Make and model of this pistol.................

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ETipp

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Okay guys, I inherited this pistol from my dad when he passed away. I do not know what it is, nor where it came from. I am fairly certain it was a kit pistol. It appears to be a .32 caliber. Here's what I know.

The round balls that was with it are .310

I measured the cylinder and each chamber measured .312

The breach is .394

The muzzle measures .387.

The are no serial numbers on the pistol but there is some faint letters on the end of the grip. It appears to be made in Italy.

ML side view.jpgMuzzleloader picture.jpg
 
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Nice looking little pistol. Whatever it is.
Thanks. I mostly would like to know what it is. I tried shooting it and I it didn't seem to be very accurate. Perhaps there's some pointers I can get from someone that might help that out a bit. I really don't have much use for it. What I would like to have is a Great Plains/Patriot/ Trapper style, single shot in a .54 caliber to actually hunt with. A kit would be just fine. I think I saw a Traditions for $365.00.
 
It might be an Armi San Marco, 1860 colt repro.
Small caliber like that could be collectible.
If it's in good condition, you may get a couple hundred dollars for it.
 
It might be an Armi San Marco, 1860 colt repro.
Small caliber like that could be collectible.
If it's in good condition, you may get a couple hundred dollars for it.

Its not in great condition but fair I would say. The barrel is shiny clean, as with the chambers in the cylinder. No rust, just some wear on the rest of the pistol. It's kind of neat really. Small and fits the hand nicely. The timing seems to be okay best I can tell. I don't think its been fired all that much but it sure looks like its been carried some.

Edit: I have cleaned it up fairly well since the pictures were taken.
 
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Its not in great condition but fair I would say. The barrel is shiny clean, as with the chambers in the cylinder. No rust, just some wear on the rest of the pistol. It's kind of neat really. Small and fits the hand nicely. The timing seems to be okay best I can tell. I don't think its been fired all that much but it sure looks like its been carried some.
Could have been somebody's daily carry gun.
 
It's one of the very common reproduction Colt pistols made in Italy. This one made by PR and imported by FEI, from one online report I just read. A number of such pistols were made in Italy by various manufacturers with brass frames so as to be cheaper. Work OK with lighter loads and if not shot hundreds of times. Go online to Google and do a search for "PR and FEI and Italy", and start reading. Lots there, plus photos.
Appears from your photos that your gun has the original roll-stamped scene on the cylinder, but somebody has engraved the sides of the frame and the barrel. Maybe took off the markings and proof stamps to do the engraving. Simple engraving gives it a bit more value, tho brass frame repros are less valuable than steel frame. Maybe worth $150-175 instead of $100-120, I'd say.
To shoot a percussion revolver, provided it has a half-way decent trigger pull, use a common lead ball which hopefully is just large enough to shave a wee ring of lead off the ball as you press it into the cylinder, over about 10 grains volume of ordinary 3F black powder or Pyrodex P. An oversized lubed felt wad over the powder, say 36 cal. size, not only keeps the minimal fouling soft, but aids in gas seal for the ball. Put some ML lube or Crisco over the ball if you like, which also provides barrel lube. Little need for much lube with such a small powder charge tho. The lube is NOT to prevent "chain fire", which fact you can readily look up. Chain fire, which is rare, comes from loose or fallen-off percussion caps, so be sure you use the correct size caps for the pistol's nipples. They should fit snuggly and be rather hard to get off if not fired. May well be size 10 (smaller diameter) rather than size 11 as with most rifles and many pistols. But they DO need to press all the way down on the nipple by finger pressure or you will get misfires, only to fire on the second or third try as the cap is driven further down by the hammer fall.
Doing everything exactly the same every time is what gives pistol accuracy, and doing just that, plus shooting using both hands on a benched sandbag, will likely yield you surprising accuracy, even at 25 yds. Just squeeeeeeeeeze the trigger. But a little wind will readily blow round balls off the sighting spot.
Remember to never have your "helper" hand near or below the gap between cylinder and barrel. Always keep that hand rearward with any revolver, when shooting two-handed.
Aloha, Ka'imiloa
 
It's one of the very common reproduction Colt pistols made in Italy. This one made by PR and imported by FEI, from one online report I just read. A number of such pistols were made in Italy by various manufacturers with brass frames so as to be cheaper. Work OK with lighter loads and if not shot hundreds of times. Go online to Google and do a search for "PR and FEI and Italy", and start reading. Lots there, plus photos.
Appears from your photos that your gun has the original roll-stamped scene on the cylinder, but somebody has engraved the sides of the frame and the barrel. Maybe took off the markings and proof stamps to do the engraving. Simple engraving gives it a bit more value, tho brass frame repros are less valuable than steel frame. Maybe worth $150-175 instead of $100-120, I'd say.
To shoot a percussion revolver, provided it has a half-way decent trigger pull, use a common lead ball which hopefully is just large enough to shave a wee ring of lead off the ball as you press it into the cylinder, over about 10 grains volume of ordinary 3F black powder or Pyrodex P. An oversized lubed felt wad over the powder, say 36 cal. size, not only keeps the minimal fouling soft, but aids in gas seal for the ball. Put some ML lube or Crisco over the ball if you like, which also provides barrel lube. Little need for much lube with such a small powder charge tho. The lube is NOT to prevent "chain fire", which fact you can readily look up. Chain fire, which is rare, comes from loose or fallen-off percussion caps, so be sure you use the correct size caps for the pistol's nipples. They should fit snuggly and be rather hard to get off if not fired. May well be size 10 (smaller diameter) rather than size 11 as with most rifles and many pistols. But they DO need to press all the way down on the nipple by finger pressure or you will get misfires, only to fire on the second or third try as the cap is driven further down by the hammer fall.
Doing everything exactly the same every time is what gives pistol accuracy, and doing just that, plus shooting using both hands on a benched sandbag, will likely yield you surprising accuracy, even at 25 yds. Just squeeeeeeeeeze the trigger. But a little wind will readily blow round balls off the sighting spot.
Remember to never have your "helper" hand near or below the gap between cylinder and barrel. Always keep that hand rearward with any revolver, when shooting two-handed.
Aloha, Ka'imiloa

Thank you for the information. It helps.

The ball fits very loosely in each cylinder. As in I can drop one in and it will fall to the back of the chamber. IMO that appears to be too loose.
 
Thank you for the information. It helps.

The ball fits very loosely in each cylinder. As in I can drop one in and it will fall to the back of the chamber. IMO that appears to be too loose.
Yeah thats too loose. Like Ka’imiloa said, it should trim a thin ring of lead when you press the ball into the cylinder. Maybe try some .32 balls?
 
Yeah thats too loose. Like Ka’imiloa said, it should trim a thin ring of lead when you press the ball into the cylinder. Maybe try some .32 balls?
Another problem: sometimes ordinary buckshot is packaged and sold as ML balls. It not only may not be large enough for the grooves of the barrel, it is slightly harder lead alloy than pure lead commercial balls. You are going to get little or no "obturation" (enlargement of ball or bullet's diameter at moment of firing, due to pressure of near-instant powder burn). Obturation is a great boon of BP's characteristics in particular. It likely won't occur much or at all with a small BP charge like your pistol uses, so that makes a ball that fits the groove size of the barrel all the more essential. No ball or bullet is perfect, so spin from the rifling overcomes that imbalance issue.
With your undersized ball, you were shooting the equivalent of a smoothbore, since the ball could not grip the rifling at all! Guarantee of poor accuracy.
A lead ball which shaves a small ring of lead at loading into the cylinder provides a slight "flat" around the ball perimeter which aids the rifling in seizing it, and also provides a tight friction fit so the ball(s) do not move forward in the cylinder when one cylinder is fired, due to recoil. Again, not so much of a problem with your small powder charge.
Aloha, Ka'imiloa
 
Yeah thats too loose. Like Ka’imiloa said, it should trim a thin ring of lead when you press the ball into the cylinder. Maybe try some .32 balls?

If I did that then according to my measurements it would appear to be too tight for the barrel. When I place a .310 round ball on the muzzle, it already appears to be too small for the bore. However, I reckon I could try to find some 32 caliber RB and see. I know one thing, I do not think a RB should roll to the bottom (rear) of a cylinder when placed by hand. IMO that begs the error of a misaligned projectile entering the breech end, which would degrade accuracy, yes?
 
Yes it might degrade accuracy, but your gun will have a forcing cone at the rear, but it will for sure not seal in the cylinder when ignition begins. I dont think RBs obturate very much , thats why the cone in the breech end. You could search for balls or a mold in .314 to .316 but a .32 ball would fit tightly going into the cylinder and get made to the correct size to fit into the forcing cone in the barrel where it will grab the rifling and start its spinning. Maybe the .32 will be too tight. Idk how easily you’ll find the round balls that are slightly bigger than .312.
 
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