Pedersoli 2nd Model Brown Bess

[Va.Manuf.06]

..............

Long ago I gave up on what I consider to be a myth about waiting until you get a completely clean patch out of a bore. There always seems to be some trace of solvent, oil, preservative or whatever - no matter how many patches you put down a bore.

Gus

Ditto Gus.

 

[BrownBear]

Long ago I gave up on what I consider to be a myth about waiting until you get a completely clean patch out of a bore. There always seems to be some trace of solvent, oil, preservative or whatever - no matter how many patches you put down a bore.

Same here. But I always follow up with a dry patch a few days later, just to see if anything is going on down in the bore. Once I confirm there are no problems, I follow it with an oiled patch. If I see issues, I'll clean and oil the gun all over again, then follow with another dry patch a week later. Along the same lines, I try to do the dry patch/oiled patch routine once a month with all guns in storage.

 

[jon math]

Same here, always keep an eye on the bore and everything in the safe as even with a dehumidifier in there strange things can happen.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Long ago I gave up on what I consider to be a myth about waiting until you get a completely clean patch out of a bore. There always seems to be some trace of solvent, oil, preservative or whatever - no matter how many patches you put down a bore.

Amen, Bro.

 

[SgtErv]

Good point. When I shine a light down there it's spotless. I pulled out pretty clean patches today by using a double patch on the bore mop.

I get my rifle fairly spotless by using a super tight patch and a ramrod puller, all the while knowing I don't totally need to. Even then I coat it with Barricade - which is brownish, so that's how the patches end up coming out haha.

 

[daoliver924]

You can get a whole pad of blank newsprint for cheap and cut your own forever. I make at least 2000 cartridges a year (for the last 5 years) and I still have at least half the pad left.

 

[SgtErv]

That's the plan! Great recommendation!

 

[nhmoose]

I get blank newsprint rolls from the local rag for nothing. The end of the print roll left from a run.

Wife loves them at the day care giving the kids paper to draw on. Got 2-3 left over rolls in the basement now. No need to buy blank newsprint look around your area.

 

[SgtErv]

It's going to take some experimentation to keep the dang flint in the jaws. I tried a couple of different thicknesses of leather today but was having trouble keeping it in there.

I'm using a 1 1/8" English flint. Might have to drop it down to an inch and see how that works. The flint wore well, though.

Shooting cartridges is a ton of fun!!

 

[Artificer]

It's going to take some experimentation to keep the dang flint in the jaws. I tried a couple of different thicknesses of leather today but was having trouble keeping it in there.

I'm using a 1 1/8" English flint. Might have to drop it down to an inch and see how that works. The flint wore well, though.

Shooting cartridges is a ton of fun!!

When I "came back" to 18th century reenacting in the late 90's here in Virginia, I was surprised how few reenactors did much actual live shooting with their Brown Besses. I had come from much more of a background of shooting live rounds in my Brown Bess Carbine than firing blank rounds, back in the 70's. Many, if not most of the guys in the Major's Coy of the 42nd RHR had never fired a live round, though they had fired many hundreds, if not thousands of blank rounds.

Now, as the "new guy," they often commented on how certain my musket was in firing. Of course they were not used to having a new recruit that had a background like mine.

We had one other retired Marine who had reenacted with our group for many years and who had superb luck using a lead flint wrap around his flint in his Jap/Miroku Bess. However, I had found it much better to use a rather thick and wet molded leather wrap with a somewhat shorter flint than some use, from live firing in my Pedersoli and other makers of Besses.

So I wound up going over many of the muskets in our group. I re-hardened frizzens, fit frizzens to pans, did other lock work and especially checked each musket with different thicknesses of leather and lengths of flints that sparked the best and longest. Now, this was possible for me because I had made leather items for years and had/still have a lot of scrap leather in different thicknesses.

After I found the right length of flint and correct thickness of leather, I wet molded the leather around each flint in each lock and kept the combination of flint and wrap together for replacement "as an assembly." I did this by wrapping Saran Wrap around the cock, top jaw and top jaw screw where the leather wrap would contact it and thus keep it from rusting those parts as the leather dried. I have NO idea if wet molded leather flint wraps were HC/PC, but someone else had to have come up with idea well before me.

I found the combination of the wet molded leather wrap and tightening the top jaw with the pin punch from a repro "Y" tool very effective in holding the flint for the best sparks. However, I learned to ALWAYS try to tighten the top jaw screw on the morning of each day I was going to use the musket because the flint can come loose just from carrying or handling, and especially when practicing the manual of arms a good deal.

Gus

 

[Enfield1]

I have found that some rough elk skin leather is the best for holding a flint in the jaws of my locks. It has just enough "give" to cushion it and the rock will not slip out. I don't know if they still sell it, but Dixie Gun Works used to. :hatsoff: I got about a square yard of it ten years ago and at the rate that I am going through it, I will have it until dead.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

It's been my experience that in musket locks, either, Italian, Japanese, or Indian, the locks spark the best, and they spark the longest without a flint change, by using a lead-wrap, while trade guns, and smaller locks seem to function better with a leather flint-wrap, though I ensure that whether wrapped in lead or in leather that the center of the rear of the flint is bare, against the jaw screw.

Others results may vary...,


LD

 

[willowbilly]

I agree with lead. Never had a flint slip in any of my firelocks from .40cal through the BB.

I pounded mine out of deformed lead balls.

 

[SgtErv]

Oh yea, the lead flint wrap works really well. I need to fiddle with it to get the flint a bit further back in the jaw, but it sure isn't moving or wiggling any when the top jaw screw is tightened. World of difference. Thanks for the tip gentlemen

 

[Artificer]

My experience has been just the opposite with Pedersoli and most Jap/Miroku Muskets that most of the time they sparked better and longer with leather wraps, BUT one has to wet form the leather and allow it to dry. I actually wet form a wrap around each flint and keep them together for replacements.

Of course, most of our members had never been "Live round Shooters" and did not really understand how to get the most out of each flint. I wound up using different size flints and different thicknesses of leather wraps to find what worked best for most of the Brown Besses in my old unit.

However, one can not argue with success, so one should use what works best for each gun.

Gus

 

[Loyalist Dave]

BUT one has to wet form the leather and allow it to dry. I actually wet form a wrap around each flint and keep them together for replacements.

GUS that's brilliant, and I've never thought about forming the leather by wetting it. I have found lead wraps better than leather in muskets BUT I've never tried this....

LD

 

[Artificer]

Dave,

I don't remember how I discovered it, but it was by pure happenstance while I was doing most of my live round shooting of my Brown Bess in the 70's.

You should put some good rust preventative on the cock/top jaw/and screw before you do it. I even wrapped the wet leather with Saran Wrap at times. The idea is to keep the lock from rusting during or after you wet form the leather.

Gus

 

[SgtErv]

I might try that too, if for no other reason than I think it looks better

 

[Rifleman1776]

With my Italian made Navy Arms BB, I found thick leather, no matter what critter it came from, works best. But the key is to pick you flints carefully. Those with a big humpy back are wuthuless, IMHO. Vendors who sell them have to conscience, again, IMHO. Sometimes I get stuck with some when I buy by the dozen online instead of picking out of a box at a shoot or ronny. To solve that problem, I got a couple round diamond grinders. I put them in my drill press and flatten those annoying bumpy tops. Takes a few minutes but it works. Key to this lecture is: thick leather and flat tops. Works fine.

 

[Artificer]

Excellent point on choosing flat top flints and/or fixing them. :thumbsup:

Gus