1871 Army pistol in 25-20 single shot?

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Rick Brown
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2023 10:25 pm

1871 Army pistol in 25-20 single shot?

Post by Rick Brown »

New member in Little Rock AR.
I own an 1866 patent single shot rolling block pistol.
Barrel is 11" long marked "A.O. Zischang Syracuse NY"
Caliber is 25-20 single shot.
Was this one of the pistols manufactured as a silhouette/target gun around 1910?
There is no rear adjustable sight. Just the groove in the rolling block.
Any way to find out any other history on the pistol?
aardq
Posts: 439
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2005 1:02 pm

Re: 1871 Army pistol in 25-20 single shot?

Post by aardq »

Hi Rick,

Welcome to the RSA forum. The first thing that you should be aware of is that all RB pistol receivers were made by 1888, when R Remington & Sons was sold due to bankruptcy. Any RB pistols made after that were assembled from parts by the Remington Arms Company. Also, many gunsmiths made pistols on RB frames.

An internet search revels that August Oscar Zischang made custom, precision, single shot rifles in Syracuse NY from 1879 to 1925. There is no way to know if your pistol was built by him, or just has one of his barrels. It is possible that one of Zischang's rifle barrels was cut down to make your pistol. A photo of a RB pistol that he made from a #4 rifle is on page 266 of Jerry Landskron’s book on Rolling Block pistols. This gun at first look appears to be an Army frame, but the text claims that it was made from a rifle. This opens up more possibilities for the origin of your pistol. It may be possible that your pistol was made from a rifle. Without some kind of documentation, you will never know, but it can be fun to speculate. Sorry that I could find more info for you.

Enjoy your pistol for what it is,
Daniel
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