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Inherited Black Powder. Can't ID. Please help.

3K views 14 replies 6 participants last post by  Hawg 
#1 ·
Greetings.

#1 and most importantly, I do not know anything about black powder guns. I discovered this Hopkins and Allen Model 10 Black Powder pistol ( I think) in a cache of old firerams my wife inherited recently.

Can anyone help me determine what it is? It seems oldish, but not really. It has what seems to be a removeable shoulder stock, and it's a .45 cal.

I sure would appreciate any help.

Thanks in advance.

Shannon
 

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#5 · (Edited)
I was mostly jsut curious what the heck it was. I have never seen anything like it before.
It's a precussion pistol with a detachable shoulder stock. Of recent manufacture. And the trigger guard isn't inlet - a sign of poor quality. Also, the butt of the hand grip. The checkered stock doesn't match traditional pistols, but seems nicely done, possibly by machine. The engraving looks artificially old, compared to the rest of the piece.

Are those peep sights? If so, strange. Probably made overseas, perhaps in a third-world country? Pobably best to prop it up on the mantle, and enjoy its looks - or sell it for not too much. Collectors wouldn't find it particulary desirable. Sorry.
Doug
 
#11 ·
Well, I looked in my books: nothing.
Then I got online -- there's this marvelous device called The Internet. You put in keywords and it comes up with all kinds of suggestions!
The result: One other person with a H&A Model 10 asking for info about it. No photo posted so I don't know what it looked like.
Then in Auction Arms I found an H&A Model 10 offered in 2008. It sold for $135. The description was:

THIS AUCTION HAS BEEN RELISTED DUE TO DEAD BEAT BIDDER. THIS AUCTION IS FOR A HOPKINS AND ALLEN KENTUCKY PISTOL IN CALIBER 45 FOR BLACK POWDER ONLY. PISTOL IS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION,SEEMS TO FUNCTION FINE AND APPEARS TO BE NEW UNFIRED. I DON'T SEE ANY MARKS INDICATING IT WAS FIRED. IT HAS A 10 INCH FULL OCTOGON BARREL THAT IS EITHER STAINLESS OR NICKEL PLATED WITH A TINY BIT OF SURFACE RUST THAT WILL CLEANUP.TOP OF BARREL STAMPED MOD.10 HOPKINS AND ALLEN. LEFT SIDE STAMPED CAL.45 02561 AND BELOW THAT BLACK POWDER ONLY. HAS BLADE FRONT SIGHT AND V NOTCH REAR. RIGHT SIDE LOCK HAS BEAUTIFUL CASE COLORS. FEW SMALL DINGS AND SCRATCHES FROM STORAGE AND HANDLING. BRASS FURNITURE. ANOTHER ITEM FROM ESTATE OF "OLD TIMERS" GUNSHOP PERSONAL COLLECTION.

Dang, I wish people would learn to STOP TYPING IN ALL CAPS! EVERY STUDY FOR THE PAST 150 YEARS SHOWS IT IS AN IMPEDIMENT TO READING COMPREHENSION.

Anyway, I suspected your pistol was a home made job. Didn't look like anything I recalled H&A offering in the 1960s or 70s.
Don't know what it would be worth. Like many things, its value is what someone will pay for it.
 
#12 · (Edited)
I got online -- there's this marvelous device called The Internet.

Anyway, I suspected your pistol was a home made job. Didn't look like anything I recalled H&A offering in the 1960s or 70s.
Googling "Hopkins & Allen" ruturns quite a few hits. Based on timelines, the original H&A company was estabished in 1867 and went out of busness in 1917 or 1918. They manufactured low-cost cartridge revolvers, shotguns, and rifles - none of which are listed as cap (percussion). None of the models listed, that I found, are single-shot pistols like shown in this thread, and no original H&A Model 10 listing pops up.

If there were such H&A pistols built since 1917, then I suspect that they are ersatz, not even replicas. I can't imagine why this would be done. It would be like making an 1851 Navy revolver (or, an 1852? Navy), and labeling it J.C. Higgins. Very strange.

Were any single-shot, muzzleloading, percussion pistols manufactured, by any manufacturer, during the period 1867-1917?

I still wonder about the jagged, "artifically? old" lettering on the barrel. An original, even if a cheapo, shouldn't look like that. Neither should a decent replica, if that is what it is. I assume the bottom line of engravings says "For Blackpowder Only." Smokeless powder didn't come on the scene until the late 1880s.
Doug
 
#14 ·
Thank you all very much. This has been both interesting and considerably helpful. The wife and I are not really 'Road Show' get-rich-quickers so we weren't really thinking about trying to sell it, hoping all the while that we had inherited a mortgage buster. Mostly , like a lot of our non-savy friends, we enjoy the conversations it has ignited in the den.

I have never been one for diving head-long into a plate of crow so I sincerely appreciate the education. It has been refreshing to cross paths with nice people on this internet thing. It seemed to have gone to the dogs for a bit.
 
#15 ·
I did repost a pic on another forum but unfortunately he knew nothing about it. From what little bit I can find it probably started out as a Kentucky pistol that got revamped into a target pistol. It's a nice job but I doubt you'll get much for it. H&A's were never high end guns to start with.
 
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