Tingle Mfg. Co. (Bob Tingle was owner, gun designer, and gun builder. He died in 1978 and the Co. closed down).
Made circa late 1970s, a .40 CAL inline BP single shot pistol.
LGS owner thought the trigger compression might be < 1 lb.
Being sold with a range rod, carry case, and two extra custom-made nips.
Priced @ $450
I've not seen a pistol build like this before; kind of hard to describe. The wood grip has a partial look of a TC Contender. But it also has a quite large round base --- looks like the pistol could almost stand up by itself. When you hold it, the bottom of your hand rests completely and snugly on the base, making the hold incredibly stable.
The firing system is harder to describe. For those familiar with the bolt action on top of a Mark IV pistol, you pull back a round knob at the grip end of the pistol in the same way. This opens up/locks the chamber area. Here you can access the nip to place on your cap. Then you muzzle-load powder, round ball, whatever needed to fire this ML. The owner told me that when needing to clean this pistol, dis-assembly allows you to get it to a completely open bore allowing a ram rod and jag to go all the way through it.
Enough said....my description is probably as clear as BP smoke hanging in the air!
Just curious, if this a specialty single-shot BP pistol? Has anyone ever heard of it? Based on its appearance and operation, I would guess it might be. PT7
