A good day in one picture.

Sorry, computer jammed up. Pistol is a home built 54 made by a buddy gunsmith of mine. The only things on it that are factory are the barrel and lock. Everything else, trigger guard, trigger, sights, stock, (from a mesquite branch in his back yard), even the brass bits are home built. Sucker is accurate too. 11 paces.
 

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It's loads of laughs to work with. Rotary tools and files are the best bet on shaping it. Really sharp chisels are a necessity as well. The grain changes direction a lot so using a plane or spokeshave doesn't work well. Another fun part is sand in the grain, if the tree was growing in a wash bed or river bottom you most likely will find sand in the grain.I've personally seen a rock the size of a baseball come out of an old growth Mesquite as well as nails and pieces of wire.
 
Jackrabbit1957 said:
Another fun part is sand in the grain, if the tree was growing in a wash bed or river bottom you most likely will find sand in the grain. I've personally seen a rock the size of a baseball come out of an old growth Mesquite as well as nails and pieces of wire.
Click to expand...
Man, that must have been one tough neighborhood for Mesquite.
 
I love working with mesquite. My local source is limited as we only grow bushes here. Not enough rainfall, elevation is close to being too high for them, and the soil is shallow. There is a lot of our country they won't grow on. Our only condition that a mesquite loves is hot summers. I can find wood large enough for knife handles. 1911 grips, and sometimes single action grips. Anything larger has to be purchased from some place in Texas which seems to be mesquite heaven and it is expensive. I use to drive new pipeline right of ways with my jeep and a small chainsaw.in search of root balls for larger wood but there hasn't been a pipeline laid in my area for years so that source is gone.
 
We just got it, but we have plans to try some other loads, including a Lee cast Minie ball, naked and paper patched. Yes, with 20 grains the recoil is VERY light, no argument there, but I was planning on keeping it down to what we load the other black powder handguns with, going up to probably 35 or so. Not out to thump the berm, just to have fun. :)
 
doubleh said:
I love working with mesquite. My local source is limited as we only grow bushes here. Not enough rainfall, elevation is close to being too high for them, and the soil is shallow. There is a lot of our country they won't grow on. Our only condition that a mesquite loves is hot summers. I can find wood large enough for knife handles. 1911 grips, and sometimes single action grips. Anything larger has to be purchased from some place in Texas which seems to be mesquite heaven and it is expensive. I use to drive new pipeline right of ways with my jeep and a small chainsaw.in search of root balls for larger wood but there hasn't been a pipeline laid in my area for years so that source is gone.
Click to expand...
Yikes, I just had a buddy cut down a huge mesquite tree in my backyard, going to dry the wood to use in the VFW Post for barbecues. Some of those logs would be big enough to make a full length Kentucky Long Rifle stock.
 
hawg said:
20 grains is a brass frame revolver max load. 😁 I'd probably start at 50 and work up from there.
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I worked up to where recoil was still manageable enough to maintain a reasonable level of accuracy. That turned out to be 75 grains with a ball, and 65 grains with the 240 grain "PA conical", in my .50" barrel. I was mistaken when I said 75 grains in the .54" barrel with ball, my load for that is 70 grains. Now if I wasn't thinking about that wild, grouchy, and crazy Grizz fellow when I'm creeping around his mountain, I think 50 grains would be about right for general purposes. But nothing wrong with 40 grains either, if all one had to worry about was targets, gongs, coyote, wolf or Cougar. But that's just me.
 
hawg said:
20 grains is a brass frame revolver max load. 😁 I'd probably start at 50 and work up from there.
Click to expand...
Neither one of us is a recoil junkie. We don't anticipate carrying this anywhere but to the range and back. I will try it with some other loads next time we get out, and with that Lee Minie ball I cast up some time ago, but honestly, it is never gonna get worn out with the loads we use. :) Perhaps just once I might give it 60 grains behind a Minie...maybe...
 
SterlingBullet said:
Comments and questions:
That appears to be extremely fine shooting with a cannon.
Everybody does seem to have dressed blind-folded.

What distance in the competition?
Why squirrels?
Why white pants?
Is that blue shirt truly a historical accurate fabric color?
Click to expand...
1- 100yd at reduced size howitzer targets. We shoot further at Nationals
2- Ever hear the sayin- even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally?
3- Some units in the Confederacy wore white pants initially. Some wore completely white. For obvious reasons, they didn't stay white for long. The guys in the pic are our new guys. A notable example was the 26th Texas cavalry.
4- Yes it is. When trying to determine if a color is true to an original, you have to remember that they didn't have the colorfast dies back then we do now. Case in point, many original Confederate uniforms originally thought to be "butternut" were found to be gray originally when the inside of the seams were examined during conservation. Time, UV exposure, and wear turned the gray to tan or brown.

Dressed blindfolded? During the War, uniforms (when available in the South) came in 3 sizes- too big, too little and doesn't fit. Prior to the War, SC had a very well organized militia system. Even though the Militia Act of 1840 in SC set a standard uniform, it was often ignored, so militias were wearing what they could afford and the "rich" guys wore what they wanted and the poor guys wore what they had. That was the state of things when SC seceded and called up militia units for state service. Again, at that point, new uniforms for everybody were in short supply and many wore their militia uniforms/attire. This problem wasn't exclusive to SC by any means. Just look at the confusion during First Manasas with many units mistaking who was on what side for this very reason. The Palmetto Sharpshooters, aka Jenkin's Brigade was a unit made up from parts of 3 SC Infantry regiments that had already been campaigning for a year with no reissue of uniforms of any kind to replace what they went to war with and whose enlistments were expiring. They had initially signed for 1yr and the War certainly was going to last longer. Many of these early volunteer units had varied uniforms, if they had a complete one, or wore parts of their civilian/militia attire. So their uniforms, such as they had, varied widely and were in varying states of disrepair at that time and they were often wearing items of civilian clothing. Once the Sharpshooters were formed, it took a couple months to get completely reuniformed, and again, this was often done from multiple vendors and sources so colors varied a bit. The idea of Confederate units being properly and completely attired in gray is erroneous. Often the officers were correctly uniformed but they usually bought theirs out of their pocket from civilian tailors. The wide range of Confederate uniforms is a huge study by itself.

Finally, we aren't stitch counting reenactors. I used to run with that crowd back during the 125-130th anniversarys. The North South Skirmish Association is a COMPETITION shooting organization. While we do encourage as authentic dress as possible, it's not the main focus.
 
armoredman said:
Yikes, I just had a buddy cut down a huge mesquite tree in my backyard, going to dry the wood to use in the VFW Post for barbecues. Some of those logs would be big enough to make a full length Kentucky Long Rifle stock.
Click to expand...
Every time I go to a Texas BBQ joint that has stacks of mesquite chopped up into firewood I think, "Darn, I would liked to have got ahold of a long piece of that".
 
armoredman said:
Neither one of us is a recoil junkie. We don't anticipate carrying this anywhere but to the range and back. I will try it with some other loads next time we get out, and with that Lee Minie ball I cast up some time ago, but honestly, it is never gonna get worn out with the loads we use. :) Perhaps just once I might give it 60 grains behind a Minie...maybe...
Click to expand...
Oh yeah I get it. But I look at that generously size stock and can't help thinking that it would handle recoil pretty good. But for a paper-puncher, more recoil will just reduce accuracy. On the other hand, anything under 40 grains kind of puts it in revolver territory, and as they say...."what fun is that???" :)

I shall add, I'm not really a recoil junkie either, (although not recoil sensitive) but if my rifle ever failed me, and I had to pull my pistol on Grizz, I don't think I'll feel the recoil at all. !!!!! :what:
 
Awesome new pistol. I'd like to see a close up detailed pic (instead of 10 foot off). I've never worked with mesquite wood before.
 
dave951 said:
1- 100yd at reduced size howitzer targets. We shoot further at Nationals
2- Ever hear the sayin- even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally?
3- Some units in the Confederacy wore white pants initially. Some wore completely white. For obvious reasons, they didn't stay white for long. The guys in the pic are our new guys. A notable example was the 26th Texas cavalry.
4- Yes it is. When trying to determine if a color is true to an original, you have to remember that they didn't have the colorfast dies back then we do now. Case in point, many original Confederate uniforms originally thought to be "butternut" were found to be gray originally when the inside of the seams were examined during conservation. Time, UV exposure, and wear turned the gray to tan or brown.

Dressed blindfolded? During the War, uniforms (when available in the South) came in 3 sizes- too big, too little and doesn't fit. Prior to the War, SC had a very well organized militia system. Even though the Militia Act of 1840 in SC set a standard uniform, it was often ignored, so militias were wearing what they could afford and the "rich" guys wore what they wanted and the poor guys wore what they had. That was the state of things when SC seceded and called up militia units for state service. Again, at that point, new uniforms for everybody were in short supply and many wore their militia uniforms/attire. This problem wasn't exclusive to SC by any means. Just look at the confusion during First Manasas with many units mistaking who was on what side for this very reason. The Palmetto Sharpshooters, aka Jenkin's Brigade was a unit made up from parts of 3 SC Infantry regiments that had already been campaigning for a year with no reissue of uniforms of any kind to replace what they went to war with and whose enlistments were expiring. They had initially signed for 1yr and the War certainly was going to last longer. Many of these early volunteer units had varied uniforms, if they had a complete one, or wore parts of their civilian/militia attire. So their uniforms, such as they had, varied widely and were in varying states of disrepair at that time and they were often wearing items of civilian clothing. Once the Sharpshooters were formed, it took a couple months to get completely reuniformed, and again, this was often done from multiple vendors and sources so colors varied a bit. The idea of Confederate units being properly and completely attired in gray is erroneous. Often the officers were correctly uniformed but they usually bought theirs out of their pocket from civilian tailors. The wide range of Confederate uniforms is a huge study by itself.

Finally, we aren't stitch counting reenactors. I used to run with that crowd back during the 125-130th anniversarys. The North South Skirmish Association is a COMPETITION shooting organization. While we do encourage as authentic dress as possible, it's not the main focus.
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing. Would you recommend any pages/articles/books that would have solid information like that in it?

That's pretty awesome cannon accuracy, thanks for sharing those pics.

It does look a bit odd for a bunch of confederates to be standing around and someone int he foreground peering through a spotting scope. I assume brass telescopes were available back then, but pricy to acquire today.
 
Ugly Sauce said:
Oh yeah I get it. But I look at that generously size stock and can't help thinking that it would handle recoil pretty good. But for a paper-puncher, more recoil will just reduce accuracy. On the other hand, anything under 40 grains kind of puts it in revolver territory, and as they say...."what fun is that???" :)

I shall add, I'm not really a recoil junkie either, (although not recoil sensitive) but if my rifle ever failed me, and I had to pull my pistol on Grizz, I don't think I'll feel the recoil at all. !!!!! :what:
Click to expand...
Except this is WAY easier to reload than a revolver with far few moving parts. 😉
 
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