A Pedersoli Brown Bess Kit

[Tenring]

That turned out to be one fine piece, I watched a tutorial on Bone Black and how they dust and rub it in with a small paint brush it was very interesting.

 

[springfield art]

Hi,
I am helping a senior in my local high school make a Brown Bess musket from a Pedersoli kit bought from Dixie Gun Works. He is an active reenactor and wants to make as historically correct a musket as he can. What a mess. In addition to the features Pedersoli got wrong like the wrong lock markings, butt plate way too small, poor inletting, wrong stock shape, etc, etc, etc, etc. we add absolutely lousy machine inletting. Gaps around everything including the lock, butt plate, and trigger guard. It gets worse. All the machine inlets for the ramrod pipes are flat on the bottom!!! The pipes are barrel shaped not flat. So when the already drilled pins are installed in the pipes, they wobble side to side because the machined mortises are also too wide. This is junk. The lock looks nice with the polish but the mainspring is way too strong, the frizzen spring is cheaply made and the wrong shape, the sear spring is so stout the trigger pull must be 15 lbs at least. At close to $1200, this is fraud. Pedersoli no longer makes any Brown Bess that can be claimed superior to the India-made versions, which means nobody makes a commercially made Bess repro worth a damn. My student, AcraGlas, and I will salvage this piece of junk and produce a vastly superior gun but it is a shame this kind of stuff is out there for sale.

dave

My Peder kit from several years ago was fine. An early (mid-1970's) Charleville has horrific spring and needed much work to make it work, but that was one of the earliest replicas and I don't know who made it. Good luck, it's too bad you got a bum one.

 

[dave_person]

My Peder kit from several years ago was fine. An early (mid-1970's) Charleville has horrific spring and needed much work to make it work, but that was one of the earliest replicas and I don't know who made it. Good luck, it's too bad you got a bum one.

Hi Springfield,
Actually, it is good that I got that kit rather than the typical customer. I knew what to do with it.

dave

 

[The Damned Yankee]

Great job helping that young man out! He was fortunate to have such a mentor.
Do you do lock / repair work on muskets? DY