The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

I have found a guy that is selling 2 EIG-Japan flint lock pistols. He said they are wall hangers but could be fixed up to shoot. He is asking $60 each and it is about 90 min drive to go see them in person so wondering if anyone if the EIG are junk or even something I should think about. I have asked for pics I can post them when I get them if it makes it easier.

More info- I am assuming (we all know where that goes...) they are Tower -type Flintlocks made in Japan in the 60's or 70's for the US. If the "fixed up to shoot" part is minor, yeah $60 each is OK. If they are tourist trade crap made for walls, I'd pass.

Here are the pics I got. They look like real working pistols but any way to tell them from wall hangers with out driving down and looking down the barrel?

Not sure. One looks like a non firing model

Without looking down the barrels, I can say they look like shooters, though I can't see the flashole very well on the Colonial, and not at all on the Tower gun. The resolution on the Colonials pic is bad, and the angle on the Tower's pic doesn't show it's flash hole at all. I'd meet f-2-f and bring a bore light. If the flash holes are drilled through, and the bore go all the way to the breech, they are good to go! NIce brace of flitlocks for $120!
The parts are all of the quality of say a Jukar/Spain gun; good, but not Pietta.

I know these well, and they are in all probability decorators. In the 70's Japan was flooding the market with these, they all look similar, but were made to order for the US importers. Some were intended for decoration, some for shooting, and even these were known for soft frizzens that would not harden, terrible lock geometry, and shit quality control. I have one of the best of them, and it's not far removed from the other one i have that is a decorator. I see poor fools paying over $125 for these on gunbroker, they are a $40-$60 decorator, stage prop, kids toy, they are not worth the effort involved in turning them into shooters. If you want a nice flint pistol I would suggest the Pedersoli Kentucky pistol, Dixie Gun works has them.

With Tower pistols you can't go by the touch hole because they were often drilled on the decorators because they tended to use the same barrels for shooter and decorator, it was the wood quality hat slipped and the lock construction that went down for the decoration pistols. My decorator has a drilled touch hole, but a lock that would never spark, weak springs, poor castings, and a frizzen they will not sit tight on the pan.

Bottom two pistols are Japanese tower's, lower one is the shooter, upper one is the decorator, from a distance they look pretty much the same.

This is the shooter, note the heavy hex shaped barrel, the sight bead, and it has a well fitted lock.



It fired 40 rounds before the frizzen wore out, and this is the best of these that the Japanese made, Knowing the crap steel in that frizzen I shelved it rather than bother trying to reharden it, it was unfired before I got it.

If they are $60 each, they are probably a reason for that. I don't own any Japanese muzzle loaders.

Something about a quality flintlock that is well worth it. Look for the Italy mark on them. Most of them are good reproductions like Pendersoli




The one's you have pictured above will do OK....for at least one round!

The Spanish pistols were better, they made some for decoration also, but at least they can be seen as such right off, cast metal parts and so on, no touch holes. The Jukar's I have seen had good frizzens on them, sparked well, CVA sold thousands of them and they turn up on the auction sites for a little over a hundred bucks sometimes. Today the Italian made pistols are the best you will find in the under $1000 price range.

Thanks for the feedback. I was hoping they would be shooters but I was afraid they where just wall hangers. For $120 I don't want wall hangers, for $60-80 I would take some wall hangers.

I asked the seller to confirm they are shooters not wall hangers and he told me they where sold. so they where wall hangers and he didn't want me to ask the question or or someone didn't know the full info on them.

Good, somebody who is not you got screwed, good for you, bad for them, but they could have done their homework like you did and not had this happen to them. Or maybe they just needed stage props.

I am going through the black powder threads that I missed, and this one got me to thinking about a flintlock Thompson Center rifle like the Hawken and Renegade. Not historical replica models, but they are good American made quality rifles that should be good doubters, but I don't know anyone who has had one. I have seen them go quite reasonable at times. Just awhile back I saw flintlock Renegade go for about 200.00. TC never made any pistols that I am aware of.

I have seen flinter Spanish made Hawken pistols, every now and then one turns up. I have the Pedersoli flint Kentucky, and the Harpers Ferry. Of the two the Kentucky is easier to deal with, not Pedersoli's fault with the Harpers, they did a faithful copy and the repop has all the built in faults of the original, and that includes crappy lock geometry that always has me fooling around trying to find the exact fit flint so it will scrape the frizzen properly. The Kentucky was Pedersolis own design, not a copy of anything specific so everything works well. The Japanese pistols are crap, even the better ones are, the locks are crap, the frizzens are always on the soft side even when they were built as shooters. You can fix them by replacing lock and frizzen with something quality made, but then you spend twice what the gun is worth. Traditions makes nice flinters, but they are not cheap.

I'm still looking for some flint lock pistols but nothing has come up yet. I did see some kits on dixie gun works for a little under $200. Might pick up one to play with but not sure.

The Pedersoli Flint Kentucky pistol is available from Dixie Gun Works.