Richardson Boot Pistols

[Davidwhitewolf]

Just ordered a pair of these. Should be fun. Cheap at less than $50 apiece if you spend some time shopping around online. Black powder, takes a #11 cap, shoots .36 ball. Modern steel-and-brass construction, 5 1/2" screw-off barrel like the originals.

Seems like an inexpensive way to check out the world of black-powder pistols.







Pics are from this seller. He wants more than $50, but not much.

Opinions? Anybody shot one of these before?

[jeffsenpai]

Those look awesome. I may have to buy one, or two. Hope the indoor range allows em!

[pullnshoot25]

Even cheaper here

http://www.southernohiogun.com/nondeal.htm

[MikeH1]

pure junk

hate to break it to ya, but I bought one from SOG, it's purely for display. Too bad they don't mention that fact. Takes about 3 or 4 caps for it to actually shoot, that is if the caps even go off. I sent it back to the manufacturer, Navy Arms, and all they did was grind down the cap nipple, which was useless. I still can't believe they sent it back to me without testing the damned thing! Navy Arms supposedly has a good reputation when it comes to black powder arms, but this gun was a complete joke! I eventually returned it to SOG for a complete refund.

A good black powder firearm will cost at least $150, $50 don't cut it. (Something I too learned the hard way.)

I've now got a supply of caps, powder and 36 cal shot, which I'll probably never use

[scrat]

Really.

Sounds like you got a bad gun. They actually shoot very good. Here are some of my BP guns. Wow what a blast to shoot.





The Big one is a WALKER. The Walker is the biggest bp handgun ever made. If you were to put it next to a smith and wesson 500. They are about the same size. It was designed to shoot 60 grains of black powder with a .454 round ball. I have a conversion cylinder for this one. Where i just take out the cylinder. Replace it with a cartridge cylinder and shoot 45 Colt through it. All the other guns are .44's shooting 30 grains of black powder. They are extremely accurate, make a lot of smoke and are loud as heck. Everyone stops to see what your shooting. Especially when you take out Mr. Walker

Oh the gun is 15 1/2 inches long and weighs 4 1/2 lbs empty

[Davidwhitewolf]

Mike,

That's distressing. Since I have two coming, I will be sure to test both ASAP once they arrive and will report back here on the results. Hopefully yours was an aberration.

[jeffsenpai]

scrat - so do you own the boot pistol - It wasn't in any of your pics?

Davidwhitewolf - Please do report once you get yours, I really want to "pull the trigger" and get one of these at least, they look really neat. But I want it to at least function!

[MikeH1]

a friend used to participate in Civil War reenactments at Ft. Tejon years ago, and I got to shoot some of his weapons, both revolvers and long guns. I thought the boot pistol would be an inexpensive introduction to black powder arms.

Hopefully you have better luck with this gun. The main problem on the one I had is that the hammer wouldn't hit the cap squarely, it would hit it at an angle, as if the nipple was too tall. What really turned me off was that Navy Arms couldn't even fix their own gun.

[MikeH1]

Mike,

That's distressing. Since I have two coming, I will be sure to test both ASAP once they arrive and will report back here on the results. Hopefully yours was an aberration.

definitely let us know, if you would. I'd still like to get some kind of BP gun, and you can't beat that price. Besides I still have all the accessories, I even made a "paddle" to load the patches and the balls.