Hawken pistol Bondini / Lyman at 25m

[flibuste]

hello,

This pistol is a Paolo Bondini born in 1980 in cal.45; when I bought it a few years ago, a former owner had seized a bullet in it and ruined the barrel by trying to get it out with some kind of steel rod that totally wrecked the bore ; When I bought it I noticed that something was stucked inside but did not realized how far was the bore damaged.

After the purchase, I unscrewed the nipple, put some BP , a cap and the bullet went out ; the problem of the ruined bore was still present, such that a patch would be destroyed when passing some area of the bore.

Some time later, I bought a 54 barrel from Lyman for a "Plains pistol" and adapted it and this is the test of the finished pistol :

Shooting 2 handhold with rest at 25meters. 10 shots

30 gr BP, 15gr cornmeal, crisco, and LEE REAL 300gr bullets





Regards

 

[Mp7]

... good shootin.

nice gun too.

 

[Oyeboten]

Wow...


Lovely Pistol...


Good looking shot-group..!


Nice!


300 Grain Bullets...that's pretty healthy.


Have you Chronographed this, just out of curiousity?

 

[mykeal]

The Bondini Hawken pistol is an excellent gun, well made and a pleasure to shoot. I've had mine since buying it new in 1981. It's a .50 cal and likes 40 gr of real black powder, .490 ball with a .010 lubed patch.

 

[flibuste]

Hello,

The original barrels are generally slow twist rate ( 1: 60 approx) and so only balls are appropriate ; on the contrary the Lyman barrel is 1:30 and accept bullets

Mine was originally german silver but it passed out to brass .......

It is indeed a very nice looking pistol with old fashion engraving.

Regards

 

[flibuste]

And now, some shooting with heavier load, duelist :

40gr BP FFFg, 15gr cornmeal with crisco on top, and REAL cal54 300gr.

Recoil is stout and a lot of training will be necessary to tame the beast !!

I protect my knuckle with the piece of leather used to hold the loading lever of the Walker. It hits a bit lower than previously, maybe due to increased speed.



Regards

 

[New Smokie]

Beautiful Gun and nice shooting but what is the cornmeal used for ?

 

[BHP FAN]

Nice.is that a captured ramrod,on a swinging link swivel?

 

[mykeal]

Yes:

 

[BHP FAN]

thanks!I had a Ishapore .58 Cavalry Carbine with that set up.

 

[oldpuppymax]

You use cornmeal in the single shot muzzle loader? I've used it in my Pietta revolvers, but not heard of it in a single shot. Do you not use a patch?

 

[flibuste]

Hello,

With REAL a patch is not adapted ;
normally the REAL bullet should be lubed and sit on top of BP ;
actually, I do not take time to lube the bullet but put some crisco on top of cornmeal and so the barrel stays clean

Cornmeal permits the crisco not to contaminate the BP and also seals better the bore when bullets are not perfectly cast.

I have noticed that cornmeal improve the regularity of shots

regards

 

[Texas Moon]

Nice gun.

Does anyone know any of the history of these Bondini pistols?
I have one too but know nothing about it.

 

[arcticap]

The Bondini pistols have a combination of features that makes them special crossovers between the gun types of James Bond & Harry Houdini and that's how they ended up with the combination name of "Bondini".
They have a fairly good reputation for having made decent quality guns.

 

[flibuste]

After many years of search, I eventually found cal.58 barrels for this pistol (cal.58 barrels were optional when these guns were new, but they are rare now) :


some shooting at 25meters with REAL cal58 bullets :

I have modified the REAL mould to shorten the bullet : you will see one PIC with the original "long" bullet and the other PIC with the "short" bullet.









a PAIR OF CAL58 HAWKEN






A lot of fun because this is REAL MAGNUM pistol !!!!!!!!!!!



REGARDS

 

[J-Bar]

Wonderful photos, thank you for sharing your experiences!

I bet you are not challenged to duels very often...

 

[MattShlock]

The heavier load of powder has a lower point of impact, I would tend to agree, because the bullet is faster and still on the RISE at 25 meters. It is still arching UPWARDS in it's bowed trajectory. So, with faster time to target it has less time to climb and therefore hits lower. Put target at 30 meters and it will be higher again.

As for Crisco (Butter-flavor in France no-doubt) and cornmeal I presumed you were just making biscuits while shooting those very nice arms so well!

LOL

 

[Jaymo]

Very nice pistols and nice shooting.
I like the single shot muzzle loading pistols.
I'd love to have an An IX.

BTW, do I see a single set trigger on these pistols? In Mykeal's post it definitely looks like an adjustment screw for a single set trigger.

 

[flibuste]

BTW, do I see a single set trigger on these pistols? In Mykeal's post it definitely looks like an adjustment screw for a single set trigger.

There is one but it is very crude and I prefered to get rid of it, and have standard but smoothened trigger set

Does anyone know any of the history of these Bondini pistols?

Paolo Bondini manufactured many pistols before being transfered into Armisport around 1980.