5 feet. Shot from hip. Hit box in upper LH corner of flap. Felt dissappointed in distance from center of box (aim point).
2nd shot: Partner tries gun. Uses more conventional stance. Misses box completely. Tells me to let 3rd partner in crime try the last one.
3rd shot: PIC #3 takes conventional stance in back yard, aims at center of narrow side of small barn at about 15 feet. Hits barn about 8 in below eave. Bullet bounces off side of barn, hits eave, bounces off eave, hits chair in back yard, bounces off chair, hits motorcycle in back yard, bounces off motorcycle, and comes to rest in thicket of vines.
Everything Mr. Twain said about pepperboxes is confirmed. I feel like Deadeye Dick for hitting the box at all.
The piece will be available at the Blow Up The World BBQ this summer for all to try.