brown bess

[gungho]

I am looking at buying a long land brown bess made by the middle sex trading company anybody have any experience with this gun is it a good shooter or well built
thanks
Gung

 

[Mike Brooks]

What is your idea of "well built"?

 

[smoothbore69]

Gungho,
You may want to take a look at another thread in the Smoothbore forum, "Should I buy a Pedersoli Bess?". Several folks discussed their opinions about the Italian made guns as well as the Indian made versions.

 

[nkvd]

Hello All

The India made ML's are good if you can break them down re-finish the wood and tune the lock! :wink:

Cheers,Rob

 

[rabjr]

Don't know about you but to me, that doesn't exactly fall under "well built".

 

[mckutzy]

i hear ya, in fact i think they spend too much time on the polishing of the metal that most other things people are saying about them including safty.

 

[spudnut]

Pedersoli's are nice tho i have seen a couple have problems too.For the money especialy if your on a tight budget the middlesex arent too bad .I bought one of their 1717 and had to do a little work to it but in my opinion its pretty nice.I even had one guy(a serious flint gunner)think it was an original after I gave it the aging treatment.

 

[mr.fudd]

I own one, and with a little work they're a decent enough gun, but I can't really recommend buying one new. $600 is just too much for what you get. Look around for a used one. Within 2 months of buying mine, I saw a used India pattern for $400 and a Ranger model for $300.

As far as work goes, the main problem mine had was the trigger. In the beginning it was so bad it was for all practical purposes unshootable. After disassembling it and doing some filing, polishing and bending however I now have it down to around 5 lbs and smooth and crisp.