• Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.

    We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.

    Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103

Pedersoli owners, speak up

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I have the rolling block 50 cal. muzzleloader. I was my alternative to a modern in line hunting rifle that I could not bear to carry, the fit and finish is exceptional, it is a beautiful rifle, shoots well and is very versatile (caps or primers) easy to maintain.
 
I have an older (1972) Pedersoli Kentucky style rifle in .45 percussion. It does not have a patent breech. I am not sure if they made more squirrel friendly calibers back then but I have been well pleased with that rifle.
 
Actually no, but from what people say you get that impression. So my TC New Englander I scoped the other day. It essentially has the same breech that a Pedersoli has BUT it's a .54, while in your case there is a lot tighter tolerances due to the small caliber.

What happens with the calibers .45 and smaller, is that when folks "swab" the smaller bores, they often form a ring of crud on the patch where the edge of the jag and the barrel meet. THEN when that jag reaches the breech, a deposit can begin to form. You hunt a lot with your ML's so you know that they can each have a different set of procedures, not vastly different, but just a tad, to result in either a good, dependable game-getter, or a finicky and a little frustrating piece.

So there are two primary things I'd suggest if you get the Pedersoli. First, your ramrod should accept a cleaning brush, and I'd get a nylon brush for a .22, and carry that. Just the thing to ensure your patent breech doesn't develop a carbon ring. The second thing I'd suggest is that you start using Dawn dish washing soap as your bullet lube. Nope, not crazy. Here is a good video on why:

Magical Mystery Patch Lube

It takes so much less crud to give those small bores a real problem, and the use of Dawn appears that it will reduce them. Finally, consider polishing the Pederoli bore with some small pieces of 3M Green Dish Scrub Pad, as Pedersoli sometimes has very sharp edges on rifling lands and may cut patches.

LD
I'm of a little different opinion. That first swab after shooting should go down wet. The rod tip ought to be one of the closed loop type, whereby the patch is inserted through the loop and folded over enough times, one or two, so the patch is sufficiently fat enough to fit the bore. When it bottoms out you can turn the rod and thus the patch to clean well. If concerned about the little pathway to the flash, pour fluid in before pushing the tip down which will flush the crud. I've never had a crud ring build up and only do the flush thing at the end of the day. That chambered breech is not the terrible thing it's thought to be. Actually there are principles at play that can assist in accuracy. I don't hate 'em. The Pedersoli rifle I have and love is hands down the most accurate m/l I've ever shot. A flinter.
 
Another suggestion when swabbing small bores, or any bore size for that matter, is to use a jag that is smaller than bore size IE, use a 32 caliber jag in a 36, a 45 jag in a 50 etc.. For the 32, I use a 28 cal jag (7mm). The idea is by using a smaller jag size, the patch slides down the bore to the breech without pushing the gunk down the bore. On the pull up stroke, the cleaning patch bunches up on the jag a carries the fouling out of the bore. I have been doing this for years with no issues. As I stated in my earlier post, I occasionally use a 22 jag & patch to clean the patent breech channel, but a .22 nylon brush would work just as well.
 
I dont know if the Pedersoli Penn Dixie .45 cal I bought a while back has the patent breech or not, but on its first shoot, the only fouling issue I had was 2F compared to 3F. 2F would foul the bore much quicker than 3F so that was what I used.
I dont recall any other issues.
 
I had a frontier that I bought with both the flintlock and percussion locks and was easy swap back and forth. Some of these people saying they owned one probably never did of they would know you can remove a few screws and the barrel comes right off and place it in the sink to clean it. I literally could shoot the 45 cal about 50 shots and never punch the barrel one time and never got tough to load or lost accuracy. Off course i lube patched with bore cleaner too. But 100 percent a frontier you can remove the barrel and thoroughly clean it in the sink. So not sure where the issues come in with cleaning it because of the breech. Like I said sounds like people that never owned one. The bolster on frontier percussion screws into side of the barrel not the nipple into a breech plug. The same hole for bolster hole in the side of barrel I can screw in the vent liner and install flintlock. So where does the cleaning issue comes in???? Its actually an awesome design for cleaning, and shooting.
 
Last edited:
I had a frontier that I bought with both the flintlock and percussion locks and was easy swap back and forth. Some of these people saying they owned one probably never did of they would know you can remove a few screws and the barrel comes right off and place it in the sink to clean it. I literally could shoot the 45 cal about 50 shots and never punch the barrel one time and never got tough to load or lost accuracy. Off course i lube patched with bore cleaner too. But 100 percent a frontier you can remove the barrel and thoroughly clean it in the sink. So not sure where the issues come in with cleaning it because of the breech. Like I said sounds like people that never owned one. The bolster on frontier percussion screws into side of the barrel not the nipple into a breech plug. The same hole for bolster hole in the side of barrel I can screw in the vent liner and install flintlock. So where does the cleaning issue comes in???? It’s actually an awesome design for cleaning, and shooting.
Hello JTT. There is no concerns about how to thoroughly clean those rifles, at least with me. It has been spelled out well where the concerns are, and have been substantiated in this thread. Some Pedersoli rifles require additional and/or different attention when shooting multiple times than most other brands. The use of spit patch’s might help but it is not an option for a hunting application where my ML sometimes remains loaded for many hours, sometimes a few days, at a time.

Many folks wouldn’t even realize the situation, but for a hard core squirrel hunter that shoots quite a few shots every time they go out, they will notice it.
 
Last edited:
I don't own either or but.

Id just find a used TC? I like them.

the more modern iron sights on there with the micro adjustable. I like them too
 
If fouling is getting pushed into a too convoluted and too small sized ignition path during cleaning between shots then use a worn nipple (larger hole) to allow more force to be introduced into the path. That just flat sounds wrong but the hole is still smaller than on a flinter and if it works then it's not near as wrong as it seemed.
 
Back
Top