Pedersoli Flint Pistol

[jackwill]

Received a .45 caliber Pedersoli pistol last week. Haven't had a chance to shoot it yet.
The vent is drilled a bit below center so that the vent hole is only slightly above the bottom of the pan. Past experience with flintlocks tells me that this might cause ignition problems. I'll have to wait until I shoot to find out.
I have never seen a muzzleloader breech plug installed this way.
After the barrel is rifled Pedersoli screws in a 1/4 inch bored breech plug that is threaded about 1 1/4 inches long. Then they drill and tap the vent hole through the breech plug threads into the bored area.
The result of this is there is a shoulder at the front of the breech plug with a 1/4 inch hole about 1/2 inch long going back to the vent.
I hope I am making sense..
I have always lightly swabbed the bore between shots when target shooting to eliminate any sparks that may still be smoldering from the previous shot.
With this setup it is impossible to swab down into the smaller diameter area. There are a lot of nooks and crannies in the threaded areas for sparks to hide in down there.
Since some of you have been shooting the Pedersoli flintlock pistols I am looking for some feedback on whether this has presented any problems.
:thanks:

 

[Bob Riegl]

I have the Kentucky flinter in .50--- I have had it a about three weeks---but I have shot it quite frequently and have had no problem with ignition---even with a small pan. I also noticed the vent hole being low on the pan---my only comment was that I would have to remove the lock in order to remove it for any reason. I used the flint bevel up in order to help clear the frizzen, which is too close to the cock IMHO. I have bore scrapers down to .32 calibre and I would use that to clean that Pedersoli breech plug. :m2c:

 

G'day,

I think you are referring to a patent breach. I have a Pedersoli Le Page flintlock and a Pedersoli Mortimer flintlock rifle. Both are fitted with the patent breach.

I do not clean between shots as all this does is to push the residue down into the bottom of the barrel. Then you put powder on top then the ball. The [censored] is then compacted in the breach until it gets so bad as to cause problems.

Better to blow into the muzzle to make sure the vent is clear then load the powder. I use a patched ball with some Castrol PH grease on it. When this is pushed down the barrel it "cleans" the bore and leave the [censored] on the top of the powder so when the shot is fired it all comes out of the muzzle.

Some suggest after loading to clean the barrel with a couple of patches but I do not go this far.

Hope this adds to your "confusion" which is part of the sport of muzzleloading.

Cheers from down under
Aussie Bob

 

[Old Charlie]

I got a Pedersoli .50 in flint. The touch hole is like the one you have. Mine fires fast and every time if I keep the flint sharp! Every fail to fire was fixed by sharping the flint. I would shoot it a while and see how it dose.
Old Charlie

 

[jackwill]

Aussie Bob; you are correct.
Boy do I have egg on my face. I have seen "Patent Breech" mentioned many times over the years but assumed it referred to breech loading guns only.
I googled "Patent Breech" and found a description that explains the concept. It seems that most or all black powder arms including mortars had patent breeches by the mid 1800's. Putting the spark near the center of the charge rather than at the side increased power.
Time to wipe the egg off and go shoot this gun.

 

G'day Jackwill,

Glad the info was of some use to you.

Mr Moderator, the word you have censored is in daily use in Australia both on the street and on TV. Even my late mother would use it when describing mundain things. It did not enter into my mind that anyone would think it required censoring. My apologies.

Cheers from down under
Aussie Bob

 

[Liver eatin’ Johnson]

We have an automatic censoring program that scans the post and detects what it thinks are no-no's... eace: