AMR duelling pistol

[llanerosolitario]

Some years ago I decided to take an old AMR duelling pistol and give it a face lift. I wanted a good duelling pistol but could not afford an expensive Pedersoli, so I decided to make one myself.

AMR was an spanish brand, making muzzleloading rifles and pistols until they closed doors in the 80s. Their guns were of average quality, with mediocre locks and wood,  but they had quite good barrels.

I remember that they made a good BP target shooting rifle, called the Rigby model, still seen in the shooting ranges of  Spain, France and Germany.

So I decided to make the lock from scratch, including the hammer, from tool and from high strength steel as I didn’t like the original one. The trigger guard is welded mild steel, and the wood is European ash, a heavy wood.

The lock internals and the hammer are also scratch  built except the bridle, the tumbler and the stirrup. The  plate is chrome moly steel. The trigger is also scratch built, has a first stage travel regulation and a stop, having every one of the regulations its respective screw.

Thougth not perfectly equilibraré target pistols,  as I think that the barrel should probably go  12 mm backward in the wood, the results off hand at 25 meters, 45 calibre, off hand, are quite good as the barrel is well made.

The load  used  was 16 grains 3F Maxam Balck powder, and a  433” Lee mold patched ball rigth on top of it.

The spread, offhand, is around 4”. I had to resort to a previously used paper target,  that’s why so many 22 hits, by another shooter, as it was virtually impossible to find a Virgin target, as all matches are cancelled because of the Covid pandemia, so they don’t sell them anymore at the club.

[llanerosolitario]

The finish is not superb but it works. The engraving on the plate was made by hand,  not my best job, by the way, but, in my opinion, decorative. The trigger weigth is around 1/2 pound, around 500 grams, quite common among match duelling pistols. It does not have a hair trigger.

The sights are near perfection for me.

The wood finish is Bircheood Casey True oil. Thougth not cheap, it works. It  can be applied by hand, a great advantage,  requires 3 or 4 hands, but it dries to a varnish finish. Although not  as bright as a proper barnish, it is resistant. It is worth the price.

The wedge and the brass plates were borrowed from an old Kentucky replica.

[llanerosolitario]

The next one will be better

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[Professor Marvel]

My Good llanerosolitario

that is a BEAUTIFUL pistol! You have done extremely well !!

evne though you said

The finish is not superb but it works. The engraving on the plate was made by hand,  not my best job, by the way, but, in my opinion, decorative. 

To my poor untrained eye it is much better than the real  Italian engraving , and much better than many of the "affordable" US engravers.I wish I could engrave half as well....

beautiful work ,and good shooting!

BTW If you cannot buy targets, but have access to a computer printer you can print your own:

Since I am cheap, I often print my own targets from my computer.
Regular printer paper leaves torn bullet edges, but If you can get "card stock" or cut up
ordinary office file folders ( manila folders) they are nice and stiff and work well
if you feed them one at a time through a printer.

this site has a rulebook and regulation targets, if one works at it one might be able
to scale the targets correctly

   https://www.usashooting.org/library/Rulebooks/2012_USAS_GEN_TECH.pdf

this site has targets that are supposed to print to correct scale, I don't know if any will work for you

    http://www.bobdbob.com/~deneb/doc/targets/

this site has a variety of animal targets, odd targets and some bullseye targets
    https://www.nssf.org/shooting/targets/

here are two from wikipedia that you might be able to scale correctly

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ISSF_25_meter_Rapid_Fire_Pistol_target.svg

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ISSF_25_meter_Precision_and_50_meter_pistol_target.svg

and here are a bunch of free targets that may work for you

    https://www.acushnetrifleandpistol.com/images/88targets.pdf

thanks for the photos, and I hope this helps you
prof marvel

[Gabriel Law]

I am delighted to see someone else making muzzleloading pistols, to fill a seriously vacant niche.  I've been doing this since I was 14 and have enjoyed a very long "career" supplying ML guns to friends around the world, but mostly in my own back yard.  Here's a saw-handled target pistol I built for a local buddy using Black Walnut supplied by him, a barrel from Green Mountain, and some hardware from Track of the Wolf.  The barrel is .50 calibre, the finish is Circa 1850 Tung Oil, and the steel is rust blued.  I post this to encourage you to continue with this pursuit.

[llanerosolitario]

Thanks Prof Marvel,

Your links will be useful, as the shortage of targets continues. There was allways a good supply of used but not abused 22 lr targets from other shooters and from the local matches, that were still useful for shooting large caliber, like 38” or 44”. I saved 25 cuts each by reusing  them, and they were a good source of fine carboard, useful for making templates.

However, the few ones I am finding lately at my club are over used, and are becoming scarce. People are shooting the same targets over and over again, covering the holes with patches,  until they literally destroy them.

About the pistol,  it is not the most beautiful one in the World but it has the charming of everything hand made.

I just don’t like the perfection of sprayed lacquers, laser cut woods and CNC machined parts so common today among Pedersoli and Traditions pistols and rifles, They  just don’t look authentic in my opinion. Everything in the old times, including industrial products, had a human touch.

[llanerosolitario]

I am delighted to see someone else making muzzleloading pistols, to fill a seriously vacant niche.  I've been doing this since I was 14 and have enjoyed a very long "career" supplying ML guns to friends around the world, but mostly in my own back yard.  Here's a saw-handled target pistol I built for a local buddy using Black Walnut supplied by him, a barrel from Green Mountain, and some hardware from Track of the Wolf.  The barrel is .50 calibre, the finish is Circa 1850 Tung Oil, and the steel is rust blued.  I post this to encourage you to continue with this pursuit.

A very interesting pistol, in my opinion. The maximum sigth radius and the saw handle, in the British style, would make this pistol very adequate for MlLAIC kuchenreuter matches.


I also like the clean, umblemished silk finish you gave to the metal parts. As the old masters stablished in the ancient times, a bright polished finish is only for decorative and not for functional guns.

The pistol design reminds me of a couple of pistols I had in a book in my library. The ivory buttcap is a very american detail that I have seen in american pistols of the era, like the H. E. Dimick, a duelling pistol never reproduced by the Italians.

[llanerosolitario]

Another one I had on my tablet.

[Professor Marvel]

My Good llanerosolitario

Do you have any other examples of your engraving? It really is very well done!
How long have you been engraving?
Can you offer any advice to "newbies" 

yhs
prof marvel

[llanerosolitario]

 :I have been engraving since 2007.

[llanerosolitario]

This is a British dragoon pistol I made a few years ago but this time I only made the wood, cherry wood, burnished, with a 54” comercial barrel and a lock and brass from Track of the wolf. The lock is really a rifle lock.


It is late, tomorrow I will share a few things about engraving that have worked for me.