Middlesex Villiage imports a variety of flintlock pistols from India. They are manufactured by pre assemblyline methods and all parts are specific to the particular gun. They get their fine-tuning at Middlesex before delivery to the buyer. The brass barreled Ketland has the overall profile of most of the late 18th century -early 19th century martial pistols. It is 60 caliber with a fully developed lock.
We found some .570" balls and used two 015" patches over a charge of 35 grains of goex fffg which was also used for prime. The suggested starting load was 25 grains which produced only 419 fps. The average velocity for five rounds and the 35 grain charge was 514 fps.
Ignition was positive -except for the single time we allowed the flint to become loose in the jaws and the time between pan flash and the actual shot was fast enough that there was no disturbance in aim.
The pistol has no sights and an extremely heavy trigger pulled that remained heavy even after the owner worked over the sear spring. I wondered how much fun was to be had with a pistol that militates against the Idea of accuracy. After some initial familiarization at 50 feet, I figured what the heck and tried a shot from 25 yards. I had to dip the barrel out of sight. Shooting from one hand, I noted a tendency to drag the barrel over the right during the heavy trigger pull.
I amazed myself by putting the first shot dead center in a cobbled-up human silhouette fronted with a white poster. The next shot landed a couple of inches away from that one and a third was about 4" over those- still pretty much dead center. I decided to keep on shooting until I screwed up which I did do to my satisfaction when the next shot broadened the group to 12" I added another right next to it just to have five rounds on target. I consider an aggregate of 12 inches at 75 feet to be fairly respectable and my respect for the distructive potential of the late 18th century smooth bore is considerably enhanced.
We shot quite a bit. We found ourselves having fun. Bates, the owner loaded nine .31 caliber pistol balls and shot into the target from 20 feet. It was pretty well saturated.
The ketland is extremely well fitted. with quality components throughout. The wood is some sort of dense, nicely grained Indian mystery wood, deep red in color. Some people are upset that these pistols don't have walnut stocks but I believe the wood it does have looks better, richer and more old-fashioned.
Middlesex acquires the guns, inspects the guns, tunes them ready to shoot and will perform repairs if they become necessary. Spare parts are not available because all must be hand-fitted to the gun. Bates talked with the ceo of Middlesex for some length on the telephone and found him to have the people skills we would like to see more often in the gun industry. He filled the order as per mutual understanding.
We found some .570" balls and used two 015" patches over a charge of 35 grains of goex fffg which was also used for prime. The suggested starting load was 25 grains which produced only 419 fps. The average velocity for five rounds and the 35 grain charge was 514 fps.
Ignition was positive -except for the single time we allowed the flint to become loose in the jaws and the time between pan flash and the actual shot was fast enough that there was no disturbance in aim.
The pistol has no sights and an extremely heavy trigger pulled that remained heavy even after the owner worked over the sear spring. I wondered how much fun was to be had with a pistol that militates against the Idea of accuracy. After some initial familiarization at 50 feet, I figured what the heck and tried a shot from 25 yards. I had to dip the barrel out of sight. Shooting from one hand, I noted a tendency to drag the barrel over the right during the heavy trigger pull.
I amazed myself by putting the first shot dead center in a cobbled-up human silhouette fronted with a white poster. The next shot landed a couple of inches away from that one and a third was about 4" over those- still pretty much dead center. I decided to keep on shooting until I screwed up which I did do to my satisfaction when the next shot broadened the group to 12" I added another right next to it just to have five rounds on target. I consider an aggregate of 12 inches at 75 feet to be fairly respectable and my respect for the distructive potential of the late 18th century smooth bore is considerably enhanced.
We shot quite a bit. We found ourselves having fun. Bates, the owner loaded nine .31 caliber pistol balls and shot into the target from 20 feet. It was pretty well saturated.
The ketland is extremely well fitted. with quality components throughout. The wood is some sort of dense, nicely grained Indian mystery wood, deep red in color. Some people are upset that these pistols don't have walnut stocks but I believe the wood it does have looks better, richer and more old-fashioned.
Middlesex acquires the guns, inspects the guns, tunes them ready to shoot and will perform repairs if they become necessary. Spare parts are not available because all must be hand-fitted to the gun. Bates talked with the ceo of Middlesex for some length on the telephone and found him to have the people skills we would like to see more often in the gun industry. He filled the order as per mutual understanding.
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