I was recently "commissioned" to clean this old antique single shot handgun. It is finely engraved, in excellent condition, and is hand engraved on the top of the receiver "London" and some other name I can't remember. By the markings and the type of gun, I would estimate it's year of manufacture from the 1840's-late 1850's.
Well, I cleaned her up real good, (didn't need much) then......... my devilish brain kicked into hi gear. I got the micrometer out, took some measurements, then found a half dozen conical bullets of .375 diameter. I measured out 20 grains of FFF black, dumped her down, seated the bullet, primer her up and blasted away.
I held my head away from it on the first shot but after that, I needed to "experiment". Sure was glad that several thousand dollar pistol that does not belong to me, did not blow up! (Hey, lifes not worth living without some good excitement now and then )I even got the chronograph out. The bullets weighed 90 grains and two shots chronographed at 640 fps and 607 fps. This works out to about 80 f.p. of energy, or slightly less than a .32 auto. I still would not want to be hit by it. In the old days, people died from infection of such little rounds.
Anyway, here's a few pics.
Gun and stuff
,gun and conical bullet,
,Look at that deep rifling!
,me shooting at long distance!,
,Chronographing the load,
,The "group" from about 10 feet away! I did get two real close together. The lead bullets did make an indentation on the hard wood about 3/8" of an inch, then bounced off. One of them winged past my head. (don't try this at home, unless your slightly unbalanced)
--------------------------------------------------------Sixgun
Nothing warms my heart more than seeing a guy wearing an M4 T-shirt shoot a 150 y.o. gun. Great post!
Sometimes ya just gotta go ahead and do something that isn't quite kosher just to experience the pleasure of the event. Wish I'd been there with you. 