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The Patriot Pistol by Zylab. The Patriot Pistol Homepage has now been discontinued. Abatron informed me 29th November 2007...." the manufacture of the .32 Patriot muzzle loading pistol has recently been suspended prior to its being replaced with a 2nd generation model that Zylab has been developing along the lines of the original patented design principles. The new muzzle loading pistol will only be available in .38 calibre but it will have much wider target shooting applications, not only for the Centrefire discipline but also for PP1, PP2, Service Pistol, The 1500 and some Practical Pistol events. The 2nd generation Patriot will be on sale to suitably qualified pistoleers in the early part of 2008 and announcements will be made in the shooting journals."

PDF User Guide for .32 Patriot

I had been looking at this model since February 05 when I read the review in Target Sports magazine. I took the plunge and bought one in May 2006.

The Patriot Pistol looks like a 5 shot ISSF air pistol with its transverse "harmonica" magazine, except that it shoots gas-checked .32 wadcutters using Bullseye! It isn't semi-auto though, it has to be manually cranked for every shot. The pistol is made in the Czech Republic by the Moravian Arms Company. It comes with two five shot loading blocks/ magazines, (6 shot now available April 2007) its own loading press for the loading block, a dedicated powder dispenser which delivers exactly the correct charge, an adapted Lee hand priming tool for priming the loading blocks and a kinetic bullet remover for when a primer fails to do its stuff or you forget to put the powder in.

It is a little bit more expensive than buying a revolver and having an extra cylinder made, but it takes you right back to the ISSF competition days! The grips are well made, medium size only, palm shelf not adjustable. A left hand grip has recently become available, although the Patriot website doesn't mention this. An ambidextrous grip is a possibility. (For CLUBS only, Jim Hallam gives a free LH grip with every RH Patriot pistol purchased from him so it can be used by everyone, RH and LH. That's a pretty good offer! For pistol sales contact Jim Hallam, Classic Gun Company, 01483 472718 or 0775 369 7888 Jim also does the 6 shot blocks so PP1 PP2 1500 are again a possibility.) If you really want a different sized grip then you'll have to have it custom made at the moment.

Peter Ritchie sent me this information 21/10/2007.

"Read your comments on having an alternative size grip made for the Patriot Pistol and thought you might be interested in the modification I carried out on my Patriot. I have a very small hand and found shooting the Patriot quite difficult as the pistol moved about so much in my hand. I tried packing the grip with filler compound, which makes the pistol very heavy and uncomfortable to use. My next thought was to modify the grip, so I studied the grip alongside a Rink Grip and came to the conclusion that the existing Patriot grip could be cut on a band saw, glued back together to form an adjustable grip, the cutting took a lot of courage but as you can see it worked. The pistol is now the gun that Zylab should have supplied."

The .32 gas checked wadcutters have to be purchased from Zylab or Jim at £16 for 200. They are specially designed just for this one pistol. If you buy one of these pistols then be sure to use only the gas checked wadcutters. According to Zylab, lead based bullets WILL cause severe lead deposition (leading) in the blocks, quickly followed by bullet seating/loading difficulties etc. as the lead deposits quickly build up.

Primers and powder will need to be sourced separately. Alliant Bullseye powder is recommended (although I have found Winchester 231 meters well from the powder dispenser as does Accurate #2, and in our tests both combinations shot equally as well as Bullseye).

Zylab also recommend Winchester small pistol primers, since the primer cups of this brand are relatively soft and not prone to misfire. I couldn't buy Winchester locally. CCI worked fine most of the time. I had 12 failures in 1000. Seven of those went off on the second hit, five had to be unloaded with the kinetic hammer. Remington had five misfires out of 1000 of which three went off on the second hit. Federal had no misfires out of 1000.

The pistol shot to six-o'clock aim straight out of the box.That was lucky because a 3mm Allen Key was not provided to adjust the sights, you will have to source your own. The loading system is easy, and you quickly become adept. It is faster and easier to load than my Ruger conversion, because the block comes out easier than the cylinder. The block to block changeover is quick, but nothing like as fast as dropping a mag from a 1911 and whanging in a fresh one!

One disadvantage if you are considering shooting PP1 etc is that the sights do not adjust to be able to shoot to point of aim. You will need a competent gunsmith to dismantle the sights, remove some metal, and reassemble if you want to do that. I tried shooting the PP1 modified course for a 5 shot block, but I couldn't work the action fast enough to get 2 shots off in the time allowed for the final stage. Maybe with modified timing, or perhaps a younger slicker dude..........???? Let me know if you can do it. (Nobody has yet.)

Jim Hallam has some good tips........... however we accept no responsibility for anything which may go wrong.

These tips have worked for us. Common sense and safety precautions are a must! Be sensible... safety first, get your goggles on and gloves, make bystanders move well back just in case anything goes wrong. Primers are designed to explode, so is powder (OK, it doesn't technically explode for pedants, it burns very fast). A loaded block may be fired even when out of the gun, make sure you can't get hurt, and take care of others around you. They are your responsibility too.)

Jim's Tip no 1: If the primer fails and you need to unload with the Kinetic Hammer, then best to use a section of 6" iron pipe filled with sand as an "anvil" -- -any wood interposed between acts as a decelerator and the 98gr bullet being very light needs all the help that it can get.

Ted's Tip no 1: (not to be outdone!) I didn't have any iron pipe. J.V.C. suggested a section of old railway line, which I didn't have either! (Does anyone keep bits of old railway line in their garage just in case they need an anvil?) So I used a 4lb club hammer head as an anvil having failed to remove the bullet whilst bashing a piece of wood (resting on concrete) completely to matchsticks! I was exhausted! The Kinetic Hammer will get damaged like the struck end of a chisel eventually. It can then be ground down and a new piece welded on, or you could just buy a new one. Let's hope you have too few primer failures to be concerned about this. **Both Linda and I have had two primers fail in the same block in the same detail (different occasions, different guns). Once someone borrowing one of our guns failed to load any powder. We, in hammering the kinetic hammer hard enough to dislodge the two (+) bullets destroyed the hammer. We are having our kinetic hammers rebuilt and beefed up in the process, although I am thinking about making a bullet puller instead. In the absence of a kinetic hammer I have had to do it by screwing a short ramrod with a worm into the bullet. The block is rested on 2 tabletops pushed together with the rod between the tables. A Mole grip is clamped onto the rod and hit with a mallet until the bullet is removed. It doesn't happen very often, just about once every couple of months.

06/06/2007 I received a present of a piece of railway line from John Bull! See photo! Thanks John. That made me smile all day! So some people do keep bits of old railway line in their garages!]

Jim's Tip no 2: Why not pop the (inerted) primer out backwards (small diameter drill through bullet) and then use a thin brass (?) rod through the primer seat to push the bullet forwards? Read the warnings above about primers designed to go bang! [A shooting friend asked me to add a warning story of someone who was drilling out the lead bullet/head of a .38 cartridge which had a failed primer. The drill stuck in the lead. The head spun in the clamped brass case and the friction heat ignited the round. No one was killed, there was some local tissue damage though. If a .32 head did the same, spinning in the block, he surmises that there would be no case to split and decrease the blast, the bullet would travel up the drill bit very fast and after that he could only guess....... hmmmm, could be very nasty, think about that one! -- Ted.]

Ted's Tip no 2: When I used the Kinetic Hammer after a primer misfire, the gas check got left behind when the bullet came out. The gas check was too light and tight to kinetically hammer out. I put the block in the decapper and pushed the decapping pin GENTLY straight through the gas check and removed the primer. (Safety glasses on [What do you mean you don't have a pair in your shooting box? Tch tch!] and lean well back in case the primer goes off because it still has powder in there!!! The flames and hot gases could disfigure you. ) I removed the powder through the primer hole. Then I reprimed that one chamber, loaded the block without powder or bullets, pointed the pistol at the target and fired. The gas check was removed. I popped a rod down the barrel to check that it was empty and the gas check hadn't got lodged there. It had been blown right out that time. But next time......? Be ever careful! Check EVERY time. A blocked barrel is quickly a bulged barrel or a burst barrel!

Jim's Tip no 3: Tap the spout of the powder hopper on the shooting bench between loads each time to settle the powder before dispensing. This ensures even loading.

Ted's Tip no 3: I find the shape of the handle on the loading press uncomfortable (wimp!). I have sleeved a length of round steel pipe (2cm internal diameter, 2.5 cm external diameter, from a broken leg off an old school table) over the handle which is much more comfortable. I have cut the pipe to 23cm i.e. longer than the original 11 cm handle which gives a little more leverage and requires less force.

Ted's Tip no 4: I always use a 4" G cramp/clamp to fix the wooden base block of the loading tool to the shooting bench. That makes life easier too.

Ted's Tip no 5: The powder hopper holds an estimated 145 loads from full. I have a plastic 35mm-film container in my shooting box which will carry 300 grains of Bullseye easily, i.e. at least two spare hoppers reserve. Label the film container carefully, of course. The Actimel/Benecol 70g yoghurt drink containers hold double that! Top up the powder dispenser before you start shooting and again at least every 100 shots, because you can't see through the brass sides! That way you won't run out of powder in the middle of loading, drop an "empty" charge, fire a "primer only-no powder" round, and end up with a bullet stuck in the barrel.
N.B. The bullets come in boxes of 200. If you repack them in 100's then when you finish one pack of 100 you top up the hopper. No tally counting needed while shooting, cunning stuff!  (Weigh the bullets out, in theory 635 grams/100, although mine weighed out at 637 grams/100. Empty CCI Magtech .22LR boxes take 100 bullets nicely!)

Ted's Tip no 6: Buy a Lee (/RCBS etc.) primer pocket cleaning tool and use it regularly. Why not do it each time you top up the powder hopper? I had a jammed loading block caused by primer fouling depositing in the primer pockets. The primers couldn't be seated deeply enough. I now clean the primer pockets carefully after every shoot.

Ted's Tip no 7: I had a problem with the zylab bullets being difficult to load in my gun, a lot of force was needed, which is why I put the extension on the bullet press lever in the first place. The bullets were squashed with the force needed to load them, and rings of lead were shaved off. Sometimes the bullets refused to seat deeply enough, and the "pimple" on the nose of the bullet sat proud of the block and jammed the block during shooting. This was not experienced by other people according to Zylab and Jim. So my gun was different? (10/06/2007, I heard today from another person who has just experienced this problem, so I am not alone!) My first solution was to run the straight flat sharp edge of a Stanley knife blade across the top of the block after loading to ensure nothing protruded, but any shaving of lead alters the bullet mass and therefore accuracy! Further experiments showed that if the Zylab bullets were re-lubed (tumble lubed) with Lee's Liquid Alox, then the loading problem totally disappeared. Another advantage was that the deposit in the chamber after firing was also much reduced which made cleaning easier. I always re-lube my bullets with Lee Liquid Alox now and I haven't had a problem since. The last batch of bullets we bought seemed to have a different lube on them, so maybe Zylab have recognised this problem. I relubed mine with Lee Liquid Alox and JVC didn't. He didn't experience any further loading difficulty.

John V Cooper's tip no 1: Should the blocks start to stick after some use then use a diamond file or flat smooth carborundum stone to remove any high spots which have formed. Here are photos taken by JVC of the blocks John found sticking and has filed.

National Shooting Centre Bisley