New Pedersoli Blue Ridge .36... questions

[DanChamberlain]

I went the other way, my pet load is 20 grains of fffg and this gives me adequate power and great accuracy for rabbits and squirrel. It's a great shooting load too! For small game you don't need more power than that. Case in point, I once shot clean through a red fox with my .36 Navy pistol loaded with 25 grains of powder. If I was going to shoot javalina or something larger, I'd go with 30 or more. But for squirrel, rabbit and anything that flies, 20 is enough.

Dan

 

[paulvallandigham]

I agree with Dan. The whole point of shooting small bore rifles is to save costs. If you are putting 35-40 grains of powder in a gun when 15 or 20 grains is more than adequate, what have you accomplished?? Other than to waste money???

I can assure you that our ancestors could not afford to waste money on powder or ball, or caps. My grandfather was raised on a poor fruit farm near Coloma, Michigan, where the family lived on what his older brothers and father could TRAP with snares, and, in good years, shoot with small caliber rifles, IF THEY COULD AFFORD THE POWDER or Cartridges. The Rest of the winter, they ate potatoes, from a 100 lb. sack HIS father bartered for in exchange for a couple of bushels of apples from the farm, and then whatever food was canned over the summer and fall from their "vegetable Garden". They picked up culls of apples from the ground- that could not be sold-- and ate them through the winter and Spring months.

He grew up running a trap line, at which he was no good( he said), and ran off to the big city to find work as soon as he could. He was a Teamster- driving a horse drawn wagon-- when he first met my Grandmother in a boarding house. Before they married, he got a job as a " Fireman" on the Milwaukee Railroad, when engines still used wood and coal to create steam, and later was promoted to being an Engineer. I have a shotgun he bought later in life, so that he could return home to go hunting with his brothers, and cousins.

If you shoot Traditional ML rifles because you want to understand and experience hunting as our ancestors did, consider using less powder, casting your own balls, and choosing those shots wisely. Few of us do subsistence hunting and fishing these days, but you can imitate that way of living by using LESS. :thumbsup:

 

[ballandcap]

Well said Paul, nice read and very interesting. I do like the idea of using less powder as well.

 

[David W.]

Not disputing the Hornady swaged ball is softer. The buckshot contains antimony, but they ar still relatively soft, so to speak. However, I care not when hunting squirrel or rabbit as expansion is not at all important. The buckshot is cheaper to use and quite adaquate.

 

[David W.]

I find that a 22 gr. FFFg charge of Swiss is more than adaquate and very acurate. And I still say 000 buck is plenty fine and cheaper as well. Squirrels do not care if the ball expands or not.

000 cost is about 4.5 cents and swaged balls about 8.5 cents each.

 

[badpenny]

i've got one,i shoot 25 grains of swiss 2-f and a swaged .350 ball.very accurate and sufficent for anything a small bore will be called on to do.

 

[ballandcap]

Looks like I may have spoke to soon. Last night I was testing the sparks and burned a few pans just to check it out and the flint started cutting into the frizzen face. It would stop the hammer completely and imbed the flint in the frizzen some. Sometimes it would just roll a layer of metal down to the heal of the frizzen, sometimes stop of the heal with a bit of metal shavings. Nice huh?

I'll head down to Cabelas and hope to get either the frizzen switched or the lock, and need to be ready to shoot this weekend.

As far as the 000 goes, that will probably be shot from my gun 95% of the time.

 

[hanshi]

Sounds like a too soft frizzen for sure. Luckily an easy fix. I guess that one just slipped by.

 

[Trench]

I agree with Dan. The whole point of shooting small bore rifles is to save costs. If you are putting 35-40 grains of powder in a gun when 15 or 20 grains is more than adequate, what have you accomplished?? Other than to waste money???

I can assure you that our ancestors could not afford to waste money on powder or ball, or caps. My grandfather was raised on a poor fruit farm near Coloma, Michigan, where the family lived on what his older brothers and father could TRAP with snares, and, in good years, shoot with small caliber rifles, IF THEY COULD AFFORD THE POWDER or Cartridges. The Rest of the winter, they ate potatoes, from a 100 lb. sack HIS father bartered for in exchange for a couple of bushels of apples from the farm, and then whatever food was canned over the summer and fall from their "vegetable Garden". They picked up culls of apples from the ground- that could not be sold-- and ate them through the winter and Spring months.

He grew up running a trap line, at which he was no good( he said), and ran off to the big city to find work as soon as he could. He was a Teamster- driving a horse drawn wagon-- when he first met my Grandmother in a boarding house. Before they married, he got a job as a " Fireman" on the Milwaukee Railroad, when engines still used wood and coal to create steam, and later was promoted to being an Engineer. I have a shotgun he bought later in life, so that he could return home to go hunting with his brothers, and cousins.

If you shoot Traditional ML rifles because you want to understand and experience hunting as our ancestors did, consider using less powder, casting your own balls, and choosing those shots wisely. Few of us do subsistence hunting and fishing these days, but you can imitate that way of living by using LESS. :thumbsup:

I can't argue with that. However, for what ever reason my Pedersoli .36 only shoots tight groups with 40gr of 3F.

 

[paulvallandigham]

There are often two or more loads that will shoot tight, if you look long enough. The high speed ones are almost the easiest to find. When the bore is polished after 200 shots or more, then its easier to find the low velocity loads that also shoot tight.

Again, remember that for practical use, these smallbore caliber guns are going to be used at 25 yards and less the majority of the shots taken.

The .36 is capable of giving fine accuracy out to 50 yards, PROVIDED that the weather conditions are right. When the wind is blowing the tops of the tree around, that little ball is going to be blown off the POA, too. No head shots on squirrels. You might still be able to take a fox or coyote out at 35-50 yds with wind as a problem, which gives that bore an edge over the .32. :thumbsup:

I have seen small bore guns shoot RB groups out at 100 yds. on paper targets, that are very tight, but under range conditions with optimum light, humidity and wind. No one would suggest that anyone shoot at live game at that distance, however, no matter how fast the RB leaves the muzzle. It simply dumps too much velocity, and has too little energy left at 100 yds. to be shooting game. It doesn't take much to kill a rabbit or a squirrel, granted, but getting a killing shot into these small animals, at that distance is more of a stunt, than an ethical way to hunt.

The last smallbore group fired at 100 yds that put 5 shots in the X ring, I know about, was done using a flintlock that had a scope temporarily mounted on the barrel for testing purposes. The Shooter is a champion target shooter, several times over, but even he would not suggest that he could shoot that tight group using open sights. He was testing both his load, and a new barrel, when he performed this feat. It took the scope sight, plus all his talent, and years of experience to read the wind in order to put 5 .28cal. balls into the X ring. I suspect he might concede that lady luck was with him that day, also. :hmm: :hatsoff:

 

[hanshi]

With my .36 SMR flint I've never seen a reason to go above 30 grains 3f. This is a wonderfully accurate load and 20 grains seems perfect for squirrels. The .40 now can justify heavier loads where it's legal for bigger game.

 

[Snydly]

40 grains of FFFG is a great Turkey or coyote load.

 

[PastorB]

I have 3 Pedersoli Frontier rifles, two percussion and one flint. Like a previous poster said, the factory front sight is all but unusable, way too thick and fatter as it is filed down. Replace it with a thin silver blade, available online from many sources. Secondly, replace the cheap "dowel rod" junk factory ramrod with a real hickory one. The factory one WILL break on you, usually at an inconvenient time. Besides these small tweaks, I love my Pedersoli Frontiers, which are identical to Cabelas Blue Ridge, with the exception of blue vs. brown barrels. Good reliable sparker in flint, and while not authentic, really like the easily removed barrel for cleaning. Some folks criticize them as not being "Period Correct". Well, for the price, they are close enough, and I dont have to worry about dinging a $3,000 rifle as I go out hunting or target shooting. 35 grains of Goex fffg gives good accuracy and about 1700 fps, chronographed, in my .36 with a PRB.