Pedersoli Howdah loads

Well, I see Dixie is advertising these now and their recommended load for the 20-gauge is 25 grains FFg and 7/8 ounce of shot. That's less than one dram. While I would not care to be in front of the barrel when that load goes off, I certainly would be concerned that such a load fired at a grouse might make the bird resentful, if little more.

That does seem a pretty wimpy load, heck you can shoot 25 grains out of a Navy Colt! I'd say 50 grains is about the least I'd care to unleash on birds and bunnies and even at that they would have to be close.

I handled one at Friendship this fall. It seems to be a stout gun. I'm surpised to see such a mild load mentioned. It woudl be fun to shoot, I think. I'm not sure how I'd do at a running rabbit tho.

Regards,
Pletch

Dont know why they use those load charts...Pedro is built much better than my 20 MVT and Ive shot 2 600 balls out of one side and a buck and ball combo from the other with 60 and 75grs of 2 f and nothing blew up....SOOOOOOOOOOOOO Im not saying load how you want just common sense should guide ya, short barrels and the 2 balls arent blocking the barrel ect it does throw out a BUNCH of SMOKE!! Fred :hatsoff:

Dixie always low balls thir load reccomendations. I'm not sure why but can only guess that its a liability thing. They recommend only 22 grains for even the dragoons, go figure.

Don

I agree. I'm baffled by Dixie's super conservative load recommendations, but maybe they sleep better at night. By the way, I e-mailed Cherry's about the Howdahs and they are expecting a shipment next year.

How much are they selling for? GC

About $600
Here's a link to Dixies ad for them;

HOWDAH AT DIXIE

The pedersoli people sent me pictures of some extremely close range patterns they shot with 25 grain charges. They said they picked that charge level for manageable recoil (!) Dixie lists the same charges for the 50 caliber rifled barrel models.

From shooting other muzzle loading pistols, I would guess that a much higher charge level would be necessary for any sort of effective load. 25 grains in the approx. 20 guage barrel of the Pietta Lemat will bounce pellets off of any sort of wood.
The lyman .50 plains pistol will drive a patched ball to 884fps with 40 grains of 3fgoex but only 681 fps with the same charge of 2Fg. We've shot 30 grains of 2f through a smoothbore aston johnson/patched ball with velocities of 530 fps.

Almost certainly the Howdahs will stand up to substantially more energetic loads than those recommended and the chief danger would be cracking the stock with really heavy loads.

Does anyone here have experience with this gun yet, maybe post some loads tested with both shot and patched ball?

I've been watching this thread and hoped you would step in fw. In three days I'm getting the same pistol as yours and was hoping you would say what and how you would charge to start with. Just looking for a starting point as I'm a noobie. I have ideas from reading this forum, just looking for real world experience.

DO NOT USE LOADS I DO/DID, as Zonie will tell you I have this problem with OVER KILL !! :rotf: I started with 20 grs 2f and got it up to 40 thinking thats a safe load. NEVER USE 2 600 balls, this is trickey to try and must be loaded just right or you can blow you and gun up. It did just fine with 1 oz of shot or one PRBand 40 grs of 2f. Even Pedro's Howdy :rotf: is just 25 grs starting out and they arent built in India by who know's who. SO STAY SAFE!! ( I've been known to shoot 5 balls out of my 20/62 underhammer like another one or two on here in stake bustin contest BUT it isnt wise at all, just a 1000 of inch to much between balls and Ka-Boom no head! :shocked2: hey I wonder if thats why they had to put 4" of titanium in my back? :shake: and i hurts 24 hours a day....hope thats enough said. I did get it to shoot point of aim by carefully filling the barrel down so it shoots really well Also be aware they are each hand made so parts are :nono: But I love mine , just am stuck in bed and cant shoot anymore. Fred :hatsoff:

I have a pair of Japanese made .64 caliber smoothbore flint pistols that I shoot. I had to recarve the tumbler and sear to make the trigger pull acceptable and reworked the stock, but I haven't done anything to the barrel. I find that 35 grains of 2F powder and a load of 5 or 6 buckshot makes a nice load. Shooting a roundball is fun, at 15 yards I can keep the shots within a circle a foot wide. I figure that a pistol without rifling, sights or set triggers was meant to shoot buckshot. 4 buck and 1 roundball over 35 grains of powder bucks pretty good, but they really tear up a target if it's not too far away.

Many Klatch

fw said:

DO NOT USE LOADS I DO/DID, as Zonie will tell you I have this problem with OVER KILL !! :rotf: I started with 20 grs 2f and got it up to 40 thinking thats a safe load. NEVER USE 2 600 balls, this is trickey to try and must be loaded just right or you can blow you and gun up. It did just fine with 1 oz of shot or one PRBand 40 grs of 2f. Even Pedro's Howdy :rotf: is just 25 grs starting out and they arent built in India by who know's who. SO STAY SAFE!! ( I've been known to shoot 5 balls out of my 20/62 underhammer like another one or two on here in stake bustin contest BUT it isnt wise at all, just a 1000 of inch to much between balls and Ka-Boom no head! :shocked2: hey I wonder if thats why they had to put 4" of titanium in my back? :shake: and i hurts 24 hours a day....hope thats enough said. I did get it to shoot point of aim by carefully filling the barrel down so it shoots really well Also be aware they are each hand made so parts are :nono:

Click to expand...

Which gun are you referring to?


MK,
thanks for the info.

This is what fw has, and I'm getting for Christmas:
[url] http://www.middlesexvillagetrading.com/PDBC.SHTML[/url]

It's made in India, and is a little smaller and lighter than the Pedersoli Howdah. But almost $300 cheaper. After reading some of fw's posts, I don't think that it is weak. :grin:

Yep, your are gonna be one Happy dude! :thumbsup:

It's almost $300 cheaper if you compare it to the Pedersoli in .50/.50. But compared to the Pedersoli in the same 20 ga./20 ga. as the MVT gun, it's $200 cheaper. Still a big difference, but not as big as a lot of people think if you're comparing the same bore size.

Thanks for clarifying that, Kevin. I'm looking specifically for some loads that have been tried in the Pedersoli. I emailed Christiaan in South Africa, but I haven't heard from him. He hasn't been on the forum for a few weeks.

Jumpshot, please post what you find out. I keep eyeing up that Pedersoli 20/20. These next couple of years should be good workwise for me and I'm interested in that one as well.

I ordered two of them last week. They're currently out of stock. The lady at Dixie told me they sell fast. She said their next shipment has left Italy, but there's no telling how long it will be before Dixie has them in their hands and ready to send out, so it's 'hurry up and wait'. But the shipment they're expecting will be large enough to cover all the ones they currently have on backorder and then some. I plan to order one more eventually, so I'll have one each to give to both my boys when they're old enough, so all three of us will have matching pistols.

That's a pretty cool idea with you and the boys having matching Howdahs. Which models? I kinda like the 20/20 since you can shoot a ball or shot. That's why I like the MVTC model. I'm not planning on trying long range shooting. If I get minute of small barn door at 10-15, I'll be happy. :haha: fw says his isn't bad.