InvestArms surprised us this week with the release of their new(?) InvestArms Plains Pistol. The announcement was made via an Instagram post and kicked up quite the stir within the community. For some, a production pistol like the Plains Pistol might not be your cup of tea, but for many, a traditional muzzleloading pistol is always on the shopping list, making this a high-demand item.

InvestArms Plains Pistol Cost

The Plains Pistol is available as a kit or as a completed, ready to go pistol. The kit costs $329 and the finished pistol will cost $389.

Should you get the kit or the finished Plains Pistol?

That’s a question only you can answer. Personally, I like finishing out a kit and my experience with InvestArms has been good in the past. That being said, now that I’m chasing a baby around the farm, the extra $60 to have a ready-to-shoot muzzleloader isn’t a steep upgrade in my opinion. The factory finishes on the latest InvestArms pistols haven’t had many complaints and if you really don’t like it you can always re-finish it later.

InvestArms Plains Pistol Specifications

The InvestArms Plains Pistol comes with a 9 3/4” long barrel. The barrel is a 1:30” twist and is available in .50 or .54 calibers. The barrel has a hooked breech for easy cleaning.

Other than the barrel we have a few features those familiar to InvestArms will recognize.

The Plains Pistol has fixed iron sights, a European walnut stock, and an InvestArms coil spring percussion lock, and the finished models have blued hardware with the exception of the brass trigger guard.

The overall length is 14 3/4” and the weight is 2.75lbs. I suspect the weight will vary between the .54 and .50 caliber versions but I’m unable to verify that information at this time.

Is this pistol new?

You’ll notice I had a question mark around “new(?)” at the start of the article. I added that because this pistol is new to the InvestArms lineup, it might not be super new to the muzzleloading market. Fans of the Lyman and InvestArms line have noticed similarities between the Lyman Plains Pistol and the Investarms Plains Pistol. We know InvestArms was one of the contract manufacturers for Lyman for many years, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that InvestArms is producing this on their own now that Lyman has exited the muzzleloader market.

This theory gets some verification when we look at the main retailer for this plains pistol, Muzzle-Loaders.com. If you visit their website or search for the “Plains Pistol”, you’ll notice the InvestArms and Lyman pistols pop up, both under the same SKU number. The images and descriptions are also the same. Sources tell me the other rifles in the InvestArms line line up with some of the Lyman products as well. Sources say the Lyman Great Plains and the Investarms Gemmer Hawken are the same muzzleloader with a different name. I’ve not been able to verify this myself, but they do look very similar.

Does it matter if this is a truly new pistol? I can’t make a call on that, it’s really up to the market to decide. On one hand, those looking to increase the value of their Lyman pistols may be upset that new models are entering the market, but on the other hand, the InvestArms Plains Pistol looks to bring the InvestArms quality to an introductory priced pistol. Affordable, quality muzzleloaders are important for increasing interest in muzzleloading. Overall I hope this is a good addition to the line-up and serves the community well.

Pistols are super popular in muzzleloading but hard to find outside the Traditions offerings. Having more choices is a great thing in my mind, but what do you think? Let me know, I’d love to hear about how you feel.