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Pedersoli Enfield

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bigted, good to hear you've found the right minies in .578's.

For me, I like to test minies at 50 yards. I can see the target clearly and can do "Kentucky windage" until I "adjust" the rear sight to hit center. Can take it out to 100 yards but my eyes will become a variable. The ph volunteer is hitting center at 50 yards. So I should take it out to a 100 yards from now, for load testing. You guys are right. Why shoot close in a long range rifle.
 
I do not take offence that easy. I have to say this ... simply ... if my rifle will not hit within a 6 or 8 inch group at 25 to 35 yards ... then I would just guess the bullet/powder combo surely couldn't be counted on to group worth beans at 50, 75 or 100 yards. SOOOOO, First I begin at short range, then if I find the combo like I just discovered, THEN I will try it a couple more times to see if they are repeatable ... THEN I will stretch the range to 50 and 100 to see where I am.

Besides, I find shooting at 35 to 50 yards off hand as well as rested shooting clay birdies to be huge fun and great practice.
 
bigted said:
I do not take offence that easy. I have to say this ... simply ... if my rifle will not hit within a 6 or 8 inch group at 25 to 35 yards ... then I would just guess the bullet/powder combo surely couldn't be counted on to group worth beans at 50, 75 or 100 yards. SOOOOO, First I begin at short range, then if I find the combo like I just discovered, THEN I will try it a couple more times to see if they are repeatable ... THEN I will stretch the range to 50 and 100 to see where I am.

Besides, I find shooting at 35 to 50 yards off hand as well as rested shooting clay birdies to be huge fun and great practice.
Click to expand...
When starting with a new (to me) piece I start short (40 meters, range issue) until I find something stable, then start moving back until I reach 100 meters and have it all worked out. I then back up to 75 meters to fine tune. Makes sense to start when you have the most control and eliminate the unstable loads to get it "right" on the final. From bench, after getting a good load at 100 meters I will move to the 200 yard range just to see if the gun and the operator can co-exist, but that's just for the fun of it. My self imposed hunting limit is 100 meters as I know that I can hit that with M.O.D. every time.
 
bigted said:
I do not take offence that easy. I have to say this ... simply ... if my rifle will not hit within a 6 or 8 inch group at 25 to 35 yards ... then I would just guess the bullet/powder combo surely couldn't be counted on to group worth beans at 50, 75 or 100 yards. SOOOOO, First I begin at short range, then if I find the combo like I just discovered, THEN I will try it a couple more times to see if they are repeatable ... THEN I will stretch the range to 50 and 100 to see where I am.

Besides, I find shooting at 35 to 50 yards off hand as well as rested shooting clay birdies to be huge fun and great practice.
Click to expand...
I’m with you, once a rifle, pistol, whatever, has a satisfactory load, it’s time to mix it up. Positions, ranges, and targets. Shooting rifles and pistols at various ranges, and occasionally or often stretching the range, is great practice even if you never shoot beyond 75 yards at game.
 
Here's what my PH musketoon can do at 100yds. The bullet is RCBS Hogdon with tall base pin. Group is just under 2moa and was part of a head to head test of Crisco v lard. Guess who won. Let's say the remaining Crisco hit the trash that evening. My 2 band PH shoots almost exactly the same. Bullet drops at .579-80. I QC them and squeeze the keepers down to .576 which is my bore size. Nothing in the base of the minies other than a very light smear of lard. Bullet is dip lubed in 50/50 beeswax/lard.

20180708_130243.jpg
 
RCBS Hogdon looks similar to Lyman blue/gray, tall base pin = deeper cavity and maybe thinner walled minie, squeeze the keepers= sizing down the mine's driving bands; correct? QC= visual; what do you look for?

Is your modded base pin turned from steel or aluminum? Pic please?
Thanks for sharing!!!
 
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bigted said:
My 1861 Enfield made by Pederosoli, is such a hoot that I regulated the cheek height to fit me so I do not get the snot slapped outta my face. Now I know that the resale is ruined by this modified stock, but, I have no intention of ever getting rid of it ... I like this rifle this much.

I like this well built rifle a lot. Nice wood and all put together well with detail work in a solid sound peice of armament.

At first I was frustrated by the lack of accuracy with minne balls. The only minne that does well is the lee .575 extreme wide flat point. It shoots .570 PRB's very well tho. A .015 patch lubed with mink oil is easy to load and I have discovered two 1.5 Old E powder charges it likes, 70 grains and 105 grains. Both will stack em on top of each other if I do my part at 35 yards. Gotta stretch my yardage next but if they will not group at 35 ... stands to reason they will not get better at longer range.

I have read of the patent breech but find no such in my rifle , it is bore diameter back to the touch hole from the nipple bolster.

Next I have read of a 1 in 48 inch twist, but not so with mine. With a tight patch on my cleaning rod I marked it and pulled it back out and discovered a 1 in 60 or so twist.

All in all the more things I discover about this rifle, the more I think this must be an early model rifle. It is marked Pedersoli - cal 577 behind the CW00xxx number on the left breech area in very small print. The lock is stamped with the crown at the rear and TOWER with 1861 on top of it in the middle of the plate. With the exception of two number 25's along with small proof marks, that is the only markings on this rifle.

At any rate, thats my tale. Any hints or suggestions or maybe further knowledge concerning this wonderful rifle would be excellent.
Click to expand...
 
bigted said:
Well I guess I have some experimenting to do stance wise next time out shooting. Thanks for the instruction.

Why yes I would have been a "bullet magnet". Specially now at 62 where my bones and joints are having a tougher time getting into positions ... well not so much getting into them ... but returning from them.

Stance wise, I do suspect that the American stance ( quartering away from the target ) provides an enemy with less of a target. Not especially useful during the CW as battles were fought in the Napoleonic system of lining up and exchanging bullets ( such a moronic way to do battle). I suspect our quartering away stems from our success in gorilla warfare we adopted during our war of independence. Or somewhere along those lines where being in hiding and doing surprise attacks worked so well. Something we must have forgotten along the way as when in the jungles we got our behinds handed to us by this exact system.

At any rate I intend trying this "British" stance to see if I can improve my comfort in shooting such straight combed weapons.
Click to expand...
The one I had also shot very well with Lee .575 Minies and RB. The twist should be 1-78 .575 is too small for my Zouave so I use the Lee .578 which works nicely.
 
The mould that Parker Hale used to recommend was the Lyman 575213, which is the one I have for my PH Musketoon, and which shoots very well out to 200. The mould I have however casts a bullet with only a shallow, flat based cavity, and the mould Midway is advertising has the traditional. deep cavity!

I would get the 575213 mould and then get someone with a lathe to turn you a new plug. It needs to produce a skirt about 3/32" thick and 5/32" deep.
 

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