What the consensus on Pedersoli quality, fit and finish?
Tahquamenon,
This question pops up every few weeks on MLF.
I have owned, and own many DP firearms, all of which I purchased new. Yes, they can be perceived as over-priced, but they don't really have much competition.
1 - Fit & Finish has always been perfect.
2 - I can't comment on authenticity, but I refer to their various American Longrifle styles as "generic".
3 - DP appear to have 2 levels of "quality" (excluding the Luxury models, which I cannot comment on). For example, the quality of the internal lock parts featured on Frontier / Kentucky / Pennsylvania etc models are definately of a lower quality than say the Mang in Graz handgun which features polished lock parts; this lock feels much more "crisp" than the Frontier lock.
4 - I have owned DP 1816 Springfield, Frontier flinter (both gone) and currently Indian Trade Rifle; without exception ALL THREE sparked POORLY and required tuning & appropriate frizzen hardening.
5 - It didn't take very long for the frontier percussion lock to break down but a $15.00 fix gave it many years of service.
6 - I don't have the exact figures here at work (I do at home) but from memory it took approx 4,000 shots for the barrel to be "shot-out" in my Frontier percussion. In all fairness, this was my first firearm and through my ignorance I may have not cleaned it etc properly, on the other hand it did a lot of work in a very short period. For the sake of providing an "unbiased opinion" I rebarreled it with a GM.
Whist the stock "finish" on the frontier was beautiful, it did not like water, in fact water would "remove" the finish like acid, however, several years later I purchased a Frontier flinter which did not suffer from this problem.
:imo:
Jim.
:thumbsup:
eace:
