Agreed. We have our old family place on the lake, hence my Forum name (backward). 300 yards to a natural hillside backstop is all that may be managed there presently. Would take a dozer to take it to perhaps 600 yards or so.

I've shot at that hillside since I was a kid in the late 1960s with .22 Shorts to .458 Winchester Magnum and just about everything in between that either I, cousins, or our buds brought out.

I just will not deal with public ranges. Am not even interested in crowded private club ranges. I either shoot at an infrequented local gun club range three minutes from my house or else out at the lake. If I had to utilize public ranges or, worse and worse, wretched indoor ranges, I'd retire my shooting sports hobby and concentrate on coin collecting or ... watch collecting.

 

I am lucky that I live near a lake that I can go and shoot at and thereby avoid the range and other people, I'm also lucky that I can shoot up to about 700 yards there.

 

You are correct, Sir! An Astra for sure. I've had so many Star brand pistols over the years I think Spain and Star. This is my only Astra. It shoots great.

Star is a great brand. But none of the Spanish commercial guns are particularly well finished, but what's great about Spanish guns is they are all proof tested by the govt, so there is a functional quality level they must adhere to.

 

Yeah, but "well finished" is a relative term. Back in the "olden days" some of the Astras were quite nice, especially when compared with the "fit and finish" of the run-of-the-mill plastique-fantastique pistolas of today.

https://pre98.com/shop/mon-12-9-lovely-1944-nazi-issued-astra-model-600-pistol-very-crisp-example/

I know. I'm a geezer. I'll go get back in my old fogy corner now.

 

That is a work of art. I think I would be afraid to shoot it, as it is so beautiful. Probably could handle many calibers though. Where can a rifle enthusiast find such a work of art?

 

I love my watches, but for fifty years I have also been a collector of antique firearms. This pair of duelling pistols is from 1793 - made by Robert Wogdon for his son-in-law William Butt, whose crest and initials are inlaid in silver behind the tangs. They are described in detail at pages 178 and 179 of the new book on Robert Wogdon published by Bonhams, London, in 2019.

 

OOOooo... those are gorgeous lindo!

Thanks for the good photographs.

 

Oh my, those are nice. Wow!

 

My older brother had a Spanish .32 ACP pocket auto that looked like a PPK but was a single action rather than double action. The closest I could find in appearance was the Astra Constable.
It had an alloy frame and weighed next to nothing. Firing it was a surprise, it kicked worse than anything I'd fired before.
It was uncommonly accurate.
The bullets kicked huge holes in a clay bank. I suspect the cartridges we had were some hot loaded milsurp stuff.

 

As a member from Europe, this is a weird place of this forum

 

Lindo, I have a feeling we're going to see a lot more of you on this thread.....welcome.

 

That's only because all of your rights to bear arms as a God given right have been taken away from you. Welcome to the free world.

 

Wow Lindo those are truly gorgeous. I'd call dibs but I know I could never afford those.

 

definitely ain't getting those in an ankle holster
They are a work of art

 

This is probably a question of incredible ignorance but, can those pistols be fired and if so, have you?

 

It is a fair question, as collectors of antique firearms want them to be in full working order, just as they were made. Some eminent collectors of early firearms (such as W Keith Neal in the UK) were well known for taking favourite pieces out and using them in the field.
However there is a real risk for two hundred year old arms. Case hardened cocks and frizzens sometimes break. When that happens, it is almost impossible to restore them without it being obvious to an expert eye, and that diminishes their value simply because they are no longer exactly as originally made.
For that reason I have not fired any of my flintlocks.
An interesting point about Robert Wogdon's duelling pistols is that each pair were made specifically for the person who ordered them. They were fitted to the client's hand, which means that each pair is different when you pick them up. I have owned quite a few, and handled more, and it was rare to find a pair that felt the same (other than they all have superb balance).
I have an early pair that sit in my hand as though they were made for me alone. Picking them up is like deja vu.

 

I have a rather respectable collection of early firearms, and I agree that functional is king. All of mine are functional, and none of them are fired by me, as much as I would like too. Except my reason is a little different than Lindo. All of mine are perfectly and utterly pristine clean. If anyone has fired a blackpowder gun you know that blackpowder is one of the nastiest substances on the planet. The smoke cloud it produces covers everything when fired, including the shooter. It is also corrosive and every part needs to be thoroughly cleaned and neutralized.

I'm not as worried about breaking a part when firing, but rather unintended consequences taking it apart to clean it as thoroughly as it would need to be done to continue to survive on in best condition.

Its one of the reasons so few of these historic items survive. Not just obsoletion and subsequent reclamation, but wear out(soft iron), consumption(corrosion), and loss of irreplaceable parts.

I, for one, don't want to be the reason for the loss of another great piece of history.

 

In the James Fenimore Cooper Novel "The Deer Slayer" theres a part where Natty Bumpo and a friend are going through an old trunk looking for weapons.
They find a very finely made engraved brace of dueling pistols. The pistols had been left loaded for years.
They decide to test fire the old guns and one blows up in their face.
They wrap the pistols up again and put them back in the trunk.
The odd part is that many years after reading this I found images of a brace of pistols that had belonged to George Washington, these having been stolen and later recovered. The description of the pistols in the story exactly matched the Washington guns, and one of them was blown up in exactly the same way as the pistol in the story.

Cooper is believed to have drawn on stories told him by an elderly pioneer. I've wondered if the old man might have been in on the theft of the pistols when he was a youngster.

 

sorry for the late reply, down here in south Texas we own two large ranches and have private ranges at both. i absolutely avoid public ranges like the plague due to safety concerns, absurd range rules, and couch commandos. I'd much rather be on my own land and be able to train as i please, have a full 360 degree range, and be able to stretch out to 1K yds if i feel like playing with my bolt guns

 

These would have been a fine quality pair of pistols from the 1770s. However they are not real duelling pistols: they do not have rollers on the frizzen or frizzen spring; they do not have a rear sight; and they do not appear to have a set trigger. Of course they may well have been used in a duel, but the combination of brass barrels and locks, with silver mounts, indicates that they were made for a gentleman needing good pistols for hard conditions - exactly as you would expect George Washington to own.

Thanks for sharing them.