Pedersoli Harpers Ferry Pistol.

Looking for reviews and evals by you guys on the Harpers Ferry Pistol. Is it a good shooter? Accurate? Any negatives or positives overall? Thx, M

Flint or percussion? A kit? I have a Pedersoli Kentucky in flintlock and had a barrel problem and the lock was horrible. I fixed the barrel issue myself and sent the lock to Brad Emig to be tuned. Fine accurate shooter now but you shouldn't have to go through that to get a new gun to shoot. Hope you have better luck.

Pedro burned me once, they will never do it again.
Those pistols were flinters, caps had not been invented yet.

I have the .54 cal percussion smoothbore version. It's not perfect, but it's probably the best quality firearm I own at this point.

mldors42 said:

Looking for reviews and evals by you guys on the Harpers Ferry Pistol. Is it a good shooter? Accurate? Any negatives or positives overall? Thx, M

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Just came upon this post.
I've oned one for about 2 years now. Rifled bbl,flinter. Here is what I did to get it to suit me with regards to functionality and accuracy.
install rear sight
modify hammer geometry-i.e. change angle of flint/frizzen impact to an acute rather than a right angle.
trigger work to reduce pull.

It now shoots as well as any flinter pistol I've owned.
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Took my Pedersoli Harper's Ferry smoothy out today and tried some tin foil shot cups with #5 shot. Got good small game killing patterns at 10 yards. I'm very pleased with this gun.

My .54 Percussion Pedersoli Harper's Ferry is a ton of fun.

I make paper cartridges for it with .490 round balls. It's surprisingly accurate.

These fit perfectly in a flap holster for an 8" revolver too. I made a "rig" for mine with a holster, a cartridge box and a cap pouch.

lechowicz said:

Just came upon this post.
I've oned one for about 2 years now. Rifled bbl,flinter. Here is what I did to get it to suit me with regards to functionality and accuracy.
install rear sight
modify hammer geometry-i.e. change angle of flint/frizzen impact to an acute rather than a right angle.
trigger work to reduce pull.

It now shoots as well as any flinter pistol I've owned.
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Click to expand...

I have one....and I noticed that the flint hits the frizzed at a very "straight on" like 90 degree angle. Can you describe what you did to make it throw spark more reliably??

ELewis said:

I have one....and I noticed that the flint hits the frizzed at a very "straight on" like 90 degree angle. Can you describe what you did to make it throw spark more reliably??

Click to expand...

One way without changing the lock...,
put a piece of wooden matchstick under the backside of the flint where the flint touches the jaw screw. That will move the angle of the edge of the flint downwards. Works on rifle and muskets, should work on a pistol. OH and be sure you have a gap in the flint wrap be it leather or lead, and that the back of the flint is touching the shaft of the jaw screw..., especially on a factory gun.

LD

Loyalist Dave said:

One way without changing the lock...,
put a piece of wooden matchstick under the backside of the flint where the flint touches the jaw screw. That will move the angle of the edge of the flint downwards. Works on rifle and muskets, should work on a pistol. OH and be sure you have a gap in the flint wrap be it leather or lead, and that the back of the flint is touching the shaft of the jaw screw..., especially on a factory gun.

LD

Click to expand...

I'll definitely try the "matchstick" trick....makes sense. I'm newish to RockLocks, so I'm not sure what you mean by "make sure you have a gap, in the flint wrap". Also, I'm a bit confused by having to have the flint back touch the shaft screw......as the flints wear and we knapp them, don't they get shorter, and don't we move them forward in the cock jaws? at some point it seem that the rock isn't going to be touching all the way back....just confused

Following, I'd love yo know more about changing the geometry, or the flint gap as described.

OK so most factory made flinters need the flint to rest it's back edge on the jaw screw. IF it's resting on leather, or worse, not resting on anything, you have a good chance from what I've observed, of the impact from flint to frizzen being absorbed a bit. Factory locks are also deceptive on some guns, as when they are big like a Bess. Big doesn't mean "fast" when the lock is triggered, so the bigger locks sometimes need help too, and often the big musket locks use a lead wrap...

So these are two different leathers for the flint. The top one goes behind the jaw screw, the bottom one is more common and has an opening to allow the flint to rest on the jaw screw



So here is the top leather installed. Note how it bends between the back of the jaw with the screw shaft going through the leather, and the flint touching the stone. This has the advantage that IF the flint falls from the lock, your leather is still held in place.



This shows the lower leather, with only a groove so the leather is on either side of the screw while the flint rests on the jaw screw




LD

Excellent description and pics, Dave. Cheers.

Loyalist Dave said:

OK so most factory made flinters need the flint to rest it's back edge on the jaw screw. IF it's resting on leather, or worse, not resting on anything, you have a good chance from what I've observed, of the impact from flint to frizzen being absorbed a bit. Factory locks are also deceptive on some guns, as when they are big like a Bess. Big doesn't mean "fast" when the lock is triggered, so the bigger locks sometimes need help too, and often the big musket locks use a lead wrap...

So these are two different leathers for the flint. The top one goes behind the jaw screw, the bottom one is more common and has an opening to allow the flint to rest on the jaw screw

View attachment 163387

So here is the top leather installed. Note how it bends between the back of the jaw with the screw shaft going through the leather, and the flint touching the stone. This has the advantage that IF the flint falls from the lock, your leather is still held in place.

View attachment 163388

This shows the lower leather, with only a groove so the leather is on either side of the screw while the flint rests on the jaw screw

View attachment 163391


LD

Click to expand...

Great!! I think I get it.....is this why some guys put a little stick or something behind their flint?? to take up any space, and have something in contact with the jaw screw??

ELewis said:

Great!! I think I get it.....is this why some guys put a little stick or something behind their flint?? to take up any space, and have something in contact with the jaw screw??

Click to expand...

They might but I put a match stick under the rear of the flint to change the angle of the flint edge downwards, when the flint is impacting perpendicular to the frizzen. The flint still sits with the stone against the jaw screw.




LD

Loyalist Dave said:

OK so most factory made flinters need the flint to rest it's back edge on the jaw screw. IF it's resting on leather, or worse, not resting on anything, you have a good chance from what I've observed, of the impact from flint to frizzen being absorbed a bit. Factory locks are also deceptive on some guns, as when they are big like a Bess. Big doesn't mean "fast" when the lock is triggered, so the bigger locks sometimes need help too, and often the big musket locks use a lead wrap...

So these are two different leathers for the flint. The top one goes behind the jaw screw, the bottom one is more common and has an opening to allow the flint to rest on the jaw screw

View attachment 163387

So here is the top leather installed. Note how it bends between the back of the jaw with the screw shaft going through the leather, and the flint touching the stone. This has the advantage that IF the flint falls from the lock, your leather is still held in place.

View attachment 163388

This shows the lower leather, with only a groove so the leather is on either side of the screw while the flint rests on the jaw screw

View attachment 163391


LD

Click to expand...

SUPER TIPS FOR FLINTER FANS L.D. , YOUR ILLUSTRATONS EQUAL A THOUSAND WORDS

ELewis,
I wanted a permanent fix. The problem is cock geometry in relation to frizzen and flash pan. Although I can make two pieces of metal stick together I am not a "WELDER". So went to a guy who is and instructed him to take a slice out of the foreward throat in the harpers double throat. I told him to then heat and bend the foreward throat down to make the bottom jaw angle correctly into the flash pan. I gave him several pictures of commercially made locks with the correct angle. I then told him to weld the cock together. I then had a smith re harden the hammer. I have had no FTF problems and much improved flint longevity.

After another failed range session, I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to have the geometry fixed. This has been pretty frustrating.

Birddog1911 said:

After another failed range session, I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to have the geometry fixed. This has been pretty frustrating.

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I'm sorry to hear that.......I have had really good luck with mine since going thru a learning process about it. I was at the range and fire off 20 shots with only small issues here and there, mostly due to fouling and having to swab the barrel every 5-7 shots. What I have discovered is my "recipe for success" is this:

-I put a small piece of wood matchstick under the rear of the flint so that it angles down, striking the frizzen at a nicer/gentler angle
-I put my vent pick into the vent hole, and shut the frizzen on it, while I put my main charge/ball/patch down the barrel
-then lift frizzen cover, remove the pick, prime with 3-5g of 4fg.

That has been the formula that has rendered me the most success.

I hope you find better luck with yours

I'll give that a try, admittedly I haven't tried the matchstick yet.

I do need to find a different flint. Some I have are too small, others far too large.