Pedersoli Mortimer Rifle

[Rokon]

Does this rifle have a quality lock and barrel? Any experience in shooting it?

 

[19 16 6]

I think that the whole rifle is a quality piece of work. That is why I bought one.
Pedersoli are well noted for the quality of both the steel in their barrels & the rifling.
The lock does exactly what it is designed to do & does it quickly.
Trigger can do with being a bit lighter & that is easily accomplished.
Ramrod is a bit light & sus to me so I made a better one.
Shoots straighter than me. I am still trying to catch up & make improvements all the time.
O.

 

[dave_person]

Hi Blackelm,
I am familiar with the rifle, at least those made during the 1980's. Pedersoli may have changed things since then so my impressions may be out dated. The lock has a sliding safety and roller frizzen. It worked well but I improved all of those I worked on. The sliding safety was a little fragile but worked as designed. The finish and polishing of the lock was not up to period English standards (certainly not up to the standards of H. W. Mortimer) but was fine. The fit and finish was pretty good and everything was well made. My biggest objection was the octagon-to-round barrels were heavy and the gun did not balance well. It was very muzzle heavy, however, many off-hand shooters prefer that. I think it is a pretty good target gun but I would not like it for hunting.

dave

 

[edw.marshall]

Having owned my Mortimer rifle since the 1990's, I believe it is a high quality piece. The one fault that needed correction was the stiffness of the frizzen spring, which shortened the life of flints by being too resistant to the strength of the mainspring. This was easily corrected by lightening the frizzen spring to the point where it was balanced to the mainspring fall.Once this was achieved, both ignition & flint longevity improved. I will also add that lock internals were properly hardened & highly polished with an excellent trigger pull. Overall an excellent & extremely accurate rifle.

 

[biliff]

Received mine (target version) last April. Closing in on the 1,000 round mark.

Changed out the hooded front sight to a blade (for Rondies and hunting) and replaced the ramrod with a more substantial tapered hickory rod.

Settled on a .530 ball, drill patch and 80gr FFFg Goex for my "everything" load. Spit patching I can shoot without wiping.
Hunting I use olive oil for lube. First shot POI from a cold clean barrel is 1/2" higher at 50 yds than from a fouled barrel.

Shot these 50 and 100 yd groups during initial sight adjustment with the fixed and flip up sights. Have repeated the groups often enough to know it's not a fluke.

Get about 80 shots per flint, sometimes more.
Lock is well polished, trigger has a slight bit of creep before it lets off.

As stated its heavy at 10lbs, but hangs well in offhand competition. Definately need a sling when out mule deer hunting.

Nock breech is easy enough to clean.

There were some small flaws in the browning near one of the ramrod pipes. Inletting and checkering are good, with some small gaps at "points" like the end of the tang.

Have played with the peep sight enough to get it centered at 100 yds, but haven't gotten serious with it yet.

Didn't get a deer last fall, hoping to get a bear this spring.

 

[Rokon]

Thank you, one and all, for your comments.

That's what makes this forum invaluable.

 

[F.G. Ford]

Hello Bill,
That is awesome shooting!
Those Mortimer rifles have got to be about the nicest reproduction guns made. Obviously they can shoot too.
They are a little pricey but they do compare favorably to custom guns that cost a lot more.
A Mortimer is definitely on my watch list!
And to the original poster congrats on yours!
Fred