.69 combo

[Ysabel Kid]

And you all thought we were done...

Here's a .69 caliber combo. Well, nominal caliber dimensions anyway. And I know neither of these are a lever!



A little better view of both.



The 1766 Charleville reproduction is from Pedersoli. The Tower pistol is from Dixie Gun Works, a kit I bought and built 35 years ago. I did have to replace the frizzen spring a few years back. I shot it earlier this year at one of our Safety Team's range day. Didn't qualify with it - reloading is a bit time consuming, even with my paper cartridges (below), but it made a ton of smoke!

[Bill in Oregon]

Jay, I am greatly impressed! Very nice pair!
I remember seeing the .69 "Tower Pistol" for sale in all the old Guns Illustrated editions and pining for one as they seemed so affordable back in the day.

[Ray]

Do you ever fire fine shot out of those ?

My experiments along those lines from my antique and replica smoothbores have been less than satisfactory. I thought the traditions .54 blunderbuss with the funnel removed and front bead added would be just the thing for controlling these brazen and mocking squirrels who have developed a taste for green tomatoes. I loaded it northeast frontier style but with cotton balls in place of the linen tow and fired at a pop can sitting on a fence post at about fifteen paces. Riddled the can so I thought I was good and proper patterning on spent pizza boxes would be a waste of powder and shot. Wrong again. After the smoke cleared on the three or four attempts, the intended targets just laughed at me.....or at least that is what I interpreted the chattering noises and unblinking looks of disdain.

[Ysabel Kid]

Do you ever fire fine shot out of those ?

My experiments along those lines from my antique and replica smoothbores have been less than satisfactory. I thought the traditions .54 blunderbuss with the funnel removed and front bead added would be just the thing for controlling these brazen and mocking squirrels who have developed a taste for green tomatoes. I loaded it northeast frontier style but with cotton balls in place of the linen tow and fired at a pop can sitting on a fence post at about fifteen paces. Riddled the can so I thought I was good and proper patterning on spent pizza boxes would be a waste of powder and shot. Wrong again. After the smoke cleared on the three or four attempts, the intended targets just laughed at me.....or at least that is what I interpreted the chattering noises and unblinking looks of disdain.

I have not yet, but I see no reason why a .69-caliber smooth bore couldn't propel a useful charge of shot. I think your tree-rats might be wearing teflon vests under their fur coats!

[Ysabel Kid]

Jay, I am greatly impressed! Very nice pair!
I remember seeing the .69 "Tower Pistol" for sale in all the old Guns Illustrated editions and pining for one as they seemed so affordable back in the day.

I know I paid well under a C-note for the kit back then. And I still use the Dremel tool I bought to do the project!

[gamekeeper]

I have used several smooth bore muskets with birdshot with excellent results, I found out early on that too much wadding was detramental to getting a good pattern.

Jay I like your .69 combo back in the day it could have taken everything from Squirrel to Buffalo and you'd only need to carry one ball mold in your possibles bag..

[Scott Tschirhart]

I really like this combo!!!!

It’s giving me an interesting idea.

[Ysabel Kid]

I really like this combo!!!!

It’s giving me an interesting idea.

Scott, when you have an "interesting idea" it normally turns into a very interesting post!

[Ysabel Kid]

I have used several smooth bore muskets with birdshot with excellent results, I found out early on that too much wadding was detramental to getting a good pattern.

Jay I like your .69 combo back in the day it could have taken everything from Squirrel to Buffalo and you'd only need to carry one ball mold in your possibles bag..

I actually found out that the best single ball mold for these was made in Russia of all places. Picked up two of them, exactly fitted to what I wanted for both firearms.

[piller]

No one cares that they are of an older than levergun design. Very nice!