Hi all, I just picked up a 73cal/18mm howda double pistol.
http://www.geocities.com/idahobronco/howda.html
Anybody have any experience with pinfire cartiges?
The gun is still in transit. I intend to take a chamber cast when I get it to see what I can make brass out of. I want to shoot this old beast, not just hang it on a wall. I'd prefer not to modify an antique to center fire, but it might be a possiblility.
Any thoughts on ammo?
I'm thinking about starting with IMR 5010 for a low pressure round, then working down in burn rates with a full case until I get the desired velocity.

lar.

There was an article in one of my gun books quite a few (10?) years ago. I don't recall the book (Handloader's Digest? Shooter's Digest?) but the author was Darrel Dennis if that might help you find the article. The title was something like "Shooting my pinfire".

The article described making pinfire cartridges for a 12 or 20 ga shotgun (a fine British one, like Wesley Richards I think).

Hopefully, my post will jog the memory of someone else here who can fill in the name of the gun book.

jpb

I found a source for new 12 and 16ga pinfire hulls in the UK. I hope one of them fits.

73 Caliber IS 12 ga. (Nominal bore .729)

I have the artical in question. If you send me an e-mail address, I try to scan it for you.

DOC

Thanks Doc. e-mail sent.
I'm wondering about low pressure powders for this. Could I use pyrodex? is there any problems with small charges in a large case?
I'm also thinking about turning my own cases out of brass round bar. And leaveing the walls extra thick to help in the strength department. Maybe turn an inside step for the bullet to seat against. Maybe drill and tap a hole to take a large rifle primer with captive fireing pin that could be screwed out to load the primer. And a tapped plug on the other side to push the spent primer out. maybe this would eliminate blowby around the pin? I have a lathe and mill so I should be able to do it all at home. Time consumeing, but maybe worth it.

I picked up some high strength brass round stock today to make some cases out of. Now I just need some drill rod for fireing pins. AccurateArms said that their XMP5744 should work great in the howda. They said it's high bulk, easy to light, not sensitive to pressure, low or high, or powder position. they suggested starting at 40% case capacity and going from there. I've been jumping everytime a truck drives by thinking it's the UPS man with my delivery. The seller emailed me today that it just got shipped today.

waiting...................

My Howda showed up today. It's a 16bore x 1.6". I turned a couple of 50 BMG cases down on the lathe and drilled for a pin. I tried some no. 11 muzzle loader caps and they went pop everytime. Now I just have to make a 70 cal bullet mold and I'll be ready to shoot. This gun is in really great condition especially considering it's 156 years old. The action is very tight. and it feels great in my hand.
pics of my first attempt at cases here:
http://members.fortunecity.com/howda/howda.html

That is sure one impressive pistol.

You must be really hot to shoot it to go thru all the trouble to get something that will fire.

One of the gun magazines from 10 or 15 years back had an interesting article on those pistols. According to the article the gun manufacturer would use the same receiver as for their high quality double rifles and simply make the pistol at the same time.
They were talking about how terribly expensive those pistols are today, especially considering the fact that they cannot usually be fired without going thru quite a lot of stuff like you are doing.
If memory serves correct, the author ended up doing a couple of different test loads. One was a pure lead round ball pushed slightly into the case with a small load of black powder and some wadding. The second load was what was called a ball & shot and consisted of the full gage round ball on top with a number of 32 cal. round balls underneath.

I almost had a bullet mold made, but my boreing bar slipped while cutting the front driveing band. I cast a few anyway to see what they looked like. They came out at 810gns. I shot it tonight. I had one finished case and couldn't wait any longer. I stuffed one of my cast bullets ontop of 5 gns 700x and lit it off. the bullet bounced off of a wooden post. The velocity must have been real low. At least the bullet made it out of the barrel. I'll try makeing a portable loading setup to take to the range after I have several working cases to do my load developement at the range with chronoing. I did hit the bullseye one handed though. I need something to keep the pins from wandering out of the case. Maybe a drop of fingernail polish??