Thanks for the compliments!!
buzz, I originally planned to rifle the barrel, but decided against it as a cost saving measure. I've got to sell this thing, as building such works is how I make a (meager) living. As it is such an enormous build, the price I need for it is rather high. The barrel rifling and other decorations that I had originally planned, I decided to forgo, to keep the selling price from being astronomical. However, if the future buyer wishes for the barrel to be rifled and/or other work added to the piece, there is no reason why I couldn't do more to it at a later time.
I was firing it at a 1 x 10 pine board from 25 feet. I had no problem hitting the board at that distance. My original plan included rudimentary sights, but these too I left out of the final project. The round barrel provides a decent sighting plane, by lining up the top center of the barrel with the target. It certainly would be a dangerous thing to have fired at you, out to about 50 feet. This is within the expected distance that such a weapon would be used. The 26 grain FFF load easily put a ball through the pine board.
Pete, combination weapons were quite common, back when firearms were single shot. They were made in every part of the world. There were guns with blades attached. And blades with small guns attached; every combination possible. Some of these pieces were originally built as a combination weapon; many were constructed by adding a blade, or gun, to the item later. I'm a bit surprised that you found none in the museums, as I know that the Belgians and French were well known for building them. There is a book titled "Blades and Barrels". It was written by H. Gordon Frost. The publisher; Walloon Press. The book is out of print and rather hard to find. The book has hundreds of pictures and descriptions of combination weapons.
My intention with learning to make damascus barrels was so that I could get into making combination weapons and have something original to my work. I've got a couple of knifemaker friends who make combination weapons and they have found a strong market for them. These guys have made some incredible pieces. I knew that if I didn't enter this field with a build that was a bit over the top, there was the possibility that no one would even notice what I had made. So, I built something that my knifemaker friends would have difficulty building themselves. I fully intend to continue making combination weapons and will install damascus barrels on each of them.
