'66 Charleville misfires

[RC61]

Greetings. I am having constant misfires from my Pedersoli 1766 Charleville bought from Dixie gun works last March. It shot fine the first few times at the range but lately its been misfiring. I finally got my powder charge, ball size, lubed patches etc., down and functional and now this happens. I noticed the frizzen is wash boarded and also the angle flint hitting the frizzen is over 60 deg. But the main thing I took note of is the frizzen screw goes in at a slight angle. It takes extra torque with a screwdriver to crank it down,. The threads on screw and female threads are fine. With all this said, the frizzen has a lot of resistance when struck by the flint hammer. I am suspecting i need more slop in the screw hole of the frizzen so it recoils without all that resistance. Thoughts? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Britsmoothy]

Greetings. I am having constant misfires from my Pedersoli 1766 Charleville bought from Dixie gun works last March. It shot fine the first few times at the range but lately its been misfiring. I finally got my powder charge, ball size, lubed patches etc., down and functional and now this happens. I noticed the frizzen is wash boarded and also the angle flint hitting the frizzen is over 60 deg. But the main thing I took note of is the frizzen screw goes in at a slight angle. It takes extra torque with a screwdriver to crank it down,. The threads on screw and female threads are fine. With all this said, the frizzen has a lot of resistance when struck by the flint hammer. I am suspecting i need more slop in the screw hole of the frizzen so it recoils without all that resistance. Thoughts? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Photos please.

 

[hawkeye2]

Remove the frizzen spring and see if it still takes any effort to open, it shouldn't. It's quite possible the frizzen spring is too strong, common ailment. You should also polish the toe of the frizzen where it bears on the spring. You may have other issues to deal with too but this will eliminate one.

 

[RC61]

Greetings. I am having constant misfires from my Pedersoli 1766 Charleville bought from Dixie gun works last March. It shot fine the first few times at the range but lately its been misfiring. I finally got my powder charge, ball size, lubed patches etc., down and functional and now this happens. I noticed the frizzen is wash boarded and also the angle flint hitting the frizzen is over 60 deg. But the main thing I took note of is the frizzen screw goes in at a slight angle. It takes extra torque with a screwdriver to crank it down,. The threads on screw and female threads are fine. With all this said, the frizzen has a lot of resistance when struck by the flint hammer. I am suspecting i need more slop in the scr

Photos please.

ew hole of the frizzen so it recoils without all that resistance. Thoughts? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[RC61]

Notice the angle of screw into threaded hole

 

[RC61]

Remove the frizzen spring and see if it still takes any effort to open, it shouldn't. It's quite possible the frizzen spring is too strong, common ailment. You should also polish the toe of the frizzen where it bears on the spring. You may have other issues to deal with too but this will eliminate one.

I took the frizzen spring out and the frizzen pivot was still tight

 

[nhmoose]

Lock needs fixing by the Maker, March it should be under warranty I would call Dixie and see what they will do for you.

Fixing it yourself may void the warranty.

 

[RC61]

I'll contact them. Thank you

 

[hawkeye2]

Notice the angle of screw into threaded hole

That is not acceptable!

 

[Britsmoothy]

That is poor.
The frizzen pivot hole would need relieving to cater for that screw being out of square or narrowed between the bridal so it can follow or yaw with the angle of the screw.

 

[RC61]

That is not acceptable!

Oh i agree! I'm calling them tomorrow.

 

[RC61]

That is poor.
The frizzen pivot hole would need relieving to cater for that screw being out of square or narrowed between the bridal so it can follow or yaw with the angle of the screw.

Exactly! I'll see what kind of response I get from Dixie.

 

[RC61]

i have a reenactment at fort Niagara in less than 2 weeks and hope i can get this resolved. Another thing I wanted to add is the amount of tension on the hammer pull back. I don't know if they would adjust that... I might have to go to a private gunsmith to get that resolved and also the trigger poundage is a little high. I don't want to mess with the sear spring. Thanks for everyone's help!

 

[SmokepoleSam]

This is in the wrong section, it should be in the firearms section under smoothbores.

 

[RC61]

This is in the wrong section, it should be in the firearms section under smoothbores.

I thought i clicked the right button?

 

[RC61]

This is in the wrong section, it should be in the firearms section under smoothbores.

OK. I see that now. I never posted a new thread before. Thanks for the heads up

 

[bjarard]

The place you bought it from should replace it. (just replace the whole gun...not just the lock)That screw is definitely drilled incorrectly. I have a pedersoli "66" (really '63) lock in my Navy Arms charleville and its buttery smooth...fires every time. I'll also be at Niagra. If you don't have a musket there then its a good opportunity to be your unit's ensign and carry the flag!

 

[Joemolf]

i have a reenactment at fort Niagara in less than 2 weeks and hope i can get this resolved. Another thing I wanted to add is the amount of tension on the hammer pull back. I don't know if they would adjust that... I might have to go to a private gunsmith to get that resolved and also the trigger poundage is a little high. I don't want to mess with the sear spring. Thanks for everyone's help!

Two weeks may not be enough time. I switch off between colonial rifles and the Charleville and Brown Bess the Brown Bess is super heavy just can’t get used to it. I think it’s by design. Regardless I am going to send them both out eventually and get that trigger pull lightened up. I’m going to use Jack Brooks who fixed a small Chambers Siler that was worn out. In the interim I swapped it out with a new one. The one I had fixed was highly ornamented it would have cost a fortune to replicate it so I chose to have him fix it on the recommendation of TOW. It works better than ever. I’m not sure what it cost because I had him fix other issues with the rifle. He is a Master and gets good money. I was very pleased with the way it all worked out.

 

[FlinterNick]

My Pedersoli Charleville misfired a lot in the beginning. Mine also has an offset frizzen screw hole.

The problem ended up being the mainspring wasn't strong enough to kick open the frizzen, a strong mainspring is needed for this lock because its so massive/beefy, the frizzen toe has a little bit of extra steel that acts like a shelf which I filed off, I swapped out the mainspring with a new one from Dixie, sparks like heaven every time.

You'll notice in the picture the comparison between the Pedersoli and Miroku frizzens, Pedersoli for some reason just left a little too much extra on that toe. if you have this feature on your musket lock, I'd reshape it.

The miroku frizzen works much better because of its shape on the toe, so I decided to file down the toe, works much better.

 

[toot]

it was probley made on a MONDAY or FRIDAY, not good.