Pedersoli 1861 Springfield

[45bpcr]

Figured I'd put this up as fair warning.
After visiting Gettysburg last month and looking down into The Devil's Den I decided to get a repro 1861.
Cabelas has Pedersoli 1861's on sale this month and I ordered one. It showed up at the shop Friday.
Before I shoot any new rifle I always put a few patches down the bore.
The bore on this rifle felt really bad for a brand new rifle.
The patches came out dark with MANY flecks of metal on them.
I kept running patches down the bore and started soaking them with Kroil.
At that point, Chunks of metal started coming out.
Perhaps the rifle I bought slipped past Q control.
I spent over 3 hours and nearly a whole bag of patches before they started to come out clean.
I'm so glad I didn't just wipe the grease off it and go shooting.

Craig

[Dan Cash]

If you had just wiped the grease out, loaded and fired, all that **** would have gone out the muzzle

[higgins]

How did the bore look after you got all the crud out of it?

[fouronesix]

Interesting. I would think those cuttings were probably a result of threading and installing the breech. And, I thought, but not certain, all Italian guns were proofed so it would have been fired after the breech installed… I dunno- got me?

[45bpcr]

The bore looked and felt good.
I shot it Sunday for a bit and it shot well at 100 yds.
Using the issue sights, I couldn't get on paper at 300 or 500 yds.
Started at 60 grns of Swiss 1 1/2 and bumped it 10 grains which put it on target at 100 using a 6 o-clock hold.
We'll see what it does next weekend as I got a better mold for it.
When I ordered it I threw a Lee 575-500M mold on the order as well.
Lee stuff is generally OK but this one wasn't cut quite right., one side of the nose is longer than the other and the mteplat is a tad off center. It was only $26.00 with handles so no b!tch here.
A Lyman 575-213OS showed up today and it casts pretty good. I'll need to figure out a way to tighten up the base plug as it moves in and out of the mold a bit resulting in inconsistent bullet weights.
Perhaps setting it on the bench while I pour will solve that.
Also I was using the "new" CCI musket caps and had quite a few miss-fires until I started putting a couple of granules of powder into the nipple prior to capping it.
I've read that the 4 wing CCI's aren't as strong as the older ones but their what my LGS had and I wanted to shoot.
I thought it odd as my Gibbs long range lights well with the CCI#11 caps every time, all the time.
I wonder if I can change nipples?
It was a ball to shoot though and I like it.

C

[fouronesix]

Minié muskets are my passion, so following this thread with interest on how the Pedersoli shoots. I have a couple of the Lee Improved Minié molds and they produce a decent looking bullet but have never gotten any accuracy out of them. Have had much better luck with the Lyman traditional designs and the RCBS N-S style.

Yep, those re-enactor caps are about 1/3-1/2 power. I can get them to work OK if I keep the flash channel clean and/or pay attention to number of shots between cleaning or flushing with alcohol. The various full power European caps and the full power CCI caps are much better but harder to find. I read the tea leaves and built up a pretty good supply of the CCI full power musket caps when the transition to re-enactors began.

[45bpcr]

I'll find myself som RWS caps at some point.
Or, I could get one of those flash pan priming tools and fill the nipple up with Swiss Null-b.

C

[Nobade]

I second the RCBS mould - it and the Lyman shoot about the same for me, but the RCBS sure is easier to cast with thanks to the captured core pin.

If Magspark makes their 209 adapters in a size the Pedersoli uses, it might not be a bad way to go. I use one on my Miroku '63 and get much faster ignition than the CCI caps, better accuracy, and it costs about 1/3rd as much to shoot. I just wish those things worked on a Sharps!

-Nobade