"pistolet d'officier 1er empire" at 25m

[flibuste]

Hello,

This is a typical pistol from the Napoleon period (first empire : around 1800). Typically the first version were flintlock with the typical "Boutet" style ; they were reserved for officiers.

Later on they were converted to percussion and were also used by civilian as "pistolet de voyage" (traveling gun).

They were manufactured in France and Belgium during a long period until the revolver era.

This particular pistol is stamped with "Liege proofstamp logo" and cal56 with smoothbore ; and is probably a recent production because of its perfect condition.

Load is : 1.8g of BP, double dose of cornmeal and patched cal.56 ball

Shooting at 25 meters, duelist position, the last 25 balls are within the drawing, aiming under the paper


Speed of ball is 205 meters / second





some pics









regards

 

[Jim Watson]

Fascinating.

I would like to see how accurate a real dueling pistol with first quality smooth bore and percussion or fast flintlock is. I think it would surprise a lot of people who think rifling is the only way.

 

[Jim K]

It is far from a "rule", but I have sometimes found that an original antique will shoot better than a repro in spite of the less-than-perfect condition of the old barrel. And that applies to smoothbores as well as rifled arms.

One interesting case was that of the early Navy Arms Colt Model 1851 clones. They were made by Uberti, who had acquired rifling machines from Beretta. The result was nice, shallow auto pistol rifling which would not work with lead balls. The deep rifling of the old Colts shot much better.

Jim

 

[DoubleDeuce 1]

That is a beautiful pistol!

 

[4v50 Gary]

Prettier than the Traditions Trapper that we had to build.

 

[72coupe]

Nice gun and an interesting target.