Show us your ball butt.... pistol

[rickystl]

Merry Christmas to ALL that celebrate the Holiday.

Hi Kubur. Hope all has been well for you.

I've never been able to locate one of these interesting ball-butt Balkan pistols for my collection. At least not at a reasonable price.
I think the ball-butt is somewhat a carry over feature from the wheellock era.
It would facilitate the hand grip draw from the holster on the horse saddle, and double as a club. And they all seemed built with no trigger guard.

Very seldom have I seen any Balkan style pistol that did not include a barrel band(s). The ones that were pin fastened also appeared to European made pistols for export to the Eastern markets.

Many of these pistols show up with barrel bands from different areas of the region. And many of the bands are later, period replacements - or just newer made 20th Century replacements. Although I have seen them done with very thin wire, usually brass or silver.
It's not too difficult to make a plain barrel band from a sheet of steel, brass, or silver. But most "sheet" material is too thick and difficult to bend and work with. Search for "shim" material. About 0.2032mm is good.

Material for missing inlays: Pearl is easiest to obtain. Supply house for musical instruments (guitars) have many shapes and sizes that can be files to fit. Or just blank sheets.
Bone, even genuine camel bone can be had from suppliers for custom knife making. The bone can be cut to shape and submerged in tea where it will begin to take an aged appearance.
Colored stone type inlays would be more difficult to locate material. While colored glass or even solid colored plastic is available, neither would look right. Of course, genuine semi-precious stones shaped and polished would work, the cost would be too great. I would be looking to find the approximate size red colored beads (not see-through glass) and cut/shape to size.

Net looking pistols !!

Rick

[Kubur]

Originally Posted by rickystl

Merry Christmas to ALL that celebrate the Holiday.

Hi Kubur. Hope all has been well for you.

I think the ball-butt is somewhat a carry over feature from the wheellock era.

Rick

Hi Rick,
Still alive. I hope that you are fine too and happy new year!

Yes you are right these pistols are from the wheellock era, like the Caucasians ones.

Originally Posted by rickystl

Very seldom have I seen any Balkan style pistol that did not include a barrel band(s). The ones that were pin fastened also appeared to European made pistols for export to the Eastern markets.

Rick

well for the ball butts it's normal as they are Turkish and not from the Balkans...

[corrado26]

....and here I add some fotos of another one with ballbutt and a fantasy gunmaker's signature on the lockplate

[Kubur]

Originally Posted by corrado26

....and here I add some fotos of another one with ballbutt and a fantasy gunmaker's signature on the lockplate

It's the first time that I see a ballbutt with a trigger guard...

I have another ballbutt with glass inlays and barrel band...

[qusko]

Rick, Kubur,

Thanks for your replies! Adding for others some new pictures I've found.

[qusko]

Plus some more ..

[Jim McDougall]

These are amazing pistols, and I just wanted to add an example of mine which is of course Caucasian, but most probably a Liege product, mid 19th c.
Pretty simple.

[Kubur]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

These are amazing pistols, and I just wanted to add an example of mine which is of course Caucasian, but most probably a Liege product, mid 19th c.
Pretty simple.

Hi Jim,
Is this your secret garden? I was thinking that you were obsessed by swords only... I'm sure that Rick will comment the lock and the barrel better than me. Very nice pistol
Best wishes

[cyten]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

These are amazing pistols, and I just wanted to add an example of mine which is of course Caucasian, but most probably a Liege product, mid 19th c.
Pretty simple.

I once discussed with noted Russian Arms collector, Joe Leiper (RIP) about these and he told me:

"1849 Cossack percussion pistol
Пистолет обр 1849г
Probably the most commonly seen Russian pistol from this period is the Liege manufactured 6 line Cossack Pistol. These were a purchased weapon made in Belgium and most have the Perron Tower mark of Liege on the side of the barrel (established 1853?). Some additionally have a Crown ‘V’ mark as well.

Almost never Russian marked, supposedly delivered for the Crimean war
Rifled, Caliber .60 land to land, 4 groove rifled .20 depth grooves (.640) diameter bore
Liege proof, crown ‘V’, Peron tower mark

Reported production is 2000 pistols, but too many of these are seen for this to be true."