four-shot muzzle loading pistol instructions

8/3/2019 Four-Shot Muzzle Loading Pistol Instructions

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Project 4 - Four-shot muzzleloading pistol

egal

ease read the disclaimer on the main page and note that I am not a lawyer. According to US Federa

w, a muzzleloading gun is not considered to be a Title I (with certain exceptions) or Title II firearm

hey are legal for most private individuals to build and own in most US states. There could be an age

striction but I don't know for sure. Note that since muzzleloaders are not subject to certain provisio

the Gun Control Act of 1968, a private citizen does not need a Federal Firearms License (FFL) to

em by mail. There are lots of mail-order companies where individuals can legally buy muzzleloadi

stol kits, rifle kits and complete muzzleloading firearms via mail-order. Note that muzzleloadingstols are almost always smoothbore (i.e. no rifling in the barrel).

troduction

ne day, I had an idea to build a muzzleloading pistol. This is the result. It is a 4-shot derringer-type

stol. Muzzle energy is rather low so I don't think of it as a self defense device at all unless the desig

as scaled up a bit. It is electrically fired so there is no need to replace primers after each shot. It fire

tched round balls 0.25" diameter using 4-5 grains of Pyrodex. A single CR123 lithium photo batter

pplies energy to ignite the power. The ignition system is basically an electrically heated wire. Each

amber/barrel is threaded at the breech end to accept the ignitor. The battery can theoretically firemething like 20-30 shots. Its quite inconvenient to clean after shooting it. There is a 5 position rota

witch to select which chamber/barrel to fire. The first switch position is the "safe" position. After ea

ot, the user must manually turn the rotary switch to the next position. I have also built some test

rsions which are just a single barrel.

used 1018 cold drawn steel for the receiver/barrel. The rest of the pistol is made of black Acetal/De

astic and some aluminum. The pistol is about 5 inches long. I did a quick calculation of the burstin

rength and peak pressure of the burning propellant so I am not worried about any blowups. In addit

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emotely test fired the pistol a few times and made some measurements to ensure is was safe. One o

e nice things of an electrically primed pistol is that it is easy to connect some long cables and test fi

from behind cover!

I built another pistol, I'd design it with a larger grip so it could use 2 rechargeable Ni-Cd batteries.

so beef up the caliber but make it a 2 shot pistol.

nce posting this, there have been several questions from readers. Here are the answers:

q What is the bore size?

The bore size is 0.261" (size G drill or reamer). The pistol is designed to fire 0.25" diameter

patched balls. A "patch" is a piece of lubed (usually with wax/grease) cotton that is pushed do

the bore by the projectile to provide a tight fit.

q How does the electrical priming work?

I used model airplane glowplugs (the type without the heat retaining bar), pulled out the filam

a bit and reinforced them with high temperature ceramic cement. One reader recommended Fo

brand glowplugs for their ruggedness. The easiest way to clean the glowplug is to run a voltagthrough them to burn off residual materials.

q What is the ignition time?

A bit slow - about 0.25-0.3 seconds. The CR123 lithium battery cannot supply a lot of current

quickly. A typical glowplug is rated for 1.5V. It takes about 3A of current to start it glowing,

the current drops to about 2A. If I had to redesign it, I'd use one or two high rate discharge Ni

batteries instead.

q How long does the glowplug last?

'Don't know for sure, but I have one that has lasted 15 shots (with careful cleaning).

q Is there a safety?

The only mechanical safety is the rotary switch set to the "off" position - so a casual brush can

flip the switch to the "fire" position. As always, the user has to keep his finger off the trigger u

ready to fire. It would be pretty easy to add a "grip safety" switch if desired.

ore pictures:

q Pic1 (59 kbytes)

q Pic2 (65 kbytes)

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four-shot muzzle loading pistol instructions

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