For ages I'd shot an original `63 Colt Special Model Springfield in N-SSA competition. It had a sweetheart of a lock (as most originals do) and never failed me. On a long-standing whim, I picked up a Pedersoli `61 reproduction this week to give the old girl a well-deserved rest.
The Pedersoli's fit and finish were excellent. The lock/trigger wasn't as crisp as the Colt, but I knew that was going to require work/break-in from the start.
But I got it out of the box; used Kroil to dissolve/clean out the black rust preventive goo in the barrel; wiped the rest down w/ a dry cloth; dug deep into old stuff down in the basement to find my stash of Lyman thin-skirt Minnies cast back in `85; even deeper to come up w/ my even older stash of RWS musket caps; loaded up a half-dozen of my old standard of ~60gr 2Fg/GoEX under the Minnie dipped in 3:1 Crisco/Beeswax in a red plastic valve-cap "cartridge" ... and headed out....
Not bad for a simple point-of-aim-out-of-the-box test:
.
The Pedersoli's fit and finish were excellent. The lock/trigger wasn't as crisp as the Colt, but I knew that was going to require work/break-in from the start.
But I got it out of the box; used Kroil to dissolve/clean out the black rust preventive goo in the barrel; wiped the rest down w/ a dry cloth; dug deep into old stuff down in the basement to find my stash of Lyman thin-skirt Minnies cast back in `85; even deeper to come up w/ my even older stash of RWS musket caps; loaded up a half-dozen of my old standard of ~60gr 2Fg/GoEX under the Minnie dipped in 3:1 Crisco/Beeswax in a red plastic valve-cap "cartridge" ... and headed out....
Not bad for a simple point-of-aim-out-of-the-box test:
.
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