Bond Arms Derringers

Not long ago, a friend walked into the study with a Bond Arms derringer broke open and unloaded. WR is quite a fellow and I have learned quite a bit from him during the past fifty years or so. He has developed some arthritis in his hands. As he often reminds me, he lets me do things because of this slight impediment, otherwise he would do the work his damn self. He is a serious handgunner and does things the right way, old school, and handloads his own ammunition.

He has no use for small bores and tends to master a handgun for its own sake rather than any practical value. He had taken a liking to a derringer from Bond Arms, which is well made, reliable, and often serves as a back up arm in the back pocket. WR liked to keep his in a pocket when hiking with his granddaughter.

Since his Bond Arms is chambered in 45 ACP he did a little work to come up with a suitable defense load, settling on the 45 ACP Black Hills Honey Badger cartridge which seems suited to the derringer’s short barrel. He also owns a six-inch 45 Colt barrel and his 255 grain 750 feet per second handload for it gives good accuracy. WR had fired the Bond Arms derringer enough to come to the same conclusion I had: that little gun is far more accurate than I would have thought.

Aiming at a man-sized silhouette at 15 yards, he and I could aim for the Xring and fire two shots, consistently putting a hole three inches above and three inches below the point of aim. WR thought he would like to have the sights properly regulated, setting his derringer so at least one of the barrels hit to the point of aim. I groaned and asked him if he genuinely thought it was worth the effort and he looked as if I had suggested sitting an election out or turned down deer meat. Fair enough! So I began to study.

Study is always good before you take up a file and dig into a project. Lets look at some of the information I have found on the Bond Arms derringers. When cocking the hammer back you will see a separate piece of metal on the left hand side which is the hammer head. There is a cam that moves the hammer head up and down each time the hammer is cocked. When you cock the hammer back, if the hammer head stays up this means that the top barrel will fire next.

If the hammer head drops this means the bottom barrel will fire next. The bottom barrel is lined up with the sights and the top barrel may tend to shoot slightly high. To compensate for the top barrel shooting high, aim slightly lower until you find the right position. You can pre-select the chamber you wish to fire by doing the following. First, swing the barrel away from the frame to the unload position and then unload the derringer.

Push the safety to the "on fire" position, depress the trigger, and push the hammer forward onto the firing pins. Look at the breech face where the firing pin protrudes and see which firing pin is visible. If you see the top firing pin, you will know that the next time the hammer is cocked the bottom chamber will fire. Most of the skilled shooters that use Bond Arms derringers set the Far

pistol to shoot the bottom chamber first. By selecting the bottom chamber first, the pistol recoils straight back with practically no muzzle flip allowing a faster recovery time for the second shot. Okay, having gotten those facts down pat and taking the project to heart, we’ve learned how to fire the bottom barrel first every time. The problem was the bottom barrel as currently set up in this derringer hit three inches low at 15 yards.

This is very taxing on the shooter to aim accurately at this range and a stunt for me and harder for WR than he admits. At seven yards the variation is less, or course. I experimented a bit and carefully filed the front sight. The Bond Arms is stainless steel so this action did not require refinishing; file a little The 45 Colt barrel is in place and the 45 ACP barrel is below the derringer. and then polish the sight is all that was needed.

I was surprised that the amount of metal needed to sight the lower barrel’s point of impact at seven yards was simply a sliver. Be warned, go slow on this as a very little will go along way! So, I had the lower barrel sighted in with both the 2.5 inch 45 ACP barrel and the six-inch 45 Colt. Of course this threw the upper barrel’s point of impact even higher but it is nowa very predicable 3.5 inches high at seven yards. I experimented even more.

Using the 45 Colt barrel I used WR’s handload of a 750 fps, .454 caliber 250 grain bullet from Matt’s Bullets (Matts- Bullets.com, I also used a supply of Blazer 200 grain JHP loads using the 200 grain Gold Dot bullet in the derringer’s Far Range time is the most extensive part of the procedure. top chamber. While WR initially balked at using two loads, in the end I found that with the lighter bullet in the top barrel the difference in point of aim and impact at seven yards was only 2.25 inches.

That is as close as possible and I think it worked out well, if the result was worth the effort. WR claims he cannot remember Kentucky windage and holdover as well as he once did. Some of the work was with the notebook and pen but it was confirmed on the firing range. There are other concerns with the Bond Arms Derringer. As an example, the crossbolt safety may break

in dry fire with an unloaded chamber. Advise the customer not to dry fire with the safety on but use snap caps to cushion hammer fall. This isn’t difficult, and I have seen Bond Arms derringers that have been dry fired with little apparent wear on the safety arm. Just the same, the manufacturer knows their guns so When pulling the Bond Arms trigger, pulling on the lower tip of the trigger results in a better trigger action.

A 1911 hammer spring cut down about 15 per cent in length works well as a replacement hammer spring but caution is advised to maintain reliability. Bond Arms derringers feature a true rebounding hammer and is safe to carry or store loaded. The crossbolt is referred to as an emergency measure. The question of barrel interchangeability has come up since Bond Arms introduced their new line of Rowdy derringers.

All barrels fit different models save for a It seems never to work loose during firing. follow their recommendations. line of California-only derringers with the California-legal guns not accepting .45/.410 barrels is the significant difference. The work with the Bond Arms derringer was interesting and made for good education in sight regulation. As for WR, I am still waiting for my check from him. AG American Gunsmith Reader Services 1.