Target Sports

BELGIAN PISTOL: THE REAL THING

Created on 14th May 2009

JOHN EMMERSON describes shooting with his Belgian percussion target pistol, which is over 170 years old

THIS PARTICULAR pistol is the one that started me shooting original pistols in the first place. I had been shooting MLAGB competitions with reproductions for about a year, under the guidance of my late friend and mentor, Colin Jackson. Hence, in 1998 I was ready to go to the next step with the originals.

For me, the logical step was a single-shot percussion. One or two of my friends in the Wakefield Rifle and Pistol Club had gone straight to revolvers, couldn't get on with them after cartridge pistols, and as a result gave up shooting. I find the single-shot pistol quite relaxing to shoot, as you have to get into a consistent rhythm to get results.

Money, as always, was an issue at the time. I simply couldn't afford the price being asked for some of those offered in the MLAGB circles. I was fortunate to have a good friend who happens to own Henry Kranks in Pudsey. Zoran, bless him, thought he saw potential in me. I can clearly remember him going upstairs, returning with this pistol, and pushing it across the counter to me. I told Zoran I couldn't afford it, but he insisted that I take it, and think about it. Bear in mind that this was an antique pistol, and at this time I wasn't sure I was going to be able to shoot it. As soon as I was sure, it went straight on my firearms certificate.

Having taken the beast home, I spent some time simply looking at it and measuring it. The bore had very strange and deep rifling. If you measured it inside the grooves it was over .50" in diameter. However it simply could not take a ball of that diameter. In the end I decided on a very thick patch and a .457" ball. So what would it go on my FAC as? I actually left that to the proof house to decide for me. The certificate I had returned to me said .44 cal bore, so that's what it has been ever since. Since we are on this point, it is relevant to point out that you don't have to have an antique pistol stamped with its proofing mark, thus defacing the pistol, rifle or whatever. Ask for a certificate, and that is what you get. Forget to ask, and they will stamp it, as happened to my Japanese matchlock! Mind you, it was done very sympathetically.

The bore itself did not look impressive on first inspection. It had not been fired in many a long year, and the rifling gave a good impression of a relief map of the Himalayas! It did not bode well as a shooting pistol. However, past experience has shown me that sometimes a rough bore does not affect accuracy. I remember a little .32 Harrington & Richards revolver I once had. I bought it for a fiver, it was so rough! First time out, it scored 93 on a standard target at 25m. The guy next to me had just spent over £1,000 on a Manhurin target revolver and couldn't hit the black!

So what about the sights? In all these original pistols, you will never get the perfect ISSF target sight picture. It's not allowed anyway! The foresight was very low on my pistol, but dovetailed: very useful. The rearsight itself was rather snug to the barrel, but a sight picture was obtainable. I tend to try to leave the original sights alone. It prevents scrutineers at international competition from disallowing them. I have since found out this does not always follow - there were so many different sight configurations made by these ancient gunmakers that some actually do not conform to MLAIC regulations.

However, it's not unheard of for a complete set of new sights to be made and installed which are legal, but very close to the perfect E. The barrel configuration was such that if you removed the wedge in the forestock, you still had to unscrew the rearmost screw on the barrel tang to remove the barrel. This was a bit annoying when hook breeches were common at the time, but I wasn't given the option. I gave the pistol a thorough take down clean and inspection before firing. All the moving parts were steamed to remove any residue and a new thin coating of oil put on all metal parts. I also put a good coating of boiled linseed oil onto the woodwork and left it to soak for a few days before cleaning off.

The first shoot

It's always a bit nerve-wracking when shooting a pistol which has been untouched for possibly over a century. However, I was confident the pistol could take the punishment as the barrel was suitably thick. Having settled on the patch and ball I only had the powder charge to think about. The old nipple was still serviceable, but would be replaced at the earliest opportunity. Number 11 caps were loose but worked fine. First of all I fired off a few caps to make sure that a spark was getting through.

It was! Always start with a low charge, and work up. In this case I wanted to make sure it would fire and function before I even thought about accuracy. So 10gn of Henry Kranks' fine was poured down the barrel. Getting the first patch and ball down onto the charge proved interesting. It took some hammering to seat it properly. The patch had been soaked in WD40 before loading. I put the cap on the nipple, and set the hammer to full cock. There was no set trigger on this beast. After obtaining the sight picture, the first shot was away! The report was a dull muffled thud, indicating too low a charge, but I knew that anyway. There was lots of smoke and, would you believe it, a hole at the very bottom of the target! Great! I had put the barrel vertically on the bench to facilitate my peek through the scope, and when I moved it I noticed a small pile of rust on my bench. So I tapped it against the bench and was rewarded with another pile of black particles. This made me thoroughly scrub the barrel again before the next shot. With the same load, it was easier to push down the patch and ball this time. The result was the same hole in the target and a pile of black particles.

Determined to continue, I kept going, raising the charge by 2gn increments as I progressed. By the time I got to 18gn, the black residue had stopped. There was a satisfying bang, and the shots were into the black on the target. A good scrub of the barrel showed that it had polished up a bit. Not much, but a little, and the patch and ball went down easily.

Now confident that this pistol was viable, I still couldn't afford it! I took it back to Zoran, put it on the counter, and told him so. He pushed it back at me again and told me to pay for it when I could afford it! Thank you Zoran, you are a star. The pistol promptly went on my firearms certificate. Then it went to Jack Truscott, the gunmaker at the Royal Armouries, where it was thoroughly checked out and sent for proofing. The certificate I received back showed a serial number I never knew existed, but it's definitely there now! Then there is the S/B on the certificate - I suppose that means smooth bore, which it certainly isn't.

International sporting equipment

This little pistol has since travelled the world with me. I have lost count of the competitions I have used it in since 1998. I may not have won any international medals with it, but it has been in the World or European top 10 quite a few times. If I do the business properly, this pistol, now over 170 years old, will put the ball smack in the centre of the target. The same load of 19gn of Swiss 2, a .20" patch, and a .457 ball still works. It doesn't forgive mistakes though, and yes, I still make careless shots which cost competitions. We all do. It's those who make the fewest mistakes on the day that win.

It doesn't look as nice as some of the pistols in use by the hundreds of top class competitors worldwide. However, I have tried other pistols since, but always go back to my faithful old Belgian target pistol. Honestly, it looks set for another 170 years!

BELGIAN PISTOL: THE REAL THING

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BELGIAN PISTOL: THE REAL THING

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