Tower Pistol
- Thread starter mec
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unspellable
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Tower from Japan
I had one of these things. It appeared to be made of stainless. It had no flint when I acquired it, and at the time I had no interest in flint locks so I sold it with out ever firing it. It had a 0.69 smooth bore. 0.68 balls are thin on the ground but can be had. That works out to about 14 gauge and I had been thinking of loading it with birdshot.
these days I would like to have a Sea Service pistol. I kind of regret letting go of the Tower as it is about the next thing to a Sea Service pistol.
I had one of these things. It appeared to be made of stainless. It had no flint when I acquired it, and at the time I had no interest in flint locks so I sold it with out ever firing it. It had a 0.69 smooth bore. 0.68 balls are thin on the ground but can be had. That works out to about 14 gauge and I had been thinking of loading it with birdshot.
these days I would like to have a Sea Service pistol. I kind of regret letting go of the Tower as it is about the next thing to a Sea Service pistol.
Poodleshooter
Member
Was it stainless, or just steel in the white?
unspellable
Member
Stainless
I wouldn't swear to this in court, and I really didn't make any tests, but my impression was that it was stainless.
I wouldn't swear to this in court, and I really didn't make any tests, but my impression was that it was stainless.
Shooting It
The Bore diameter is about .670. I found that the larger ball I had ordered was a close fit but would slide down the barrel as long as teh sprue did not touch. I load these in paper cartridges using 50 grains of Goex 2f G.
I loaded the .648 bullets with the same poweder charge and generally a .010" lubricated patch. The balls would start easily enough but there was a constriction after the end two inches of bore and, thereafter, I had to pound the patched ball to full seat. On one occasion, the patch slipped around the ball and the ball fell on down onto the powder column. I packed wadding ont top of this load.
What was evident from the chronograph readings was that there was no significant difference in the loads whether patched ball, paper cartridge wrapped or simpled held down by wadding. The target results improved as I shot. I got a lot of dry fire practice as the geometry of this pistol defeats all attempts to get consistent ignition. The pan locks up and will not go forward enough to direct sparks in to the pan regardless of flint size or positioning.
The more centered hits took place during firing of the last five rounds (Paper Cartridges) I found that my best hits came when I pointed the barrel at the target, and then let my wrist break forward dipping the barrel. At this point, all I could really see was the breach screw at the back of the barrel. I pointed that just below the center scoring ring and got pretty good results.
The Bore diameter is about .670. I found that the larger ball I had ordered was a close fit but would slide down the barrel as long as teh sprue did not touch. I load these in paper cartridges using 50 grains of Goex 2f G.
I loaded the .648 bullets with the same poweder charge and generally a .010" lubricated patch. The balls would start easily enough but there was a constriction after the end two inches of bore and, thereafter, I had to pound the patched ball to full seat. On one occasion, the patch slipped around the ball and the ball fell on down onto the powder column. I packed wadding ont top of this load.
What was evident from the chronograph readings was that there was no significant difference in the loads whether patched ball, paper cartridge wrapped or simpled held down by wadding. The target results improved as I shot. I got a lot of dry fire practice as the geometry of this pistol defeats all attempts to get consistent ignition. The pan locks up and will not go forward enough to direct sparks in to the pan regardless of flint size or positioning.
The more centered hits took place during firing of the last five rounds (Paper Cartridges) I found that my best hits came when I pointed the barrel at the target, and then let my wrist break forward dipping the barrel. At this point, all I could really see was the breach screw at the back of the barrel. I pointed that just below the center scoring ring and got pretty good results.
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