Pedersoli Liege Derringer

[mec]

This is a copy of the 19th Century Belgian Screw Barrell Pistols. Pocket pistols of this sort- screw barrel, muzzle loading and multi-barrel were common in Belgium and many are still found in households there. This one has a rifled barrel of (I think) 1 turn in 18inches and is made to shoot a .451 ball over 9 Grains of fffg. .454 balls will work with a little extra effort in torquing the barrel back in. The tool supplied is a combo barrel /nipple wrench.

The hammer fall is very heavy. The owner put a plastic shim cut from a milk jug under themain spring and lightened the pull somewhat. The 20 foot group and shot placement showed that the pistol would be very useful at that range. There are no sights and the weight of the trigger pull made hits at 30 feet very problematic.

We found that the screws were prone to shoot loose and the hammer nose needs to be relieved for perfect ignition- easily done. We put one ball across the chronograph and got 365 feet per second. This is pretty slow and made us tend toward the belief that it would be necessary to run up and do the woody woodpecker on the shootee with a bowie knife but it consistently went through a 1" white pine board and appears capable of killing somebody or either hurting them REAL BAD.

We had an outrageous amount of fun with this and shot it quite a bit more than we expected we would. The chief concern would be avoiding holding it by the grip while removing-replacing the barrel as the stock appears to be very fragile.

 

[1858remington]

I have 2 of these derringers, they were some of the first black powder firearms I owned.

Through excessive firing, I'm afraid I've worn out the actions and they no longer function.

But while they did, boy were they fun.

The lack of sites make them an up close and personal weapon.

I've often wondered if I could drill out more space in the chamber so as to get more of a powder charge in the firearm. there seems to be enough metal to allow for a larger chamber.

 

[mec]

I think Ive either read your post or somebody elses about boring out the powder chamber. I suspect you could treat them like a muzzle loader-patched .433 ball on top of 15 grains off fffg or equivalent. It would be pretty easy to overstress the stocks on these though-too much recoil could crack them.

 

[wdlsguy]

Very interesting "trip report"! Just curious, would you feel comfortable (safety-wise) carrying one of these, assuming it was legal for you to do so?

 

[saaman]

This piece is a lot of fun to shoot, but the only safe way to carry it is uncapped. Back in the old days people probably carried them loaded and capped despite the danger of accidental discharges.

 

[mec]

It's legal and if it was 1840, I might consider it. I would have to consider half cock not to be nearly as safe as just about any other safe carry mode. Dropping it wouldn't be good, neither would having it scrubbed around in a pocket with the risk that the hammer would come back and fall.

I suspect that most owners of these had little knowledge about their power or capabilities beyond "guns are deadly and if you shoot somebody with one, he will fall down."

 

[MICHAEL T]

I suspect that most owners of these had little knowledge about their power or capabilities beyond "guns are deadly and if you shoot somebody with one, he will fall down."[/QUOTE]

I see things haven't changed all that much in a 150 plus years.

 

[mec]

"I see things haven't changed all that much in a 150 plus years"
Exactly.

There is the theory that back then, the threat factor was stronger and people might have been more scrupulous about being shot because of the lack of anti-biotics. Of course a lot of the people who we shoot are so crazed that they are not thinking about details like that and I doubt that has changed either.