Anyone traded with Middlesex Trading?

[Grizzled Roberts]

Well.....a couple of weeks ago I shouldered one of these new shotguns. I liked the feel of it so I ordered one. Now anytime you order one of these Indian made guns it is just a finished kit in the white. The first thing I did when I opened mine was to brown the barrels. I could not stand the highly polished barrels! Then I whittled down the
25 pound right trigger pull to around 8 pounds
the left lock was good. The bore is actually 19 Ga (.625 ) not 20Ga ( .615 ) I ordered some 19 Ga wads and went to the range. It took a long time for my first two shots to go off. I was not aware the barrels had patent breeches. Once I got these small cavities dried out It goes off now just fine. In fact I hope to take it Quail hunting next week! Middlesex is a good company to work with. IF you can't do the required touch up work
your self, they will do it for you. Like every body else said these guns are not for everyone.
I will admit right up front that I would not know a quality shotgun if it bit me on the butt! But for my "coarse" tastes I like this little shotgun.
It does not shoot round ball to bad ether!
Loads...
Shot: 65 grains of FFg, 19 Ga wad column 7/8th ounce of shot.

Round ball 65 grains of FFG, .595 18 Thousands patch, pushed in with thumb.
My photo bucket ain't working now or I would put up a picture of my little beastie!
I will post the result of my hunt next week
:thumbsup:

 

[surrealpillow]

IF you can't do the required touch up work
your self, they will do it for you.

what sort of additional touch up work do they offer exactly? like giving it a better stain? I wouldn't mind paying more for them to put a bit more care into it before shipping it, for people like me who are new to muzzle-loading enhancing a gun might be difficult

 

[Jasseji]

and take you away the whole fun in finishing it as you would like it to be ?

i'd never dream about that

 

[Rock Island]

I own a MVT Long Land Bess, have shot a few hundred rounds since getting it last year and I can report no problems at all. The gun looks good, shoots well, and with accuracy that surprised me . I have seen some very nasty looking "guns" come out of India in the past and I was not expecting much when I got the Bess, I was prepared to ship it right back if it looked bad out of the box. It likes a .735 ball, 75 grains of FG and a .15 patch ( give or take) I ran out of proper patches so I substituted a round .30 cotton weave cleaning patch from my M1 Garands cleaning kit and slathered it in bore butter, and it worked very well. I am hitting a target the size of a mans head at 75-80 yards 8 times out of ten, best I can do with a gun that lacks proper sites. I like the Bess well enough that I cast another 600 musket balls for it over the last few weekends, ordered 20 more pounds of powder from my online supplier, and am even now waiting for MVT to get back to me about a ships carbine that caught my eye. Prior to this my flinters mostly came from Pedersoli in Italy or CVA in the old days. The Pedersoli 1816 Harpers Ferry is a great gun, but it looks to good, it looks like the product of a modern high tech factory, everything is perfect, set it next to one of my modern shooters and the build quality looks the same. The MVT has a slight hand made look to it, as if old world methods were used in it's production, probably weren't, but they did a good job of faking it.
I can't speak for the shotgun as I do not own one, but I have been pleased with what I have gotten from this company so far.

 

[DutchmanDick]

Recently, a hunter was chased up a tree by a sow bear and three nearly grown cubs. The sow was put down later, as she had lost her fear of humans (and took a chunk out of the hunter's leg besides). I had been seriously looking at the Pedersoli Howdah Hunter pistol in 20 gauge double, loaded with buck-and-ball for just such emergencies, but the MTV double-barrelled percussion - or even the double flint pistol - at about half the price looks like they'd fill the bill. Some might say, "get a .44 magnum", but I think a .60 caliber ball plus 3 .31 caliber balls fired in a bear's face at point-blank range would do the job nicely, plus you get a second shot if you miss - or misfire. Plus, the ammo is interchangeable with my Northwest Trade Gun. I absolutely refuse to go out in the woods without a big-bore handgun (right now, my ASM 3rd model Dragoon revolver - with a 50 grain charge of FFFg and a round ball - is the most potent handgun I own).

 

[caionneach]

Round ball 65 grains of FFG, .595 18 Thousands patch, pushed in with thumb.
My photo bucket ain't working now or I would put up a picture of my little beastie!
I will post the result of my hunt next week

Still waiting on that report grzrob!!

Glad you had a good experience with that shotgun. For the money, it looks worth a try. Re the other imprecations that I spend the extra $$$ for a custom double flinter, well I canna do that, though it makes perfect sense to do so. Maybe when the employment situation changes here in Nawth Lowzyanna. Oh well, not holding my breath for that situation to change. :surrender: