Original German text by Klaus -Peter Koenig
Translated into English by Donald R. Livingstone


Andreas Baumkircher's Billinghurst Pistol

Summary:

The percussion-pistol technology reached its high-point with the Underhammer pistols. Andreas Baumkircher, an Austrian who resides in Switzerland, has reproduced an Underhammer pistol of the American gunsmith William Billinghurst who was active in the last century. Like the original, the reproduction has also become a masterpiece.

Article:

Underhammer weapons symbolize the high technology of the muzzleloader era. Although this method of percussion ignition has never fully propagated (while it was emerging, the trend was already headed in the direction of weapons using ammunition from metal cartridges), I do not hesitate to regard the Underhammer system as the high-point of muzzleloader development. The justification lies in the technical advantages of the system.

Underhammer means, very simply, that the hammer strikes against the nipple from below and the detonation takes place instantly and directly in the powder charge without any angular detour, which results in a faster discharge. A further positive aspect is that such systems get by with fewer individual parts than the conventional percussion-breech system. Through a timely emergence of the Underhammer concept, the production costs could have been reduced considerably. Fewer parts, moreover, results in less movement within the breech, less friction from the parts rubbing against each other and a shorter time-interval between the trigger release and the departure of the ball from the muzzle.

There has actually been a wide variation within the Underhammer weapons group itself. One could consider the Danish-produced M 1841 military weapon made according to the Löbnitz system, which was loaded through the muzzle like a traditional muzzle-loader. The M 1841 carbine, using the same system, incorporated a further development, which, being a chamber-loader, could no longer be loaded through the muzzle, but from behind by means of a collapsible swivel-chamber. The hammer of both weapons was formed as a gripable ring, whose release resulted from pressure on the rearward spring integrated in the massive trigger-guard, which in this case functioned as a trigger-post. They built carbine-revolvers in the USA using an Underhammer with a seven-shot drum rotating about the horizontal-axis, as well as multi-barreled hunting weapons, whose two upper barrels, laying side-by-side, were detonated respectively by hammers positioned on the side, the Underhammer positioned underneath provided the detonation for the shot or ball-barrel centered beneath the upper two. This works without the weapon becoming too weighty in the breech-section, and exactly that is another of the advantages of the underhammer system: it can be fabricated very small, almost delicate, needs little space and has only a few parts.

The Billinghurst pistol, replicated through the precision handwork of Andreas Baumkircher, shows clearly how small one can hold the breech-section and still guarantee a reliable as well as recoilless detonation. Depending upon the designer, the hammer, which is positioned on the under-side of the barrel, will be driven from a covered spring fastened to the trigger plate. For this purpose a simple laminated spring is sufficient, a smaller laminated spring provides for the engagement of the trigger on the striker notch, which is built into the hammer, a dedicated security notch is not normally found. The Billinghurst pistol goes in still another direction, in which the trigger-guard serves, simultaneously, as the mainspring for


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