Little Critter Gitter

[rodwha]

So what small caliber handguns are there for little critter gittin' out to 25 yds or more?
The NAA Mini Earl with it's 4" barrel seems it may do OK.
I hear the Traditions .32 cal Crocket isn't very good.
The various .31 cal revolvers seem barely able at 5 yds.
What else is there? Maybe a .36 cal revolver?

 

[Yarddog]

I'd pick the 36cal for accuratcy ; )
Y/D

 

[rodwha]

Wish there was a rifle that used the same ball...I'd love to pair 'em up!

 

[Pancho]

I'd choose the 1861 Colt navy it's 36 cal.

 

[Busyhands94]

You could use a BP shotgun or load some BP shells, it's pretty easy to do. I think Pietta makes a .36 caliber Remington with target sights, that could work well too! Heck even a .44 would do the job, I shot a rabbit with my .44 and it was quite effective. With lighter loads you could cause less damage if you are hunting for meat (you should eat what you kill anyway.) But if it's for pest control it won't matter as much, as long as you put the animal down humanly and painlessly.

 

[rodwha]

Next on my list is a Lyman's Deerstalker or GP Hunter. I have kicked around the idea of an additional .54 cal barrel to have reamed to a smoothbore figuring it could be a .550"/28 ga shotgun.

But I want a sidearm too. Something I could take on a backpacking trip without adding too much weight or bulk. And as something just for fun plinking or as a backup to a rifle/shotgun.

I like the idea of a rifle/pistol sharing RB and caps and such... Too bad there just isn't anything out there that uses the same size RB without spending a lot on custom work.

 

[Pancho]

You might consider the 1862 colt police. It is 2/3rds. the size of the colt army and is a 5 shot 36 cal.
I would say it would be a no brainer for size and weight if it weren't for the fact that they are fussy to shoot out of the box. They have a tendency to jam with cap-crap but can be stroked to be reliable.

 

[rodwha]

It has been suggested to me to just use my ROA, but a .45 cal ball just seems like an awful lot of lead to throw at a squirrel. And a smaller caliber ought to be more efficient (powder) and have a better trajectory.

I'm a bit curious about the Colt .31 '49 Pocket. Can that hit a squirrel reliably at 25 yds using a field rest (tree)? Or the '63 Remington Pocket? Or for that matter the Traditions .32 Crocket?

I suppose any of the Navy pistols would do OK. I like the idea of a longer sight radius.

 

[72coupe]

I have shot jackrabbits with an Colt 1849 pocket with a 4 1/2 inch barrel.

The 1862 Pocket Police would be my choice now. This one will hold the black on the 25 yard pistol target.

Putting aftermarket nipples on it greatly reduced the cap fragement problem.

 

[Pancho]

Don't want to go off subject but 72coupe I sent a set of TOW SS nipples to a machine shop to be vented like the Slick nipples. Got them back yesterday. I'll let you know what happens when I get the chance to try them

 

[Pancho]

Rodwha, my 32 cal. TC cherokee is a squirrel getter.

 

[drsfmd]

The NAA Mini Earl with it's 4" barrel seems it may do OK.

Neat little belly guns, but you would be my hero if you could consistently hit a target at 25 yards with one. Atrocious trigger, useless sights, and tiny tiny grips are a bad combination for accuracy.

 

[rodwha]

drs: That's how I think it would be with any of those pocket pistols. Maybe the Pocket Navy or Police, and more likely a standard Navy (I like the squared looks of the '51) or a Remington '58 in .36 cal.

I find it funny that back then a "pocket pistol" had such a long barrel.

 

[Malamute]

The 36 Navies are dandy small game guns.

Some Rampaging Rabbits I slew in the yard with mine, it had been loaded for a year or so, I wanted to freshen up the loads. No problems, other than forgetting that it shoots a bit high on the first shot. Did 3 bunnies for 4 shots, one handed. Think the farthest one was about 20 or 25 yards.

 

[towboat_er]

Good shooting there. Bet them bunnies were good.

 

[rodwha]

Nice!

 

[BCRider]

You're right that there are not a lot of options. However I've found a Traditions caplock rifle in .320 and Pietta makes a variety of "pocket revolvers" in .31. Seems like there's a good chance that a single ball size could be used for both. It may require a little trick or two such as picking a .31 cal ball for the rifle to be used with a cloth patch and maybe for the revolver you may need to paper patch the chambers to keep the balls from moving due to the MASSIVE recoil.....

These should be excellent for any sort of small game.

 

[faustopph]

The .32 rifles use a .310 or .315 ball with a patch . I have to use a .320 or larger for a good ring of lead to be shaved when loading my .31 Pietta Remington . .315 roundballs are much to loose in the revolver

 

[rodwha]

Were it that the pistol ball was a little small for the rifle I'd try it with a thicker patch. The idea of compatible stuff is grand to me.
But I must say that the idea of using a .36 cal pistol seems great as it has enough oomph for larger stuff too.

 

[Busyhands94]

Neat little belly guns, but you would be my hero if you could consistently hit a target at 25 yards with one. Atrocious trigger, useless sights, and tiny tiny grips are a bad combination for accuracy.

I'm not so sure about that, I think one could hunt with a NAA Earl. Judging by the accuracy I have gotten from my Super Companion (I made a rear sight for it, now I can hit reliably) and light charges I'd say with a 1 /58" long barrel it's still a pretty decent little revolver. But with a 4" barrel I'd think it would be much more accurate, not target grade but a soda can at 60 feet shouldn't be a problem. After all I have seriously gone way overboard with my Super Companion to where I'm able to hit from a pretty good distance away. It takes a ton of practice, a set of bigger grips, a rear sight, and I polished the sear to give her a better trigger pull. But I managed to use a "belly gun" to put 5 shots on a human silhouette target from 100 yards, not with great precision but still on target.

My thoughts are if there was a 4" barrel on it I could have a pocket pistol to hunt small game with.

 

[rodwha]

That's what I thought too. Especially after having read what you were doing with your 1 5/8" pistol...

 

[faustopph]

If you want to be as good as your firearm . You have to practice and practice often . If the firearm has some feature that can be improved upon . You need to modify it or get something more to your liking .
How many truly inaccurate firearms are built today ? Most any, set up in some type of rest that takes away the human error can do very good . A good rest does not care about grip size or angle of the grip or for that matter the sights . Some things are harder to change than others , like grip angle ,you have to adjust or find something else.

 

[kBob]

Levi,

So why not take some of that .22 LR rifle barrel left over from the 1858 conversion and make and thread a 4 inch (or longer) barrel for your NAA mini C&B? Shoot, draw file the barrel down to octagonal and make your own Earl of sorts with big flat bottom grips

On another board I visit there was a guy that turned an NAA mini cartridge type into a rifle with longer than 16 inch barrel and skeleton stock to look like one of the 1890's -1900's bicycle guns. Not sure about all the legalities or where he was (them furriners got strange laws) (sorry, non USA folks, just joking) Cute little rifle it was.

I am wondering if a cylinder for the C&B guns is a drop in fit on the older .22Magnum NAA mini and will the standard hammer work safely with such? A buddy asked me and I had to say the dreaded word "IDUNO" thus admitting that I do not know everything about guns there is to know as most folks on the internet seem to.

-kBob

 

[robhof]

Robhof

No the C&B is not interchangeable with the smokless, NAA did that on purpose to prevent people from buying the C&B and adding a cartridge cylinder, all could be bought separately with no FFL as is done with many conversions, so they insured that their guns didn't interchange; added insurance that the ATF didn't hinder their sales.

 

[Jaymo]

Pedersoli Howdah pistol loaded with birdshot.