Pedersoli Barrel question

I bought a Pedersoli Frontier at a gun show a few weeks ago. I have never shot a flintlock before. I own three other cap locks that I have deer hunted with and thought this might be a new challenge. I took it home to clean it good and there is a noticeable ring in the rifling about 4-6 inches down the barrel and it appears to be tighter from there to the muzzle. does not look like pitting and no bulge in the exterior that I can detect. There was surface rust in the barrel, but it cleaned up nicely and the patches go up and down the barrel smoothly. Any Ideas on this ring? I took it out to shoot it and it was awful. I have a lot of issues to work out....primarily being afraid of it.

Thanks.

If the rifling or barrel in general are messed up, I may have a machinist buddy ream it out and turn it into a .62 smoothbore.

Try running a semi-tight patch down the barrel, and see if it runs smoothly and consistently down the barrel, or if there are areas of sudden tightness or looseness. As I understand it, this can be an indication that the barrel was "bulged" by in improperly loaded round.

R,
E. Maker

With a tight patch, there is a tight spot 5 inches down and then the patch runs smooth the rest of the way down. seems tighter from the tight spot to the muzzle. Would this barrel still be serviceable to ream out if there were a bulge or would it be weak?

You are looking for changes in the feel of a tight patch being run down the bore.

A choked bore is unlikely in a production rifle, but you will feel a consistently tighter feel to the patch from about 4 to 6 inches from the muzzle to the muzzle.

4 to 6 inches in is about the length of a short starter. It may take some very good micrometers to determine if you have a bulge at that spot on the barrel. It is not impossible for a gun that has been shot after only the short starter has been used to continue to be an accurate rifle.

Then again it may shoot quite well and retain good accuracy. Get some precise measurements at the "ring" and get back to us.

I would measure the outside of the barrel where the suspected bulge is, and compare that to another section of the barrel.
This should tell you if it was a bulge or an internal rifling problem.
Personally if it was a bulge, I would not rebore it. A bulge could cause stress fractures, and potential failure. That is a conservative opinion. Given it is in a lower pressure area in the barrel, the risk is reduced, but as an material engineer I would ge t a new barrel for peace of mind.
I would send Pedersoli an email and ask if they would replace it. Maybe you can get a new one for asking? Worth the effort.

Another option is to just shorten the barrel. Cut it off below the ring if that is what it is and remount the front sight. Easy to do if a half stock and a little more work on a full stock.

With a tight patch, there is a tight spot 5 inches down and then the patch runs smooth the rest of the way down. seems tighter from the tight spot to the muzzle. Would this barrel still be serviceable to ream out if there were a bulge or would it be weak?

Click to expand...

Stop please
A bulge will feel like the bore resists, THEN you get a very short spot where it suddenly feels loose, then it should tighten back up.

IF it's tight for about 5" then gets loose for the rest of the length, which is about 34" on a frontier..., and the patch isn't coming free of the ball when the ball hits the smoother spot, then that's not a bulge.

Have you taken a look at the bore? You can take something like a AAA battery, and drop it with the flat side toward the muzzle, then use a flashlight to reflect off the butt of the battery, and illuminate the interior of the barrel.

The good news is that you may have a rough spot (from any number of reasons) in the last 5" of the barrel. That can be polished out if that's all there is.

The bad news is that it may be an improperly machined barrel. If there are no rough spots and there is no bulge, they may have cut the barrel wrong, and when it became rifled, the lands are too shallow. IF that's the case, and the bore just tightens at the muzzle, it should still shoot conical projectiles pretty well. In the book, The Muzzle-Loading Caplock Rifle, Ned Roberts documents folks intentionally opening up most of the bore of their rifle, tightening near the muzzle, to shoot conical projectiles.

However, If it's simply improperly machined, well the other option is as folks suggested...., have it reamed out smooth to a .62 (or maybe a .58/24 gauge if that's too big). You might find it more versatile and more fun that way. :wink:

LD

Doesn’t sound like a bulge to me also.

May just need a very good cleaning, sounds like a ring of crud.
Clean it, if that’s not it, take it to a smith and have him/her use a bore scope on it.
That way you will know the what & why of it and then you can”¦”¦



William Alexander

With the 39 inch barrel it would be a nice smooth bore gun. If it was mine I would figure out how well it shoots before anything else. You don't need a ton of powder and the spot is way down the barrel. Not being familiar with a Flintlock may be most of the accuracy problem.

Thanks for all the replies. I am in no hurry. I will do some measuring. I am certain I was flinching terribly while shooting. The barrel ring is disconcerting. I may be able to get a picture of it. You can see it quite clearly with my sliding bore light. The rifling in this barrel does seem very shallow compared to my other guns. My goal is a good reliable gun I can take deer with out to 50 yards max...likely closer. I like getting close as I like traditional archery also.

Traditional archery and Flintlocks are great. :thumbsup:

Last night was the first time shooting this gun. I shot 18 times at a thirty inch diameter log end. My group was 18 inches and I did manage to miss the entire log 4 times. It was ridiculous. My father was with me. He is 79 years old and was giggling his butt off at me. "Boy!!!, you sure flinched that time!" On the plus side, only failed to go off twice due to badly adjusted flint.

Aim small Miss small

Which caliber did you get and what are you using for powder volume, patch thickness, and ball diameter? I know this has nothing to do with the tight spot, but just wondering, accuracy wise.

Also, I'd shoot a bunch off a bench to see what you really have as shooting offhand with a flintlock when you've never shot one before is not going to be a good test of the rifle's potential.

It MAY be a bulge.
I failed to seat a ball on the powder in a smoothbore barrel causing a noticeable ring on the interior of the barrel, with zero changes on the exterior.
This was around 7" from the breech.
I continued to shoot this barrel for several years with no ill effects.
Now, this was a smoothbore, so no rifling to deal with.
There is relatively little pressure at the muzzle, but I would think that bulge in the rifling may cause some accuracy issues.
Good advice so far, it seems you have a few choices.
Smoothbore it,
Shorten it.
Rebore, re rifle
Shoot it and see if it'll shoot.
Good luck.

Why not just get some lapping compound and lap out the tight spot ONLY?

We are probably only talking about 2 to 10 thousandths anyway.

I had a target on the log.....
Update. It is definitely a bulge.
Exterior flat to flat is .890. At the bulge .902
I got pics of the inside....looks pretty bad.
Any way to upload pics?

Question. Can this barrel be left full length and reamed to .62 smooth bore, or should I have it cut off about 5-6 inches and re-crowned, keeping the rifling intact and: requiring 3 additional dovetails, shortening of the stock, relocation of ramrod thimbles, etc?
Do you think the bore is still strait in line from one side of bulge to the other. I suppose it will have to be reamed from the muzzle?