Pedersoli Harpers Ferry Percussion Pistol

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Panzerschwein

Panzerschwein

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Hello all!

Pedersoli has a new percussion pistol out. It is the percussion version of there 1805 Harpers Ferry .54 caliber pistol, which is a smoothbore. Here it is for sale on Dixie Gun Works:

https://www.dixiegunworks.com/login.php?action=process&osCsid=440e8ha7sm3q0mf8lum54e3kp5

Here is a YouTube video of someone shooting it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOCYr64aYUk

This gun is right up my alley. I've wanted a single shot percussion pistol for a long time, especially a military style one. This thing is just so cool... but I have some questions:

Where Harpers Ferry 1805 pistols ever converted into percussion guns? Is this model historically accurate? Were these used in the Civil War at all?

Also, what kind of accuracy can I expect with the smooth bore barrel of this gun? It looks like it has a front sight blade... I'd only be using this gun for plinking an casual target shooting.

What do you guys know/think about this new model from Pedersoli? I am going to pick one up most likely, but I need some feedback first as the only other black powder gun I have is a Cimarron 1851 Navy, which is a superb gun.

Thanks all!
 
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I suspect the 1805 was surpassed by a new-fangled firearm, the Paterson revolver designed by an unknown inventor, one Samuel Colt. With the advent of the Walker, the Dragoon, and the 1851 Navy, there was probably little need for single shot pistols.


The model 1842(?) single shot pistols made by Johnson and Ashton were the only other s.s. Pistols made for the military in great numbers, to my knowledge.

You would have to check the internet to see if any 1805 pistols were converted to percussion and issued to Union & Confederate cavalry troops or carried by known officers.

For plinking and casual shooting, this pistol will be OK.

Post some targets when you shoot it.
 
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Cooldill

Looks very nice. I believe all of the original Harpers Ferry pistols were flintlocks. Production was somewhat limited but it would be reasonable to presume that some of them were put to use (especially with the Confederacy having so few pistols of their own), during the Civil War.
 
Recently I've wondered why the single shot pistol was so prevalent when the Howdah pistols were already in existence and had double the firepower in a just a slightly larger size.

For me, I'd rather have the 20 gauge Howdah Hunter when they go on sale at Cabela's than a single shot pistol. Would be more fun to shoot imo, but I think single shots are still fun too, especially with Pedersoli's quality.
 
Here is a fight on July 6, 1864 between a squad of Missouri Guerillas and the Second Colorado Cavalry, "a regiment made up of miners, was stationed in Jackson County in the beginning of 1864 specifically to combat the guerillas there."

John McCorkle said that, "We took a number of the pistols that the enemy was using which were a very large caliber pistol, known as the French Dragoon pistol"

From,
Three Years with Quantrill, A True Story told by his scout John McCorkle.
Written by O.S. Barton, page 154.

If in 1864 a whole regiment was armed with single shot French Dragoons I'm sure there is a reference somewhere in someone journals or diary that people were using your Harpers Ferry pistol also in the Civil War.
 
I am curious if percussion conversions were done on them? It seems at least one was done up this way. Very interesting!

How about accuracy? Anyone out there know what I can expect with this smoothbore gun? I assume I'll need a tight fitting ball and patch? I would be using this gun for plinking and informal target shooting at fairly close ranges.
 
Cooldill said:
I am curious if percussion conversions were done on them? It seems at least one was done up this way. Very interesting!

How about accuracy? Anyone out there know what I can expect with this smoothbore gun? I assume I'll need a tight fitting ball and patch? I would be using this gun for plinking and informal target shooting at fairly close ranges.
Click to expand...
I picked one up a couple months ago and find the accuracy acceptable at 25yds for a smoothbore....I can put 10 shots into a 10 inch target with 18 grains of Swiss 3f and a .530 ball roughed up between two files.

50 yds is another story.....still working with it.
 
vagunmonkey said:
I picked one up a couple months ago and find the accuracy acceptable at 25yds for a smoothbore....I can put 10 shots into a 10 inch target with 18 grains of Swiss 3f and a .530 ball roughed up between two files.

50 yds is another story.....still working with it.
Click to expand...
Ooh that's nice, seems pretty good to me.

I'd probably only shoot at paper targets and 'punkins, assorted discarded vegetation of all kinds, and cardboard boxes and the like. I've heard it's not safe to shoot steel plates with these as the ball can come back? I'd like to by a swinging 8-10" plate to shoot at with this thing but am unsure of the safety.
 
What is interesting about the Model 1805, made from 1805 to 1808, is that only 4,096 pieces were made at Harpers Ferry. They were issued in pairs and each pistol in the pair had the same serial number. This was a boon for collectors to find matching serial numbered pistols. Thus, the highest serial number was 2,048.

With that small number made, i'd be reluctant to think many saw service in the War Between The States, being 60 years old at the time.

Only about 200 to 300 are known to exist today.
 
I've heard it's not safe to shoot steel plates with these as the ball can come back? I'd like to by a swinging 8-10" plate to shoot at with this thing but am unsure of the safety.[/QUOTE]

At 25 yards I think you would be fine....if I'm not mistaken, cowboy action shoots steel at 15 yds.
 
Cooldill

I did some reading in some of my older gun collecting books but couldn't find any reference to a percussion conversion being done on the original Model 1805 Harpers Ferry pistol. The last of the U.S. martial flintlock pistols were produced from 1836 to 1844 by Robert Johnson and Asa Waters. After that the Model 1842 percussion single shot pistol came into service, being made by Henry Aston and Asa Johnson. It would seem rather doubtful any money would have been spent on converting the much older Harpers Ferry pistols to percussion models when more current guns were being made under contract.
 
Apparently there were enough original guns converted to get the N-SSA to approve a repro.

That's where this comes from...the North-South Skirmish Association got talked into holding a smoothbore horse pistol event. Pedersoli was making a Harpers Ferry flintlock, a percussion version was do-able.
 
Where Harpers Ferry 1805 pistols ever converted into percussion guns? Is this model historically accurate? Were these used in the Civil War at all?
Click to expand...

Cooldill, you have a documented fight in 1864 between a troop of Union cavalry from the Second Colorado Cavalry that were equipped with single shot dragoon pistols. I would say yes they were used during the Civil War especially in your neck of the woods, in the Western or the trans-Mississippi theater.
 
Hmm... interesting.

So there is not record of this being done or them being used in the Civil War, but the N-SSA approved the pistol? I am almost tempted to contact the N-SSA to see what they have to say about all of this.

I know that for me, authenticity is a big deal when I purchase a repro black powder firearm. I don't want to own a percussion model of the Harpers Ferry 1805 if they never really existed in history.
 
Cooldill

I don't know where a group of miners would have come by a large number of French Dragoon pistols though possibly they were mistaken for the Harpers Ferry Model 1805. It might also be possible from the account written by John McCorkle that the group of miners (Second Colorado Cavalry), might have been armed with the U.S. Model 1842 percussion pistol or even the Model 1855 .58 caliber pistol-carbine. That late in the war the Model 1855 pistol (rather large and cumbersome at 18" overall length), would have been rendered obsolete for front line cavalry use back east and could have been relegated to arming some Federal unit fighting a guerrilla war against Quantrill and his men out west.
 
I have an 1855 Pistol carbine repro from Zoli. It is the third I have owned. It shoots well, but a one hand hold with it is for Superman, not mortals. At the beginning of the war, the Feds were hard up for horse pistols. They even imported Austro-Hungarian Lorenz single shot pistols for issue to federal cavalry troops from New England. However, the revolver quickly replaced the old single shot muzzle loading horse pistols.

Horse pistols used by American troops between the revolution and the War between the States are a sadly neglected subject. Probably in part because the Palmetto and Johnson and Waters Pistols of the 1830s and 1840s really were kind of bland. I have a repro of the 1842 British Lancer pistol (made in India) and it has more appeal than the US pistols. The US had no romanticized wars during that time period. With the exception of the Alamo, There really aren't many folks who study the 1812 Invasion of Canada or the expansionist war to appropriate territory from Mexico. But civil war buffs will argue for hours over the rationale for minor troop movements outside of Vicksburg.
 
At least they are being made in the historically correct .54 caliber. The flintlock version made by Petersoli for some unknown reason is .58 caliber.
 
Not only that, but the .58 version is rifles.

The .54 smoothbore model is more historically accurate... but it's a percussion gun! I'm trying to find out if they ever were used in the Civil War.
 
I would say yes in the South, especially if converted to percussion. Not likely up North.
Do research on J. F. Garrett pistols, Read & Watson rifles. We had to use everything that was available.
 
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