I have owned 5 Pedersoli guns.
The first was a P1858. This was very early production - right after Pedersoli bought out Euroarms. It is a 3-digit serial number. Unfortunately, you can tell that Pedersoli was just ramping up production.
When I pulled the barrel, there were a lot of brass shavings in the barrel channel and behind the lock. When I pulled the trigger guard I could tell why. The tang screw hole had been evidently mis-drilled the first time at an incorrect angle, so to fix it, they just re-drilled over the old hole. So it is kind of an oval hole now. But, the tang screw does thread in and seems to hold.
In addition, you could tell they were using up a lot of old Euroarms castings. The rear sight was not a machined part but a casting. The bridle still had P-H cast into it from the Euroarms parts evidently copied from Parker Hale parts. The springs were all new-made however and you can see that Pedersoli makes good springs. The gun shoots great with an RCBS-500M sized to .578 with 60 grains of 2F Goex. The only reason I don't shoot it is I have other guns that use less lead and less powder. But my son turns 14 in October and so this will be his musket for N-SSA competition.
My second gun was a Pedersoli P1853. By this point they had fully ramped up production and the quality and parts were all top-notch. Nice machined rear sight, and beautiful lock internals.
I traded this gun for a Pedersoli 1859 Sharps Carbine. The quality of the gun is fine. It's a good shooter (once I found the trick about bore-riding bullets), and has a quality lock. Once the loading lever spring cracked after a few years of use but this is a common problem with the Sharps.
The biggest problem with the Pedersoli Sharps is they do not understand how the chamber sleeve is supposed to work. There is a "myth" on the internet that the chamber sleeve of the percussion Sharps was designed and/or should slide around in the cavity in the barrel in which it rests. This is false. On original Sharps, this chamber (the "buching" (bushing)) could indeed be adjusted to "headspace" firmly (but not too firmly) against the breech block face. A special tool ("buching tool") was inserted from the muzzle and could adjust the position of the chamber sleeve. So basically it was a press-fit and adjusted by an armorer until it bore nicely against the breech block, making a good gas-tight seal.
On the Pedersoli version, the chamber sleeve is loose. You can slide it in and out of the barrel with your finger. It won't fall out the back of the gun as it's too large in diameter to pass through the loading gate in the receiver. Naturally, this does not press firmly against the gas check plate, so the action leaks gas like crazy. You can get off about 10 shots before the action locks up due to fouling.
Pedersoli has attempted their version of the Sam Dobbins o-ring modification. Behind their gas check plate is an o-ring sandwiched between the gas check plate and the breech block. But, as above, it doesn't help. The breech leaks gas like a sieve.
Larry Flees is the man for Sharps work. I sent the gun to him and he removes the sliding chamber and installs a press-fit chamber sleeve that is adjusted to properly bear against his own replacement gas check plate. This allows the gun to essentially shoot indefinitely with no change in the working of the action. But the job will cost you about $400 with shipping to/from to get done. Given the cost of new Pedersoli 1859 carbines, plus the cost of rework, you are now easily into the price range of a US-made Shiloh 1863 Sharps. I have just ordered one - now to wait 2 years to receive it.
Another problem with the Pedersoli Sharps is the fire channel through the breech block is a large "Z". Where the drill bits intersect each other making this fire channel results in some nooks and crannies that absorb some of the cap blast, which can result in misfires. Larry will also rework the breech block to eliminate these nooks and crannies and this greatly improves the reliability of ignition.
My next Pedersoli acquisition was a Pedersoli Pennsylvania flintlock in .50. It seems to be very good quality and I have no problems with it. My very first NMLRA match I got 2nd place in the offhand category I entered.
My next Pedersoli was a Brown Bess. It seems that the lock mortise was not set in deeply enough and so the back of the lock plate has about a .03" gap between it and the barrel, which could allow powder to fall behind the lock plate which could result in a detonation behind the lock. I initially filled it with a lead shim and then JB Weld epoxy. On my to-do list is to strip the stock and set the mortise in deeper and eliminate the JB Weld. This will also give me the opportunity to strip the polyurethane finish (I think?) which gives the stock an unnatural sheen and slick feel. The Pennsylvania has this also. I prefer just an oil finish.
I am generally a fan of Pedersoli. I feel that they are the top Italian long arm reproduction maker in the world today. The other being Chiappa/Armisport. I have an Armisport M1842 and it has been pretty good but the lock internals were a bit soft and I had to re-grind and re-harden the sear. If you want a replica American Civil War long arm today, your choices are basically Pedersoli or Chiappa/Armisport. Shilo Sharps and Henry Repeating Arms in the US make a couple of niche Civil War era guns.
I have noticed that there is a lot of hit-or-miss quality reported by owners of Italian guns (and this includes Uberti and Pietta for revolvers). I myself have noticed spotty quality issues with revolvers. For example, a Pietta Spiller and Burr had the barrel over-rotated so the top barrel flat was not horizontal, resulting in a canted front sight post. I backed the barrel off a few degrees to fix this. Other guns have had poorly-staked dovetailed items, like the loading lever catch. I purchased most of mine through Cabela's (they used to have great sales) or MidwayUSA. I have often wondered why Cabela's/Midway could sell the "same guns" for much cheaper than Cimarron or Taylor's & Co or Dixie Gun works. I chalked it up to the buying power of the "big box stores". But I now am beginning to wonder if some stores are paying more for higher-quality deliveries, whereas some stores are paying less for "consumer grade" deliveries. I have read on the internet (hah!) that the Indian gun-like reproductions are sold this way - you make big dollar orders and you can get higher quality stuff than if you order smaller orders.
I know my lasts revolver purchase was right before Covid. I bought a Remington New Model Army from Pietta through their US distributor - EMF Company. It is an absolutely fantastic shooter and I use it in competition regularly. This was the first gun I had bought "direct from Pietta" instead of through Cabela's/Midway. This makes me wonder again if there are not quality differences depending on what/who is ordering the inventory.
Of course now it's almost impossible to find any Italian imported firearms at in stock anywhere at all. I know Italy was hit hard by Covid. I have read on the internet (hah!) that they lost a lot of gunmaking people. I have no idea if that is true but this arena has always been the province of old men and they were the prime victims of Covid.
There's no doubt that nothing matches the quality of original guns. I was astonished when I learned that years ago. I figured "modern" machining, metallurgy, and heat treating would result in much higher quality today. But no. I just disassembled an 1862 Colt Contract lock a few nights ago. The precision of fit between all the parts is stupendous. Tolerances were of no concern to them as each part was hand-fitted to be exactly right. Even the fit of the trunions on the stirrup exactly fit the holes in the stirrup arm of the tumbler. On most reproductions this is a very sloppy fit because functionally it doesn't really matter.
Also the heat-treating on the originals is second-to-none. Part of the reason I think heat treating has been historically shoddy with the reproductions has been alluded to in this thread already. I think the manufacturers did not consider that these guns would be fired as often and rigorously as modern firearms are. I think they know that a lot of people buying these guns either shoot them once and decide they are too much trouble so they live on a wall somewhere as a decoration, or they are brought out once a year for primitive a week of hunting season. Either way if they are shot 100 times that would be an outlier. Of course a competition shooter like me might put 1,000-2,000 rounds a year through their guns and so we notice bad heat treating on tumblers and sears rather quickly.
Then too, historical gun part makers in period were actually fined for bad parts they made. It was called mulcting. So there was a large incentive as a gun craftsman at a factory 150 years ago to do a good job because it came out of your paycheck if you did not.
Anyway that's my rambling on the subject.
