Pedersoli US Musket M1795 – first impressions

[dimitar]

Took mine to the range a couple of times. I have a long experience with smokeless powder guns, but just venturing into the black powder, smoothbore implements. In the meantime acquired a few original flintlock and one miquelet pistols from the late XVIII to early XIX c. ”“ have great fun learning the locks and how they work. And most of all seeing them spark.

Anyway, the flintlock is a damn reliable piece of firearm! With that Pedersoli, I use an English flint (1 inch wide) and I am very happy. Done at least 70 clicks by now (both cold and hot) with tons of sparks and very little wear and clean edge (in comparison my Traditions .50 destroys the flints like a barbarian with its heavy spring).

One thing that impressed me ”“ the ball velocities with patch or no patch...

With 80 gr. ffG and a .680 ball (forget the manufacturer):

If the ball is unpatched I get crazy velocities ranging from 410 to 650 fps. !!

If the ball is patched to offer a smooth resistance when pushed down then I get very consistent velocities around 1130 fps based on 5 shots!!

Have not done sufficient tests to conclude if the accuracy is affected. That’s a next project.

The POINT OF IMPACT IS is very low at 25 yards (have not tried other distances) if I aim the way I do regular rifles... I saw another thread touching on that. This is one area that I am not clear on ”“ what is the correct SIGHT PICTURE when a rear sight is missing?? That must be documented somewhere. When I extrapulated from the Springfield 1861 rifle (by moving sideways when the sights are aligned and getting a sense of the three bands and front sight) the point of impact moved to where I thought it should be. But that needs more practice -- I wonder if it documented somewhere?

To be continued”¦

Dimitar

 

[pargent]

Same as a rifle bring the front sight up , the term is you need to see more barrel at the front. :thumbsup:

 

[pargent]

There is a good article in one of the past issues of muzzle loader magazine.

 

[Many Klatch]

Accuracy in a smoothbore with no rear sights is a matter of memory. You must have your cheek on the stock at the same place every time. You have to have in your memory how much front sight and barrel you can see when the gun is on target.

It will take you a couple of hundred shots to get that sight picture figured out.

I find that my smoothbores like a thin .010 spit patch that easily slides down the bore.

Glad you are having fun with your new gun. They are addictive.

Many Klatch

 

[dimitar]

Phil, if not too much trouble to recall, which magazine and issue, I would be very curious to look at it. Which magazine is that, anyway?

As kids we used to blow paper cones from narrow tubes, typically .3-.35 in diameter and 20-30 inches long -- I used to aim them instinctively pretty well. Will have to develop the same feeling for the musket. This is fun.

 

[dimitar]

Many, thank you for the elaboration. A significant thrust in my experiments will be to play with the patches.

Reading the stories of the Revolutionary War and how they used to load balls and shot -- do we know if they used any wads for theese -- I wonder what velocities they got from these -- or they probably didn't care as they were shooting at close distance...

 

[dimitar]

One more experiment that I just came up with and it seems to works for developing that sight picture -- just went in front of a mirror and pointed the musket straight at my eye -- staring down the barrel in the mirror -- now I can see what a perfectly level shot should be -- there is quite much barrel I see actually for that level shot... feels like I am shooting high... but the mirror tells otherwise..

Dimitar

 

[Many Klatch]

The British line troops used undersized ball and paper cartridges. They shot .69 ball in their .72 caliber barrels. That way they never had to worry about the barrel fouling up and making it impossible to load. The standard Continental cartridge was one round ball and 3 buckshot.

The skirmishers and Rangers were probably loading both ways depending on the situation. Loose powder, patch and ball for accuracy: or cartridge for speed.

Some posters on this site seem to get pretty good accuracy with their paper cartridges, I have never really tried it.

If you are going to shoot in competitions with your smoothbore you will probably want to use a thin patch and a snug fitting ball to be competitive. If the patch ball combination requires a short starter then it is too tight. In my Pedersoli Bess Carbine I use a .715 ball, .010 spit patching and somewhere between 90 and 120 grains of 2F. It may get hard to load after a number of rounds, but that is what the steel ramrod is for.

Many Klatch

 

[Matt85]

good choice in muskets! out of the pedersoli musket line the 1795 would be the one i would buy if i was willing to spend that much on a musket. i have an India made 1768 which is almost exactly the same as the 1795 (but costed half as much). of course yours is much likely very superior in quality.

i too have found mine to shoot very low about 16 inches low at 25 yards. to compensate for this i allowed for a great deal more barrel in my sight picture and im also switching to a larger ball. due to a barrel flaw im unable to use patched balls so im limited to figuring out how to best use a paper cartridge.

a couple tricks ive heard are placing a wad under the ball and ive also heard better accuracy can be achieved by using 1Fg powder with the bare ball or paper cartridge. i dont know if these work from personal experience yet but i will be trying them when i get a chance.

-matt

 

[pargent]

Shoot at paper and work on that sight position ,I can't find that article I mentioned , once you get the sight positiont write it down . Also of note the pedersoli barrels are lazered to make sure they are straight before they leave the factory. You will also find that the harder you drive that ball the better the groups will be . :thumbsup:

 

[Alden]

One more experiment that I just came up with and it seems to works for developing that sight picture -- just went in front of a mirror and pointed the musket straight at my eye -- staring down the barrel in the mirror -- now I can see what a perfectly level shot should be -- there is quite much barrel I see actually for that level shot... feels like I am shooting high... but the mirror tells otherwise..

Dimitar

Objects in mirrors are closer than they appear. And I lost a good mirror doing that. Worst seven years...