Pedersoli Harpers Ferry Percussion Pistol

[iron brigade]

A friend and I shoot these. We both use a .535 ball from a Lee mold. 25 grains of 3f OE powder.
We bought the kits and put them together, that was fun to.
We do well with them and they are loads of fun but don't expect great accuracy.

[efritz]

I originally proposed the smoothbore pistol or horse pistol competition. I feel the recent change to 12.5 & 25 yds was a good one. Although I thought the excellent knowledge base in our organization would have figured out how to shoot them at 25 & 50 yds. Make sure you know the rules for this type of competition as it is still evolving. My team will be hosting this fall national and I will be in the main pistol range tower. Feel free to ask me questions. As for the pedersoli. ItÂ’s not a bad gun. I have an issue with the barrel and how itÂ’s made up at the breach plug end of it. ItÂ’s like they drilled out the barrel and drilled a hole in the breach plug then threaded the plug into the barrel. In essence thereÂ’s a cavity in the plug and in this cavity they drilled and inserted the nipple adapter in the side. When loading I find I have to tap the gun to get the powder in this cavity. If I donÂ’t hang fires occur. Cleaning this area is also a problem. Originals can be purchased in the $800-$1000-$1200 range. I use a roughed up .535 Lyman round ball coated in navy arms lube over 24 grs. 3F GOEX. Hope this helps you get started.

[Lithuanian artillery]

Has anyone had trouble with the Harpers Ferry dixie pistol ignition? I am using 30gr FFG and #11 caps. Can I convert to Musket caps for a hotter flame?

Thanks in advance
Andy Sinkleris

[John Holland]

As far as the N-SSA Rules are concerned, yes you can.

[Charlie Hahn]

TRESO has a musket nipple with small threads to fit the pistol. One caution when adding it that the bolster, which is threaded into the barrel will need to be rotated a bit to get a flush fit, BEFORE you shoot this. If you don't make this adjustment you can have a fail to fire, or a big leaker.

When meeting these up I would suggest that you take the gun apart, which includes removing the bolster and breech plug. Some of these have the threaded portion of the bolster intruding into the recessed area of the breech portion that has the reduced diameter. This intrusion makes cleaning with a scraper almost impossible. The bolster will need to be shortened about .025 to clear this.

When you reassemble never seize needs to be added to the breech plug and bolster threads as you will need to the this apart from time to time to be sure it is serviceable. I do believe Tom Crone makes a scraper for these that works when the bolster is shortened.

The bolster goes in until it touches and is final rotated when the barrel is back in the stock to get the nipple face flush with the hammer face.


Charlie Hahn

[Mike McDaniel]

I originally proposed the smoothbore pistol or horse pistol competition. I feel the recent change to 12.5 & 25 yds was a good one. Although I thought the excellent knowledge base in our organization would have figured out how to shoot them at 25 & 50 yds.

The lack of a rear sight, combined with the prohibition on patched round ball, makes accurate shooting very hard.