New/Old Plains Pistol

[Shotgun Willy]

Well sometimes it pays to watch Craigs list. Yesterday morning I checked the sporting goods section and saw a Lyman Plains Pistol listed for $40. I knew from the pictures it wasn't a Lyman, but it is a Plains Pistol. Just a little while ago I took delivery of a CVA Plains Pistol, in .50 cal.. I actually gave him $50 for it, a pound of Pyrodex RS, a tube of TC Bore Butter, and about 20 lead balls.
There's a little light rust on the lock and hammer, and the woodwork doesn't look like it ever saw sandpaper, before being stained and varnished.
The barrel says it's .50 cal., with a 1 in 48 twist, but doesn't list the actual manufacturer. I think these were made by Jukar, though.
All in all, not too shabby.

 

[Ratdog68]

Congrats on that find...

Ya gonna leave it as is, or git after it with the refinish tools/products?

 

[Shotgun Willy]

It's most definitely getting a work-over.

 

[Ratdog68]

Hope you create a "how-to"

as you transform it. I'd be interested in following along.

Now that I've finished up those show chaps that have fully consumed all free time for the last month... I hope to be able to get back to working on re-doing my T/C Hawken I started on.

 

[BHP FAN]

Looks like what CVA called it's ''Belt Pistol'',and yes they were Jukars [as you'd already figured] and not a bad 25 yard gun.

 

[CAMPBELL49T]

Shotgun Willy I have one by the same company. Mine is a 45 and has a wood ramrod. Picked it up at a pawn for $65.00. You got a better deal. They were made in 60's or 70's can't remember which. I fired mine a few times and caught some paper at 25 yards. Only good for a bar fight or muggers. I need to learn how to post pictures...........

 

[BHP FAN]

you and me both,buddy.

 

[arcticap]

I recently responded to a local ad selling an unfired C&B revolver. It was already sold by the time that I called but the fellow explained how he bought a new Sherriff's model from Cabela's and accidently snapped a cap in his room. His landlady heard it go off and told him to get rid of it or face eviction.
I ended up buying a portable pistol cleaning kit, 1 lb. of Pyrodex P, a quart of Birchwood Casey No. 77 Muzzle Magic Cleaner, a tin of #10 percussion caps and a package of square cleaning patches for $20. He said that the guy that bought the revolver didn't want the items even though he paid $45 for it and he still had the sales receipt to boot.

The .45 pistols that looked very similar to the one above were called "Colonial pistols" although I don't recall ever seeing one in .50 caliber.
How long is the barrel?

 

[BHP FAN]

Yep,the CVA "Colonial belt pistols" in .45 and .50 caliber.

 

[BCRider]

BHP and Campbell, to post pictures here at THR you need to use a picture hosting service. From personal experience I suggest Photobucket since they don't hit up the average visitor with pop up ads. You'll need to go to www.photobucket.com and sign up for membership first before you can upload pictures to their sight for storage.

Your pics should be reduced in size to between 50K and 120K before passing on to Photobucket for storage. Any larger is tough on the folks still using modems instead of high speed.

And do set up topical albums first and then upload the pictures or move them to the correct album before posting any links here at THR. Otherwise if you move the picture the link will show as the infamous little white square and red X. Once on Photobucket in your "My Albums" hover over the picture and 4 or 5 listing options will appear below the picture. Move your mouse to the one that starts with and click on it to highlight the text and then either go CTL-C or on the Internet Explorer tool bar along the top of the screen click on Edit then Copy. Then Paste into the reply text area.

There's a "Testing... Testing" sub forum under Site Maintanence to post a new thread and try this out. What I posted above is how I posted my picture of my Morse taper arbors in the Break Free thread.

Now that I've told you about this we all expect great things from both of you.... :D

 

[mykeal]

 

[Shotgun Willy]

Arcticap, the gun looks very much like the Colonial Pistol picture Mykeal posted above, but not nearly as purty. The ramrod's wooden, though, and it doesn't have a rear sight.
The barrel's just over six inches long and is stamped 'Plains Pistol'. I suspect the ramrod and the rear sight are the only differences between the two guns. I'm planning on firing it later today, before I break it down to clean and rework it. I'll let ya'll know what I find.

 

[Donny]

Plains Pistol

I have that same pistol,built it from a kit. Doesn't come with a rear sight and it was tough to hit anything with it so I made my own dove tail and put on a rear sight. Made a world of difference, now I can hit a target reliably.

Don

 

[CAMPBELL49T]

I read about this pistol when I first bought it. It has a big brother that looks just like the little one. That to is called a Colonial pistol. The little one was called a Phily, after the city, coat pistol. I think we are talking about the same pistols. I don't know mine might be differant. On my gun the markings are....Dikar Spain 45cal. black powder only. It looks just like the one mykeal posted. And my ramrod is metal not wood.
BCRIDER thanks I'll give it a try, right now I'm on the way to a gun show.

 

[BHP FAN]

they clean up really well.Somewhere I saw a thread where a fellow reshaped the nose of the stock,poured a pewter nose peice,did a bit of tastefull scallop carving around the tang,and ended up with what I'd have to call a Gentleman's Pistol.Talk about your silk purse from a sow's ear!Anyway, with the addition of a rear sight you could have a viable trail companion for walks in the woods,and you could even get fancy and mount a brass belt hook from Dixie on it.

 

[Shotgun Willy]

Well, it's done. From what I can tell, the gun had never been closer than six feet, to sandpaper. I removed and disassembled the ramrod, which was crooked, and rebuilt it with a new dowel rod.
The gun got two applications of dark walnut stain, and three applications of Helmsman Spar Polyurethane. The ramrod is a different type of wood, so it didn't stain like the gun did, with just the dark walnut, so a final application using dark mohogany stain did the trick. And I didn't clear-coat the ramrod, as I didn't want to run the risk of accidentaly gluing it in the gun, with the poly.
It turned out shinier than I expected, but I'm happy with it.

Opinions?

 

[rondog]

Wow, you found a GUN on Craigslist? I thought they were as anti as eBay.

 

[Shotgun Willy]

Wow, you found a GUN on Craigslist? I thought they were as anti as eBay.

It lasted around 30 minutes, before someone flagged it. I've seen AR's and S&W snubbies, this week. None of them last long, though.

 

[sackettboys]

here's one I refinished years ago........

 

[Hey_Allen]

Somewhere I saw a thread where a fellow reshaped the nose of the stock,poured a pewter nose peice,did a bit of tastefull scallop carving around the tang,and ended up with what I'd have to call a Gentleman's Pistol.

Is this the write up that you're talking about?

http://www.tradrag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=506

I was given a CVA Colonial pistol in partial kit form (still unassembled and missing a few bits) and found that posting while looking for better info than the manual that came with the kit provided.