Elbow grease Pedersoli

[tzvia]

My Pedersoli was the typical $200 special from Cherrys. I did not like the trigger pull, the 'blocky' stock - the wood was proud around everything - and the finish. I didn't want to put a lot of time or any money in it (unlike Zonies beautiful Pedersoli from an earlier post :bow, so treated it as an 'in-the-white' kit. I reshaped the wood, removing all the blocky extra stuff around the tang and triggerguard. 180, 240, 400 grit sanding, then several water based stains; walnut, maple, then colonial walnut last. And then 4 coats of tung oil. Then I stoned down the sear which really lightened the trigger pull. Put it all back together:

Sure beats the way it looked and 'felt' before and since I had all the tools and stains already, cost me nothing more than my elbow grease and time. Next step is to brown the barrel, but that is next weekend's project...

Lois

 

[Old40Rod]

Very nice! The tung oil gives it a nice "non-shine shine". :thumbsup:

 

[john s mosby]

Tzvia

Can you expand on how you did the three stains? What did you do between each stain, etc?

 

[tzvia]

I guess I was more experimenting than anything else. The butt is darker wood than the rest, as you can see in the photo-but hey, this is a $200 gun so I am not complaining. After each coat, I hit it w/0000 steel wool. The color ended up being a little warmer than the photo shows. I just wanted to see if I could fix that 'slapped together' look and dump that horrible reddishbrown finish and it turned out better than I expected.

 

[john s mosby]

It looks pretty nice to me, good job.

 

[Bob Riegl]

That's nice way to re-finish the stock---I used some laquer thinner to remove anything that was applied to the stock and did a little re-figuring with a small torch. I am now in the 180-220 sandpaper stage---I am also thinking of removing the blueing and doing a browning of the barrel. What I think all the current owners of these little "masterpieces" would love to hear about---is the method you used to hone the sear---I can pull a trigger on my .45 cal Ball gun and plunk a group of 10's at 50 yards---but this trigger is a beaut. So how about sharing some more knowledge and know how---steps, etc.with the rest of us guys-pretty please :hatsoff:

 

[tzvia]

I could not deal with that trigger. It must have been over 15lbs! Pedersoli sure did not make it for little women like me obviously. 3 or 4 shots and my hand was pooped so I had no choice but to do something about it.

Now I'm no expert (disclamer here), I just took a good look at the mech and decided to thin the sear by a very small amt where it engages the tumbler. Maybe thats not the best way, but it worked for me.
The sear was easy to remove (one screw). The sear spring (just above it) gives it some tension so i removed it first. The part I stoned was the upper surface of the sear at the tumbler. I tried to keep the angle and length the same, just stoned it down on top a little at a time and tested. When it felt good, I made sure it was polished smooth and I was done. It's still no target trigger, but at least I can pull it without jerking all over the target.

Lois

 

[Puffer]

I could not deal with that trigger. It must have been over 15lbs! Pedersoli sure did not make it for little women like me obviously. 3 or 4 shots and my hand was pooped so I had no choice but to do something about it.

Now I'm no expert (disclamer here), I just took a good look at the mech and decided to thin the sear by a very small amt where it engages the tumbler. Maybe thats not the best way, but it worked for me.
The sear was easy to remove (one screw). The sear spring (just above it) gives it some tension so i removed it first. The part I stoned was the upper surface of the sear at the tumbler. I tried to keep the angle and length the same, just stoned it down on top a little at a time and tested. When it felt good, I made sure it was polished smooth and I was done. It's still no target trigger, but at least I can pull it without jerking all over the target.

Lois

Your right on. the only other thing i would do is polish evverything first

Puffer

 

[Pittsburghunter]

Darn it, my wife doesn't even know what trigger pull is....

Good job Lois it looks exellent and sounds like it is shooting good for you too.

Is that gun easy to clean? do you remove the barrel from the stock often?

 

[tzvia]

I try not to remove the barrel if possible. Use instead, a flush kit or just block the touchhole and use wet patches. I put a very light coat of luberaplate(sp) or similar on the underside of the barrel and be sure to keep any water from getting under the wood (of course). It shoots low, but I have not shot it enought to settle on a load so I can file the front site down.

Lois