I need an excellent pedersoli gunsmith please!

[willdixon]

Can one of you gentlemen provide me with the name and contact information on a really reliable and highly qualified gunsmith, to do a job on my PEDERSOLI SHARPS QUIGLEY 50/90? The barrel threads need to be refitted to the frame.

If the parallel sides of the frame are set vertically, the barrel is canted 8 degrees off to the right, which of course causes the sights to be 8 degrees off to the left!

And forget Lee Shiver! I sent my rifle to him by UPS next day air. He kept it two and one half months, without giving me the courtesy of replying to either of my two written letters, without replying to any of my six emails, and without answering any of my five phone calls! When I finally persuaded the factory to contact him, he returned the rifle to me, but in worse condition than it was when I sent it to him!

And Pedersoli refuses to help, in or out of warranty.

ANYWAY - is there a truly well qualififed and reliable 50/90 gunsmith out there somewhere? And, since I have a great deal of trouble logging on here and getting messages, please email me at oldmanriver@alltel.net

Thank you very much!

[Kenny Wasserburger]

Thats prob why you shoulda bought a Shiloh.

The lunger

[Bullshop]

Sorry to hear of your troubles Gene and sorry I have no help to offer but do want to say I am glad to see you are still among us.
BIC/BS

[Kenny Wasserburger]

Gene,

all kidding aside, Try John King in Kila MT.

Dave Gullo uses a old IAB for hunting as was mentioned on another thread, however after he had it rebarreld and all the interials Rehardened.

The Lunger

[missionary5155]

Personally I would give the distributor a call and let then know what yoyr problem is .... I for sure would not pay that much for the HIGH dollar rifle and not stir up the office.
Maybe you have...

[Angus in Wyoming]

If it is indeed just the barrel that is off and not the receiver then it is not that big of a deal. I don' t know how this would happen. I assume it has not always been that way. If it needs a new barrel or cut back the orig. one just have any gunsmith do it. I am not a gunsmith, but I have done a couple barrel jobs. It is not black magic. Find a local gunsmith and do it. Now if the receiver is off, I don't know what to tell you.

[PatMarlin]

Wow what an ordeal Will.....!

I'm sure if you hang in there, someone will fix your beautiful rifle, and you'll be back on the range.

[Jon K]

You probably have a comedy of errors there............Have everything checked............square and concetricity, make sure to check barrel between centers. And make sure the sight mounting base is square with everythng. Once you get all the measurements, you can determine just how bad it is and what can be done.

Kenny is right, because if you do it right the first time, there is no problem. In my apprenticeship(machinist) they always told us "MAKE SURE YOU'RE RIGHT BEFORE YOU GO AHEAD". Years later working sub- contract & piece work "you don't get paid for what is screwed up".

Good Luck in your venture,
Jon

[montana_charlie]

If the parallel sides of the frame are set vertically, the barrel is canted 8 degrees off to the right, which of course causes the sights to be 8 degrees off to the left!
Will,
I have seen your request on some other sites, and I don't have any explicit recommendations to give you regarding gunsmiths.

However, I am curious about the problem you describe.
Are you saying it appears that the barrel needs to turn eight degrees further when being screwed into the receiver?

CM

[hiram]

Donald Ballenger -- I believe that is how he spells his name. Lakeville, Florida. He built a rolling block for me and I am satisfied.

[405]

willdixon,
If I read your problem correctly and assuming the barrel/receiver are right-hand thread then it should be a fairly easy fix for any GOOD gunsmith used to dealing with octagon barrels and single shots. If it's a factory job almost sounds like the barrel was not screwed in quite far enough. 8 degrees short of top-dead-center is not much and many shops/factories likely use a stop jig to speed the assembly process. A good gunsmith may be able to judge if any of the barrel shoulder or receiver has to be turned down OR simply vised up and nudged to plumb. Then they should check headspace which is pretty simple with a rimmed cartridge. The complications of course would be forend screw/tenon alignment and the extractor slot. You might check for a witness mark under the forend where the barrel meets the receiver. Any extra info you have when talking to the gunsmith on the phone may help. In any case I hope it's a simple fix!

[willdixon]

No, sorry 405, you did not read my post properly.

You said "... it sounds like the barrel was not screwed in far enough." And yes that was indeed the case when it came from the factory, but then Pedersoli's dull-witted "gunsmith" shaved too much steel off the joint, and now the barrel is screwed in too far! The barrel, in effect, must now be loosened, in order to be plumbwith the frame. But, of course, you cannot simply loosen a barrel, or it'd fall off or worse about the second shot!

In any event, a very superlative gunsmith/gunmaker (not mentioned here), with the very finest world-wide reputation for honesty and ability, has graciously agreed to repair the rifle for me, and I'm now just waiting for my extra-long gun case to arrive, so the piece can be shipped out West to him.

Thank you anyway, Gentlemen, for your kind words.

As I mentioned in my post, for some reason this forum never advises me of posts directed to me, even though I do always click the little box requesting email notification. So if you wish to contact me, you need to email me: oldmanriver@alltel.net

Thanks again.

[missionary5155]

Good morning Now I Understand also... It is just "screwed in to far " situation... I know of a Rolling Block that had the same problem.. The barrel was removed.. center punched on the rear flats of the barrel shoulder to give a mechanical fit. Lock tight was applied to the threads. Barrel refitted to the proper position all plumb and squared. Reciever was heated for 24 hours with a 100 watt light bulb. That rifle is still launching .459 lead downrange as best I know after 15 years +.

[405]

willdixon,
I do not know of the world's finest Pedersoli gunsmith.... nor does anyone else. Never had one and never had one worked on. I assume all "Sharps 74" type guns are more or less simillar. I did read your original post carefully . To me "barrel canted to right of receiver" indicates it is short of top dead center (plumb) with a right hand thread barrel/receiver. Maybe a better description of problem would've helped- perhaps photos. Good luck finding the best Pedersoli gunsmith.

[montana_charlie]

Will,
When you get your rifle back from that "very superlative gunsmith/gunmaker, with the very finest world-wide reputation for honesty and ability"...please tell us what he found and how he corrected the problem.

The information could be useful to any of us at some future point.

CM

[willdixon]

Hi missionary5155 - Thanks for your input. I had been thinking about the gunsmith having to make a precision shim/washer to place between the barrel and the frame - a very difficult task at best - thus your center punching sounds infinitely better. I've passed that on to the gunsmith, but doubtless he already is familiar with that technique - though I was not.

405, I didn't ask for the name and contact information of "the world's finest Pedersoli gunsmith". I'm almost but not quite that stupid.

And forgive me, 405, but I have always read that the right side of a rifle is the side to the shooter's right when he is shooting; obviously your understanding is that the right side of the rifle is to the left of the shooter when he is shooting. If I was mistaken, I apologize for my poor communication skills and ignorance.

And again, your closing sentence was "Good luck finding the best Pedersoli gunsmith." I guess you meant that to be cute, like your "world's finest Pedersoli gunsmith." But both of those phrases fall short, for I never made any mention of looking for the "finest" nor "best Pedersoli gunsmith". On the contrary, I merely asked for the name and contact information on "a really reliable and qualified gunsmith". This "world's finest" and "world's best" are mere figments of your literary license.

Thank you very much, missionary5155 for your great help.

[Bent Ramrod]

Willdixon,

I put together a Highwall from miscellaneous parts and found the barrel turned just slightly too far to the right also. My set of Brownell's shim stock saved the day. You can calculate the thickness needed by the threads per inch on the barrel and an estimate of how many degrees off it is. I did that, selected a piece of shim stock that was close, soldered it to a piece of steel and set it up in the lathe.

I bored it out to the base diameter of the threads and cut it off to the outside diameter of the octagon. The "custom washer" was then melted and cleaned off, put it on the barrel and I was able to get the top flat horizontal when I screwed the two together. The gun is still being stocked, but headspace will be managed, if needed, by changing out the bushing in the breechblock. Unless your smith deepened your chamber when he took too much metal off the barrel breach, you oughtn't have a problem.

I have a Garrett Sharps carbine that was rather impudently left with the barrel screwed in just short of the witness mark that was plainly put on the barrel and receiver. Some Eye-Talian Comminest doing his part against the hated Capitalists, no doubt. :roll: Rather than do any metal removal, I just unscrewed the barrel slightly and screwed it back a couple times, "burning" it in. It went to the witness mark after a couple of these operations. With the square threads of the originals or the exact copies that Garrett was importing at the time, this has to be done judiciously, as a little wear on the threads loosens them quickly.

Sorry to hear about your travails; I know that looking at that skewed Lawrence rear sight was plenty exasperating for me. And, of course, one dislikes having to do major operations on new guns.

[willdixon]

Thank you very much, Bent Ramron, for your valuable advice.

No, in this instance, it is not that the Eye-Talian Comminest" Pedersoli was doing his part against the hated Capitalists, it's is just that Pedersoli is a liar and a thief. When my rifle was delivered to me, it had a "crooked" barrel and a crack in the forearm, and - if Pedersoli had been honest at all - he would have immediately traded that defective rifle for a new one, rather than forcing me to try to have it repaired! But he didn't even apologize, and was very rude to me about the whole thing, as though it were my fault!

Anyway - thanks again!

P.S. Do not buy Pedersoli!

[hiram]

Donald Ballenger----I think I gave the wrong location. I believe he is located in Lakeland, Fl. He has moved since he built my roller so I don't have new contact info.

[willdixon]

That's okay Hiram, I've already located the gunsmith who will be doing this work for me, and I'm only waiting for my new hard rifle case to arrive, so my local FFL can ship the rifle to him.

Pedersoli's gunsmith "misplaced" the expensive custom shipping crate I had custom made and in which I sent the rifle to him almost three months ago. It was a magnificient case, but the gunsmith shipped the rifle back to me in a beat-up, old, too short, flimsy cardboard box.

Thanks anyway.