As I said, odd as the ones I was dealing with dropped right in, BUT...,
The serial number that gives the "age" only really tells you when the barrel was stamped. No telling when the rest of the musket was made, and the lock aren't dated either. Could sit upon the shelves for decades and nobody would know.
LD
Lots of changes from the 1976 Bicentential Pedersoli Bess to the one in current production, the current production changed in the 1980’s (Jim Casco, & Paul Ackerman can confirm this).
The lock changed the most, with the plate being reduced in size from 6.8 to 6.6. The width of the tail is slightly smaller too. The sear changed shape from a traditional bess sear to a downward bending sear, most commonly seen on some other pedersoli rifles. The mainspring changed over from a forged mainspring to a casted mainspring, the screw eye moved closer to the pin and the bottom leaf was shortened.
The Tumbler’s full cock notch was cut forward more, reducing the throw, this was done because so many of the older mainsprings broke on the bottom leaf. Too much stress on the bottom leaf, I’m guessing these are 1095 springs.
The Frizzen spring shape changed with a more tapered design currently and the current spring is less accurate than the old Frizzen spring.
The lock bolts changed too, the rear bolt is M6x1, the forward bolt is M5 X. .8, the current model uses two M6x1 bolts.
The lock mortise on the current model by pedersoli was increased, as you can see the trigger guard pin is lugged through the bottom panel, on my older bess its lugged through the lock mortise, larger plate requires this. the tail of the lock mortise was made smaller to accommodate the new lock. The current lock plate will leave around .50 mm gaps along the tail and the bolster is too thin. The width is also narrower, causing more gaps along the upper portion.
the stock is different along the forearm, its much leaner than the current production and I think there’s just a small amount of added drop in the butt to the older model, nothing I’d call signficant but I do believe its why Dunlap offers two types of replacement stocks, one with extra drop.
