Brand New Rifle

[CanaryCook]

Well she finally came via Purolator!

My 50cal Davide Pedersoli Frontier arrived Tuesday, and I was able to take her out for some shooting that night.

I have a few questions regarding the behavior of a brand-new gun that most in the blackpowder group I have local access too couldn't answer with any clarity.

I understood, and experienced what was called "new bore foul" and was hard pressed to ram the ball home after 8 shots on a known patch-lube. This symptom did not occur last night when I went shooting, and no noticeable foul occured after 18 shots.

Now, my real question is about accuracy and sight-in proceedure. The first few shots were all over the place, but that was expected. Then, they began to be nearly dead center, but 14" Below the paper at 25yrds. After about 4 shots, They began to crawl slowly upwards at roughly 1 inch per shot until they began to group ( a decent group at that) 9 inches below the bullseye.

Should I begin to adjust the height of the front sight to compensate for this low-shooting, or should I just pound more lead through and wait for improvement. After counting my patches, I have fired the rifle 34 times. Is this a long enough "break-in" period to expect reliable accuracy?

One last bit, I started with 60gr FFg, then slipped it down to 50FFg with no difference in group or patch. I also fired 3 shots with 70gr FFg to see if it would start to blow my patch apart. Same grouping at that range, and the patch still looked pretty healthy.

So please enlighten me with anything you feel like typing out, even if its a bit off the question as I still have tons to learn. Thanks in advance! :thumbsup:

 

[Bob J]

You say its now grouping well? If the group is consistently 9" below point of aim, I'd say its time to start filing the front sight. Just a little, then shoot three shot groups, file some more, then shoot some more.

 

[RunningBear]

You could just mark your front blade with a drop of white-out first.This allows you change your aim point without removing any metal.Its always harder to put metal back on then it is to file it off.But also try a 80 grain charge.RunningBear. :m2c:

 

[CanaryCook]

The fact the the metal is easy to remove but damn near impossible to put back was exactly why I wanted to ask. Maybe I'll just pound another pile of shots through it, as its darn fun to shoot anyway

I'll have to give it an 80gr blast just to see what happens. When my folks get home from their vacation I'll snatch their camera and post some pics of the patches to see if any of you guys can tell me more than I can figure out on my own.