Is This Pistol Real?

packerbacker · Aug 16, 2016

Found this pistol in a storage unit. Appears to be a smoothbore, cap and ball pistol of about 30 caliber. No numbers or anything, just "STEE_" on top. Has a very small trigger guard and trigger, possibly a youth model if real. Anyone got an idea? It does have a very strong hammer action on it.

DizzyDigger · Aug 17, 2016

Packer: Do nothing to it..leave it just as it is.

Take it to a righteous gun dealer or antique firearms dealer and find
out what it is, and what it's worth. There are types of that pistol that
are very, very rare, and command very high prices. Don't take a chance
on screwing yourself out of a retirement fund...leave as is and get it
appraised.

packerbacker · Aug 17, 2016

here are pics of the bottom and the opposite side of the gun if that helps. What looks like rivets on one side are actually screws from the opposite side.

NOLA_Ken · Aug 17, 2016

Looking at the lock and hammer..... The length of the lock plate, and the way the hammer strikes straight forward (inline with the barrel) rather than at a downward angle onto the nipple, it makes me wonder if it's not off of an old breech loading shotgun... That hammer would be better suited for striking a firing pin at that angle....

'm with Bosn' the way it's screwed together makes me thing it's not as old as it's trying to look. Also the checkering and carving in the wood isn't what I would expect from a decent gunsmith back then.

whatever it turns out to be, it's interesting for sure..

Breezie · Aug 17, 2016

Super neat find!

Breezie

releventchair · Aug 17, 2016

If breech plug is pinned, ( not impossible in either a working or nonworking piece) the plug is right up to the nipple.
I'd be patient and have a couple noted arms historians look at it.
Take care of it either way.
The wrist looks like a weak spot but is reinforced by strapping. May have an internal rod too.
Neat piece.

civil_war22 · Aug 17, 2016

Has the internal diameter of the barrel been checked? The whole gun to me looks off. In one instance I want to believe it's a Heinz 57 with any available part that will work and on the other I want to believe it was a kit. The designs on the handle are handmade, the barrel almost looks cut down from another gun and the plug area seems homemade

packerbacker · Aug 18, 2016

A standard, round pencil just fits snuggly inside the barrel. Not sure of what that diameter is but I'm "guessing" about a 30 cal.

Jason in Enid · Aug 18, 2016

packerbacker said:
A standard, round pencil just fits snuggly inside the barrel. Not sure of what that diameter is but I'm "guessing" about a 30 cal.

A pencil? Sounds more like a 22 cal.

gunsil · Aug 18, 2016

Anduril said:
USE A BRASS ROD IF YOU ATTEMPT THIS!
You don't want any unnecessary sparks inside the barrel when checking to see if the gun is loaded.
Better yet, use a plastic drinking straw.

The man said he can blow air down the barrel and it comes out of the cap hole. This means it is NOT loaded!! Looks cheaply made to me, maybe from India.

Fullstock · Aug 18, 2016

It looks like a middle eastern tourist gun, for display only.

hvacker · Aug 18, 2016

A pencil is about .30 of an inch so .30 cal. The pistol shows it's age. I'm surprised there are no
serial numbers. Maybe removing the stock might show something.
As far as checkering goes the gun shows little of the work of a master gun smith but that's
ok if it has historical value. Maybe a prototype
I like it..

I doubt Mideastern because of the letters and those guns are heavily embellished. Lots of brass
and fancy curves.
I look forward to what you find out.

civil_war22 · Aug 18, 2016

I would take it apart and look for any numbers at all. If they are authentic pieces and not homemade they would have numbers on them. I've got several old junk guns that I had no clue what they were till I took them apart and looked for numbers

relic lover · Aug 19, 2016

Looks a lot like an old flare pistol with some different Barrel put on it

tamrock · Aug 19, 2016

Some time ago I saw a percussion rife that look aged and distressed, kind of like this pistol. It had leather tightly wrapped on the but and brass tacks in patterns here and there. The barrel looked cut down also. The guy was selling it as and Indian rife. He pointed out to me some rings etched in the barrel and said they were put there as a marriage symbol. He also said it was purchased at an old trading post in New Mexico. I looked it over very well and noted to him the size of the trigger guard being so small that the trigger would be pushed back with just your finger pushing in and the trigger it's self was made of casted pot metal. I told him it was a complete fantasy piece constructed in a way to deceive. The bore was the size of a .410 and paper thin on the muzzle. He then went from talking it all up to a defensive mode telling me that's the story he was given to him. He also had some of the most perfect large and beautiful Clovis and Folsom arrow heads I've ever seen for sale and priced in the $300. to $1000. range that all looked way to good to be true. He's still in business in Utah as I just stopped by his place in Utah and he will have some real other antiques to check out, but his native American and old Western artifacts are complete fakes imo. I think he's a crook and knows it.

Gold Maven · Aug 20, 2016

hvacker said:
A pencil is about .30 of an inch so .30 cal. The pistol shows it's age. I'm surprised there are no
serial numbers. Maybe removing the stock might show something.
As far as checkering goes the gun shows little of the work of a master gun smith but that's
ok if it has historical value. Maybe a prototype
I like it..

I doubt Mideastern because of the letters and those guns are heavily embellished. Lots of brass
and fancy curves.
I look forward to what you find out.

I'm not going to measure a pencil, but when we were kids we made silencers for our 22s by sticking a pencil in the barrel and wrapping it with window screen. I thought the pencil fit snugly......

Warning: do not stick a pencil in your barrel, wrap it with window screen until it is flush with the barrel diameter, then wrap wider window screen around that so that it laps back on the barrel, notching for the front sight, and then wrapping it all in tape.
Do not do this, as it probably breaks a few laws.

nsdq · Aug 20, 2016

Gallery or parlor pistol

Breezie · Aug 20, 2016

I agree with nsdq in that it's a Gallery/Parlor gun. Actually I think it could be classified as a 19th century Flobert Gallery pistol. Here's some information I found on gallery pistols:

A gallery gun, Flobert gun, saloon gun, or parlor gun is a type of firearm designed for indoor shooting. These guns were first developed in 1845 when French inventor, Louis Nicolas Flobert, modified a percussion cap to hold a small lead bullet. Flobert modified the cap further by creating a rim at the edge so that the cap and bullet could fit in a chamber of a pistol. The round contained no powder and was designed to be a toy. In 1845 Flobert made what he called "parlor guns" for this cartridge; as these rifles and pistols were designed to be shot in indoor shooting parlors in large homes.

Parlor pistols came into fashion in the mid-19th century; they typically featured heavy barrels and were chambered in a small caliber. They were used for target shooting in homes with a dedicated parlor or gallery for this purpose.

Saloon guns were smooth bore weapons that fired a Flobert round,but can refer to a large caliber firearm that was made to shoot a smaller caliber round in indoor shooting galleries by use of a chamber insert called a Morris tube. The Morris tube was shaped to the cartridge that the weapon was capable of firing and inside this tube was a smaller chamber for the round (typically .255 Morris) to fit.

https://www.google.com/search?q=19t...9jdDOAhXHeCYKHV2-DP0Q_AUICCgB&biw=733&bih=416

Super neat find

Breezie