Jay
36 Cl.
I’ve been thinking about blue ridge rifle in 54 caliber anybody have anything good to say about it or anybody have anything bad to say about it
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Cabelas blue ridge rifle any good
- Thread starter Jay
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I don't think you'll hear much bad about a Pedersoli Frontier/Cabelas Blue Ridge. I can't speak to the .54 as mine is a pipsqueak .32, but I like it. The trigger is excellent, it points very naturally for me, and it's a tack driver. Some love the buckhorn rear sight and some hate it. It works just fine for me. Even if you hate it, it is easily changed out.
ALL RIFLES ARE JUST BARRELS WITH A STOCK TO HOLD IT AND A MECHANISM TO FIRE IT.
IF IT ALL HANGS TOGETHER SNUGL WITHOUT SHOWINGANY STRESS BY BEING ADLY ASSEMBED.
IT DHOULD THEN BE OK. A $3,500 WORK OF ART WITH A BAD BARREL IS NOT AS GOOD AS A CHEAPERINO WITH AN ACCEPTIBLE BARREL..
I SPENT ABOUT 4 OR 5 YEARS AT THE PRIMITIVE RANGE I USED AND I HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY RIFLES I COACHED. IF THE BARREL WASGOOD, STRAIGHT AND NBLGED THERE WAS LITTLE PROBLEMIN GETTING TO HAVE PETTY TIGHT GROUPS IN A VERY SHORT TIME.
SLIDE A SOMEWHAT TIGHTLY PATCHED JAG DOWN THE BORE WITH JUST THE WEIGHT OF YOUR ARM AND IF IT SLIES SMOOTHY WITH NO TIGHT OR QUICK SPOTS YOU PROBABLY HAVE A WINNE.
DUTCH WHO MISSES HIS OLD BUDDIES.
TALKING ABOUT THE PRIMITIVE RANGE WHERE I DID ALL MY EXPERIMENTATION I REMEMBERED THAT I WOULD ARRIVE, PARK MYTRUCK AND THE HAD TO NAVIGATE ABOUT 36 OR SO FEET OF A SEMI PERMANT MUD TO PASS THE RAT INFESTED OUT HOUSE TO ACHIEVE THE FIRING LINE. I WOULD BE CARRING TWO HAWEN STYL RIFLES.ASHOOTING BOX OF MISCELLANEOIS ITEMS AND A HEAVIER THAN PROBABLY NECCESARY SHOOTING SUPORT.
THIS WAS A LOAD. I SOLVED A LOT OF IT BY BUYINGA FEW THINGS THAT WERE READILY OBTAINABLE. I REPLACED THE METAL RING THAT HELD THE BAELS IN PLACE AND EPLACED THEM WITH RINGS THAT HAD A SMALL HTHREADED HOLD IN THE BOTTOM TO WHICH I COULD SCREW IN THE DEVICE TO HOLD THE FONT CONNECTION TO A SLING./ ANOTHER SUCH DEVICE WAS ATTACHED TO THE REAR END BOTTOM OF THE STOCKS. I THEN INSTALLED A SLING WITH 3 INCH WIDE SECTION TO EST ON MY SHOULDER. THIS WA I COULD MAKE THATSHORT MODDY TRIP IN ONE GO LEAVING BOTH HANDS FREE FOR THE BOX AND THESPPORT. MADE A WORD OF A DIFFERENCE
DUTCH
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Bought one several years back. Mine is a .54 flintlock. They’re an excellent muzzleloader for the money. Bought mine at a Cabela’s in Indiana.
My assessment:
1. Lock is fast and extremely easy on flints. I use English flints 7/8”.
2. Extremely reliable.
3. A little muzzle heavy up front but manageable. Some like a little weight up front when shooting off hand. I prefer it myself. Keeps the barrel nice and steady.
4. Didn’t really care for the finish on the stock. The barrel is held in to the stock by two screws that go in from the thimbles and into the barrel with a tang bolt to secure the rear of the barrel. I just cranked down the screws going through the thimbles into the barrel and left well enough alone. Not a problem.
5. Trigger guard feet are not inletted into the stock. Not a deal breaker though!
6. Full buckhorn rear sight. Like has already mentioned, some like them and some don’t? I personally like them myself. Can definitely hit what I’m aiming at with the best of them.
7. Extremely accurate if you do your part. Nice barrel on these! Triggers are very smooth too!
8. I use 70 gr. of Goex 3f, .530 ball, and .018 pillow ticking spit patch cut at the muzzle.
9. Used the Blue Ridge at several shooting competitions couple years back. Tied for first place in one but was declared winner because I had the longest string of hits. Every time I bring it to a shooting event I do well.
Lastly, No thrills or frills. No bells or whistles. Just a plain jane muzzleloader that’s extremely dependable. Ya get what ya pay for and with this Blue Ridge rifle ya definitely get the most bang for your buck! I personally like the looks of it myself? I also have a couple of the Blue Ridges cousins. Pedersoli Frontier in .45 and a Hatfield in .50 caliber.
My opinion? Go for it! You won’t be disappointed.
Respectfully, Cowboy
My assessment:
1. Lock is fast and extremely easy on flints. I use English flints 7/8”.
2. Extremely reliable.
3. A little muzzle heavy up front but manageable. Some like a little weight up front when shooting off hand. I prefer it myself. Keeps the barrel nice and steady.
4. Didn’t really care for the finish on the stock. The barrel is held in to the stock by two screws that go in from the thimbles and into the barrel with a tang bolt to secure the rear of the barrel. I just cranked down the screws going through the thimbles into the barrel and left well enough alone. Not a problem.
5. Trigger guard feet are not inletted into the stock. Not a deal breaker though!
6. Full buckhorn rear sight. Like has already mentioned, some like them and some don’t? I personally like them myself. Can definitely hit what I’m aiming at with the best of them.
7. Extremely accurate if you do your part. Nice barrel on these! Triggers are very smooth too!
8. I use 70 gr. of Goex 3f, .530 ball, and .018 pillow ticking spit patch cut at the muzzle.
9. Used the Blue Ridge at several shooting competitions couple years back. Tied for first place in one but was declared winner because I had the longest string of hits. Every time I bring it to a shooting event I do well.
Lastly, No thrills or frills. No bells or whistles. Just a plain jane muzzleloader that’s extremely dependable. Ya get what ya pay for and with this Blue Ridge rifle ya definitely get the most bang for your buck! I personally like the looks of it myself? I also have a couple of the Blue Ridges cousins. Pedersoli Frontier in .45 and a Hatfield in .50 caliber.
My opinion? Go for it! You won’t be disappointed.
Respectfully, Cowboy
I have a Frontier in .36 and a Hatfield in .45. both guns shoot better than I can. The only gripe I have is the Lock spring is prone to breakage, at least for me for some reason. I have had two springs break on my frontier. I still don't know why.
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I may have pushed the wrong choice.
I definitely liked Cowboy's description of a rifle he liked
Very thorough.
I bought my first as a kit .45 and had my second built as an exact copy of a real Hawken. There weren't all the choices back in the '70's as there seem to be now.
I avoid going to the local gun distributers because I think I would break into teas. There are some real beauties available now.
Dutch
This may sound like witchcraft or possibly a touch of VooDoo.
When a part breaks don't buy a single replacement. Buy two or three replacements. This discourages the Bad Luck Witch
who will make an unwelcome noise in church or some other mishap. I have long gone by an old rule of mine "That problem that is prepared for seldom occurs".
My shooting box had a number of replacement parts I never needed.
Dutch Schoultz. Small time Wizard
Been there, still doing that. I can even remember what some of the parts are used for.
I had to keep mine out of sight from the ex-wife. If she looked at them, they were cursed; parts breaking, rust forming and accuracy would go to pot.
She's been in foul mood ever since someone tried to drop a house on her. It got her sister but she escaped.
I TRUST YOU HAD AN ALIBI WHEN THE HOUSE WAS DROPED.
DUTCH
AN EX WIFE HELPED ME GET INTO BLACK POWDER BY BEING AN EX. HAD WE CONTINUED IN OUR WRETCHED RELATIONSHIP SHE WOULD NEVER ALOWED SUCH SELFISHNESS ON MY PART.
MY GRANDSON HAS THE WINNING PACKAGE, A BRIDE WHO IS JUST AS INTERETED IN HIS HOBBIES FROM SKEET TO SAILINGS AND IS JUST ABOUT AS GOOD AS HE IS. MAYBE BETTER IN SOME.,.
DUTCH
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Now that’s Funny!
I've only been to Kansas about a dozen times in my life but never when we were married.
I always kept a large pitcher of water at hand whenever she would yell at me. I'm not sure why but she hated getting wet.
During a trip to the zoo and while visiting the monkey exhibit, she commented that; "they would be such lovely creatures if they could only fly."
Twice, with my last employer, I met two very beautiful women that when I asked them what they did in their spare time, they responded with one word; "hunting."
These conversations were carried on during two separate occasions. In fact, one of them looked like Jayne Mansfield! Anyway they both extolled me with the greatest enthusiasm of how much they loved hunting.
After listening to them I asked the same thing; "would you marry me?"
Their responses were the same; "why do all men ask me that?"
Back to the thread: I was seriously considering the Cabela's Blue Ridge rifle. After all, I have plenty of .50 caliber balls but really wanted a Frontier in .45 caliber.
Like I said in another posting, I could really tell how much more muzzle heavy the .50 caliber version is than my .45 caliber rifle. The nice thing about the Blue Ridge is the price. Nevertheless, I really had my heart set on the .45 caliber. If you are not picky with the caliber, I would seriously consider the smaller one.
It takes to the shoulder so much better than the larger caliber. I also stopped casting for round balls a while ago, unless they are really large caliber like my .600 round balls.
So, I find the .440 round balls on sale a lot and are cheaper per round than the .490 caliber balls. So if you don't cast that is something to consider.
A .54 Cabela's Blue Ridge percussion was my first traditional gun. Mine was a tack driver and despite the slow twist could shoot patched RB or several types of conicals equally well. I took a number of whitetails with mine including my longest kill shot of 115 yards (rested) on a good sized Minnesota doe that resulted in a complete pass through breaking ribs on both sides...so it's a very capable big game gun in that caliber.
Like pretty much all factory rifles, they have WAY too much wood left on them and I think the forestock shape of the rifle is particularly ugggggggly. But they are a good shooting rifle. At the current price of $630 it's a good choice.
The worst thing about mine was the excessively heavy trigger pull if the set trigger was not used. Since I hunt a lot in subfreezing temps I don't like using a set trigger as then the pull is ounces, which is too light for my liking with any kind of glove on.
I also had a 36 cal percussion I used for squirrel. I ended up completely reworking that gun from perc to flint and doing a massive stock workover. In case current owners want to see some things they could do to "spruce up" their production gun, here's a link to my posting and also a direct link to the flickr album. I did a lot...others could pick and choose from the list to do a less drastic rework project.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/pedersoli-frontier-rebuild-underway.98605/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/100435142@N08/albums/72157650877821348
Double clicking on any photo in the album enlarges it and allows you to read any build comments I posted with it. Once in that mode you can go forward or backwards picture to picture.
Like pretty much all factory rifles, they have WAY too much wood left on them and I think the forestock shape of the rifle is particularly ugggggggly. But they are a good shooting rifle. At the current price of $630 it's a good choice.
The worst thing about mine was the excessively heavy trigger pull if the set trigger was not used. Since I hunt a lot in subfreezing temps I don't like using a set trigger as then the pull is ounces, which is too light for my liking with any kind of glove on.
I also had a 36 cal percussion I used for squirrel. I ended up completely reworking that gun from perc to flint and doing a massive stock workover. In case current owners want to see some things they could do to "spruce up" their production gun, here's a link to my posting and also a direct link to the flickr album. I did a lot...others could pick and choose from the list to do a less drastic rework project.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/pedersoli-frontier-rebuild-underway.98605/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/100435142@N08/albums/72157650877821348
Double clicking on any photo in the album enlarges it and allows you to read any build comments I posted with it. Once in that mode you can go forward or backwards picture to picture.
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Even if you don't decide to modify your Frontier, it is well worth your time to check out Spikebuck's links on what he did! I plan to do at least some of the things he did to his, especially thinning the wood in the forearm. I recently acquired a Pedersoli Kentucky rifle in .45 caliber and the wood is so much thinner up front it makes the Frontier look like a 2x4 by comparison. I hope to duplicate the lines of the Kentucky on the front of the Frontier.
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