I've finally got the kinks worked out on my Ped. Tryon rifle and had a good test session with it at the range today. My elder bro. was visiting and I recruited him to do some drills with it. He's an old pro of smoke pole demonstrations for the NPS so he knew his way around the beast.
I had some earlier troubles with the breach being over-screwed which I tried to fix with a washer. The washer worked, but got fowled and crudola built up, keeping powder from subsequent loads from going down the extra-long breach hole and causing subsequent misfires.
This time I just said hang it and left the breach over-screwed. Looks odd to have the lines of the barrel out of sink but it works fine now. I did notice the two ignition failures today were both from failing to jiggle the powder a bit after pouring to ensure it flows into the breach.
Primer ignition is 100%. No primer failures at all, ever. Just some ignition issues.
About thirty rounds were fired total before the fowling got too bad to get balls down it. I was using pillow ticking greased with bore butter, .54 pads as an innert buffer over 75 grains FFG. A nice moderate load for this rifle, which is rated to go well over 100 grains. Shot PRB only, .530" balls. This is the version with the extra slow roundball twist. I tried FFFG but did not see any improvement in accuracy.
Accuracy was good though I didn't take the target out beyond fifty yards. I'm still not happy with the loose fit in the stock and will be working to nail it down tighter this winter.
All-in-all it's a solid and very nice rifle, though obviously not as good as a custom job. This one was used and I got a good deal on it. If I were to pay $800 for a new one I would get a custom rifle along the same lines. I do like the back action. And the rifle balances very well in spite of the big stock and weight. It shoots good off hand and carries nicely in the cradle position.
I had some earlier troubles with the breach being over-screwed which I tried to fix with a washer. The washer worked, but got fowled and crudola built up, keeping powder from subsequent loads from going down the extra-long breach hole and causing subsequent misfires.
This time I just said hang it and left the breach over-screwed. Looks odd to have the lines of the barrel out of sink but it works fine now. I did notice the two ignition failures today were both from failing to jiggle the powder a bit after pouring to ensure it flows into the breach.
Primer ignition is 100%. No primer failures at all, ever. Just some ignition issues.
About thirty rounds were fired total before the fowling got too bad to get balls down it. I was using pillow ticking greased with bore butter, .54 pads as an innert buffer over 75 grains FFG. A nice moderate load for this rifle, which is rated to go well over 100 grains. Shot PRB only, .530" balls. This is the version with the extra slow roundball twist. I tried FFFG but did not see any improvement in accuracy.
Accuracy was good though I didn't take the target out beyond fifty yards. I'm still not happy with the loose fit in the stock and will be working to nail it down tighter this winter.
All-in-all it's a solid and very nice rifle, though obviously not as good as a custom job. This one was used and I got a good deal on it. If I were to pay $800 for a new one I would get a custom rifle along the same lines. I do like the back action. And the rifle balances very well in spite of the big stock and weight. It shoots good off hand and carries nicely in the cradle position.