Pedersoli Frontier

[Allan]

Just spent the last couple of days rooting around this site and seems there is a wealth of knowledge here.
I have a Pedersoli Frontier flinter in 50 cal. Have shot 200 rounds and all seems good, not great but good.
She seems to like a 490 ball, .020 patch and 60 grains of 3f for 100 yards. Small mallet needed to get the ball started but after that things coperate.
My concern is the apparent lack of consistante hole bunching with this rifle. Sight has been filed and elevation came up fine. Lots of shots 2 inches over to the right were remedied with some loving taps on the front sight.
I will get four shots at 100 yards all in the 9 and 10 rings on the standard NRA 100 yard paper target then one wild one almost off the page.
Next paper will have all 5 shots fall nice and neat as slick as anyone could want into a eighteen inch circle. Go figure....
One thing I have noticed. Pick up my rifle in both hands and hold in the normal shooting attitude, ie, sights on top of barrel. One hand holds the but, the other holds the stock at the point were the ramrod enters the stock and this spot is also were my left hand holds when aiming. If you now take the rifle and roll it 90 degrees and quickly raise and lower the rifle through the air, you can feel the barrel move on the stock. For lack of a better term I would call it a rattle. At the three points were the barrel is contacting the stock, all is tight.
I think this is an excellent candidate for glassbeding. I would not have thought it was needed on a rifle that came from Pedersoli. I am new to black powder but have shot some all my life and regularly hang around with shooters. My old schooling taught me the stock and barrel should be as one.
Do any of you have any thoughts?
Also....
What happened to all the muzzleloaders in New England?

 

[musketman]

Allan quoted:
"At the three points were the barrel is contacting the stock, all is tight."

Could the rattle be something inside of the patch box?
A cleaning jag or patch worm?

Does it rattle without the ram-rod in place?
It could be the rod hitting the thimbles...

Does it have a set trigger or just a single "plain" trigger?

My musket's plain trigger will rattle because it is not spring loaded, it is just held down by gravity.

Take the barrel off and turn the stock and shake it, do you still hear the same rattle?
If so, it's not the barrel/stock connection

Try it without the ram-rod in and make sure the patch box is empty and your finger holding the trigger still and please, keep us posted...

 

[Allan]

Pehaps useing the word "rattle" was a mistake.
All your other suggestions have been tried with and without everything.
This spot is by coinsidence, smack in the middle of two of three retaining screws. The tang screw is 24" from the first screw heading up the barrel and this point that same point were the ram rod enters the stock is 12" from either screw. When held as I discribed, you can feel the stock move from the barrel. If this motion is done hard enough, an almost audible sound can be heard, if not felt.
My feeling is that there should be absolute, solid, 100% contact between the barrel and stock from one end to the other.

 

[RJR]

Allen, I've got a Frontier Rifle in flint also and had a few problems with it, just not the ones you are having. First, when you remove the thimble screws, the tang screw and the lock screw, how hard is it to take the barrel out of the stock? If it comes out without a little bit of convincing, the barrel channel has been over relieved and may have to be bedded. If it's tight you might check the inside of the lock for a broken sear spring or inside the set triggers for the rattle, the main trigger is not spring loaded and may be loose enough to rattle. As far as your fliers, my barrel took a whole lot of deburring the rifleing to get it to settle down. I scrubbed mine with fine scotch brite and light machine oil at least 300 strokes and then cleaned it thoroughly, then lapped it another 300 strokes with fine valve lapping compound on a patch. I use 60gr. FFg Goex, .018 patch and a cast .490 ball. I get 2" groups at 100 yds. off the bench. The only problem I still have with mine is a slow ignition time, sparks fine, flashes quick, but fires slow. I might have to increase the size of my flash hole and chamfer the outside a little to see if that improves it. Anybody out there got any thoughts or ideas on that, I'm looking for more experience than me. The flash hole right now is 5/64th. Good luck with it and e-mail me if there is anything else I can help you with on it, I've made some pretty good contacts at Pedersoli because of mine. They are very helpful.