Shooting the Pedersoli Indian Trade Musket smoothbore

I finally took the new musket out to shoot today after altering the finish to suit me (in another thread) and polishing the heck out of the lock. The trigger still has a lot of creep and is not a light pull by any means, but I enjoyed the heck out of shooting it. It was smooth and it was fast. No complaints and no immediate hurry to do a thing more to the gun except add a drop of glue to the ramrod tunnel that I had forgotten to do. The ramrod is very loose. Not wanting to wait for the glue to dry, I put a few pieces of tape in the channel. That worked well and kept it in place.

So, not being one who normally shoots offhand, I had some breaking in to do. Not the gun, me.
I was shooting at 30yds.
The first two shots were first using a .060 ball with red ticking and mink oil. It was loading harder that I expected and I knew I wasn't going to get any love from the fouling. I used a .595 ball for the next three shots, getting progressively harder to load. Seems to be a spot about 10" from the muzzle. I'll have to polish it some more. And the .595 balls and lubed ticking I could start with my thumb, but there was simply way too much friction and bending of the rod once I was sending the ball home.
Loads for all shots was 60gr of 3F. Maybe Goex maybe Grafs.


So I changed things up for the next six.
The next six shots were back to using .060 balls, but with a tiny piece of tow behind and in front of the ball. The first piece of tow in the barrel I had to make sure all the loose strands were on the nest before inserting the ball. Otherwise it went down hard. But not having any tow creep up the sides of the ball made it load pretty easy.

Next three shots. Finally got a bull (more or less) and my elevation was settling in.


And next three. I was really happy with these. I'm finally not getting any fliers.


Last shot. I walked it in to 23yds and picked one of the corner diamonds to shoot at.


Yeah, I called it quits after that shot.

I am really happy with the performance of this gun. And it shoots spot on for me. 60gr of powder (wearing a winter jacket) was very little recoil. And what's better I seem to have found a good combination of ball and tow to use. I'm sure I could have shot more in spite of using no lube. A worm and some moose milk sprayed on some tow could have kept me shooting all day.
No fouling at all of the touch hole, which is bone stock like it came. And good spark from the flint. No misfires.

It was a good day!


Better shot of the French gray.


EDIT: I missed it, but obviously y'all know I meant 0.600 balls
If I'm shooting shot next time I'll let you know

For being a new offhand shooter, I’d say those are good groups, have you tried fiber wads and shot cards?

OKWilliam said:

For being a new offhand shooter, I’d say those are good groups, have you tried fiber wads and shot cards?

Click to expand...

Thanks.
Not with ball, only shot.

Thanks for bringing it up. I remember reading something about those here, but completely forgot about it. I even had some 1/2" felt wads lubed up in my 20ga range box. Had the tin in my hand even.

When I shoot it off the bench and stretch it out I'll most certainly want some combination that is accurate. I still want to see how this load works off the bench when I can control the ignition better with no movement. It was so easy to load once I got going I was really liking it.

They are good guns, some need some TLC and some don't.
.600" balls by the way.
Congrats on your success.

Britsmoothy said:

They are good guns, some need some TLC and some don't.
.600" balls by the way.
Congrats on your success.

Click to expand...

I was just looking for a mould and said, darn, I think I got my 0 and my decimal mixed up in that picture
And here you are, Metric system and caught it

Thanks bud.

When shooting at the range, I usually use some kind of water-based lube. In the summer, it's even required at the range. But spit, cleaning solution or even just plain water on the patch dissolves the fouling better than grease as it goes down the bore. I never have to clean until I get home. Though sometimes I get so much fouling buildup behind the vent that it blocks the flame in the pan. PRBs go down easy, though. For hunting, I still use grease or oil.

No misfires? Wish I could say the same for mine. Best I've been able to manage is about 90% going bang with the occasional flash in the pan.

Your customizations look good. Well done.

I run spit-lubed .015 pillow ticking wrapping a .606 home cast ball. I have to poke them in with a short starter but they go down ok and shoot better than I do. My bore measures out at .630, which is nice as I have larger balls that just do fit and work well for bare ball shooting.

Nuthatch said:

When shooting at the range, I usually use some kind of water-based lube. In the summer, it's even required at the range. But spit, cleaning solution or even just plain water on the patch dissolves the fouling better than grease as it goes down the bore. I never have to clean until I get home. Though sometimes I get so much fouling buildup behind the vent that it blocks the flame in the pan. PRBs go down easy, though. For hunting, I still use grease or oil.

No misfires? Wish I could say the same for mine. Best I've been able to manage is about 90% going bang with the occasional flash in the pan.

Your customizations look good. Well done.

Click to expand...

I was thinking of putting the tow that followed the ball in my mouth... but that thought quickly passed

When I cleaned it the fouling was incredible the first two patches. And that was after flushing with scalding water. Every part of that 2x2 patch had thick fouling on it.
Then two more patches and I was getting clean patches.
After that I tried to run a brush into the patent breech and I used another four patches or so to call it a day. Cleanup was dirty, but quick.

Thanks.

Nice report.

For range shooting try a wet lube so you don't need to swab as much. E.g., Hoppe's No.9 BP lube, Mr. Flintlock, or soapy water (Dawn, Murphy's Oil Soap, or Pinesol and water). Obviously, for hunting you'll want to use something like Track's Mink Oil Tallow so the powder charge isn't affected by the lube, but for range use I've recently converted to Mr. Flintlock and I don't have to swab for 20 or more shots.

Dave Markowitz said:

Nice report.

For range shooting try a wet lube so you don't need to swab as much. E.g., Hoppe's No.9 BP lube, Mr. Flintlock, or soapy water (Dawn, Murphy's Oil Soap, or Pinesol and water). Obviously, for hunting you'll want to use something like Track's Mink Oil Tallow so the powder charge isn't affected by the lube, but for range use I've recently converted to Mr. Flintlock and I don't have to swab for 20 or more shots.

Click to expand...

Thanks.

When I shoot off the bench I have more supplies with me. And I recently picked up some of that Hoppes to try.
I was trying to bare bones it this time. Plus I didn't want to clear the snow off my bench, lol. I actually walked to the range and didn't drive this time

On the wet vs dry lube... I recently read some guys here mentioning using moose milk with a touch of soap to lube patches, but letting it dry before use. They were saying they can shoot a lot without swabbing.

Yet to try myself. But it's on my list. As well as the Hoppes BP lube.

Pedersoli Indian Trade Guns bores measure out to .630"-.635". Keep that in mind.

NorthFork said:

Pedersoli Indian Trade Guns bores measure out to .630"-.635". Keep that in mind.

Click to expand...

For???

BTW, mine measures 0.620 if that affects your answer.

Mine measures .629".
As long as you don't get tipping oil down the barrel you don't need to sweat over the patent breech. I haven't cleaned mine in years. I just use hot water.
I use olive oil and bee's wax for lube or coconut fat and olive oil and I don't get hard fouling.

Britsmoothy said:

Mine measures .629".
As long as you don't get tipping oil down the barrel you don't need to sweat over the patent breech. I haven't cleaned mine in years. I just use hot water.
I use olive oil and bee's wax for lube or coconut fat and olive oil and I don't get hard fouling.

Click to expand...

Yeah, no sweat.
But nothing wrong with a couple turns of a brass brush in the patent breech while I'm cleaning either.

Good report, @pacanis !

Notchy Bob

So I did a experiment with mine awhile back, how many shots with no maintenance? Ped indian trade rifle. 60g 3f, .018 ticking, bear oil lube, .600 ball.
7 shots before a misfire, picked vent once, 3 shots till next vent picking. After this it needed vent cleared each shot. I believe it was 14 shots for the test.
Now my point, in this test I did not have to swab the bore once, all fouling just wiped down with the patch.
You may slide a bore scope in for a look ,if available. I make a scotch brite "swab" on a undersized jag ,run that through you barrell 40 times it will smoth up nice. Scotch Brite comes in colors that correspond to grit, brown is more course than green, etc

Thanks @Notchy Bob

@Coldfingers , I use Scotch Brite, or an equivalent, for polishing the bore too.
Sure is a lot of dirt to clean out when done. I swear it's worse than fouling.

I have polished the bores in both of my Pedersoli guns with scotch brite pads. I use gray, and brown while polishing.
Good report on the trade gun.
I like mine, along with my Pedi Brown Bess Carbine.

Dave

pacanis said:

I finally took the new musket out to shoot today after altering the finish to suit me (in another thread) and polishing the heck out of the lock. The trigger still has a lot of creep and is not a light pull by any means, but I enjoyed the heck out of shooting it. It was smooth and it was fast. No complaints and no immediate hurry to do a thing more to the gun except add a drop of glue to the ramrod tunnel that I had forgotten to do. The ramrod is very loose. Not wanting to wait for the glue to dry, I put a few pieces of tape in the channel. That worked well and kept it in place.

So, not being one who normally shoots offhand, I had some breaking in to do. Not the gun, me.
I was shooting at 30yds.
The first two shots were first using a .060 ball with red ticking and mink oil. It was loading harder that I expected and I knew I wasn't going to get any love from the fouling. I used a .595 ball for the next three shots, getting progressively harder to load. Seems to be a spot about 10" from the muzzle. I'll have to polish it some more. And the .595 balls and lubed ticking I could start with my thumb, but there was simply way too much friction and bending of the rod once I was sending the ball home.
Loads for all shots was 60gr of 3F. Maybe Goex maybe Grafs.
View attachment 204043

So I changed things up for the next six.
The next six shots were back to using .060 balls, but with a tiny piece of tow behind and in front of the ball. The first piece of tow in the barrel I had to make sure all the loose strands were on the nest before inserting the ball. Otherwise it went down hard. But not having any tow creep up the sides of the ball made it load pretty easy.

Next three shots. Finally got a bull (more or less) and my elevation was settling in.
View attachment 204044

And next three. I was really happy with these. I'm finally not getting any fliers.
View attachment 204045

Last shot. I walked it in to 23yds and picked one of the corner diamonds to shoot at.
View attachment 204047

Yeah, I called it quits after that shot.

I am really happy with the performance of this gun. And it shoots spot on for me. 60gr of powder (wearing a winter jacket) was very little recoil. And what's better I seem to have found a good combination of ball and tow to use. I'm sure I could have shot more in spite of using no lube. A worm and some moose milk sprayed on some tow could have kept me shooting all day.
No fouling at all of the touch hole, which is bone stock like it came. And good spark from the flint. No misfires.

It was a good day!
View attachment 204049

Better shot of the French gray.
View attachment 204051

EDIT: I missed it, but obviously y'all know I meant 0.600 balls
If I'm shooting shot next time I'll let you know

Click to expand...

They are better guns than the naysayers will admit too. I'll never part with mine.

Nuthatch said:

When shooting at the range, I usually use some kind of water-based lube. In the summer, it's even required at the range. But spit, cleaning solution or even just plain water on the patch dissolves the fouling better than grease as it goes down the bore. I never have to clean until I get home. Though sometimes I get so much fouling buildup behind the vent that it blocks the flame in the pan. PRBs go down easy, though. For hunting, I still use grease or oil.

No misfires? Wish I could say the same for mine. Best I've been able to manage is about 90% going bang with the occasional flash in the pan.

Your customizations look good. Well done.

Click to expand...

If you have not already, try drilling the vent out to 1/16". Pedersoli's vents are rather tiny from the factory. Go slow and it's an easy 2 minute project that should solve your troubles.