Pedersoli Brown Bess

M

mehavey

New member
Every ten years or so I get a wild hare ....

So I picked up a 42" Short Land (Pedersoli) Brown Bess from Cabela's on Tuesday, along with some trial 0.715 and 7.35" balls, a 75cal jag & scraper, a dozen Tom Fuller flints and a Creedmore steel cleaning rod (that has a fixed handle to allow twisting the scraper) from TOTW.

YESTERDAY Long story short: Ran 2Fg trials of 65, 85, and 97grains using both the 715 and 735 balls. No cleaning between rounds. All at 25 yards, all with 6'oclock hold on a standard 25-yd pistol center.

ASIDE-1: Replaced the pedersoli flint with Tom Fuller's about 5 shots in. (I don't know how newbies ever survive first exposure to flinters unless they do this right off the bat.) Out of 30 ensuing rounds, no misfires, and only one FITP.
ASIDE-2: That Bess lock is massive compared to my other flinters. I could have time to make a ham & cheese sandwich while that hammer/cock is falling. And while many might use the main charge 2Fg powder to prime, 6gr of 4Fg made ignition times considerably faster

First trials used double-wrap cartridges made from computer paper, with both ball and paper going down the tube after the powder. Too much windage play when all the dust settled. Maybe good for Go2War, but 8" "groups/fliers at that range weren't too impressive. Absolutely lousy combustion/filthy fouling

Then went with the 0.018-0.020" Ticking/Spit-patched/cut at muzzle. The 80gr charges under the .715 ball could be easily thumbed into the muzzle, and no problem seating regardless of fouling -- but not impressive -- and still filthy.

Went to both bigger ball & charge -- 100gr & 0.735" ball/spit-patched. Took a whack to seat into the muzzle, but went down smoothly after that even with fouling. (Spit's always been the miracle lube don'cha know.)

Bam -- everything fell into place.

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I'll run it out to 50yds and up the charge to 105 this weekend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

TODAY was shotgun trial day (after all, this smoothbore is my newest skeet gun).

1⅓ oz of 7½ shot, 81gr 2Fg. (About a 3+Dram Eq)
Charge column was:

- Powder
- Card disk
- Ox-Yoke 12ga lubed cushion wad
- Shot
- Card disk

Two shots at 25 yards again at a 2x5 "dove"-sized target made by folding a 25yd pistol center. Six O'clock bayonet hold again.

Good solid pattern; good coverage (~3' circle); no holes; clean burn,... and dead dove.

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Now I gotta work on that (ugh) trigger.....
 
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I took my repro Bess to school last semester and worked on the lock. It was dropping on half-cock so I put a bead of weld on the tumber and it works fine now. I also polished the frizzen mirror bright (it was unfinished when I got it). With its 46" barrel, it's one of the longest guns ever to show up at school.
 
Howdy

Thanks for the range report. I keep reading how smooth bore muskets were so inaccurate a Minute Man would be lucky to hit the broad side of a barn from inside the barn. I have always suspected their inaccuracy was exaggerated a bit.
 
At 50 yards:

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With my sight (aka bayonet lug) picture I'm offset left one sight width.
A no brainer head shot at that distance.

75 yards tomorrow.....
 
One of the better battle sequences using these weapons was presented in the movie Barry Lyndon
some 40 years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cIjTodmfk0

Starting at 20 seconds in, the British regiment begins to advance against a French rear guard unit
ensconced in a fixed position about 250 yards away. The French begin volley fire at ~100 yards, and
continue firing through the 60 seconds it takes the British to close that last distance at a standard 120-per.

They get in 7 full volleys.... probably 1,400-1,500 rounds.
Hell.....
 
Follow Up @ 75.

Took a shot to calibrate bayonet lug pos'n at that range.
Pos'n is consistent (relatively) from 25 - 75, though ball is just starting to knuckle...

But no problem hunting whitetail/chest shot at that range or under,
or woodchucks out to 45 or so ....
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Devil of a Whipping

The Battle of Cowpens by Lawrence Babits.

Babits practiced rapid fire with his replica Brown Bess. That's something soldiers didn't get to do. At 75 yards distanced, he put 5 out of 6 shots into a man sized target.

The difference is Babits practiced. Soldiers generally didn't. The point? A musket can be reasonably accurate provided you practice.
 
Sounds like you had a great range time and figured a lot of things out! Congrats on you new Bess!

I've never shot a Bess but I do have a 20 gauge Fusil de Chase. On that, I found pillow ticking with a tight ball shot best out of it. It requires the use of a short starter but then slides down the long bore easily. With that flintlock, I usually "spit patch" between rounds.

Smoothbores can be a lot of fun and I've seen fellows who are very good shooters with them. It's all about learning what works best out of them and "learning" the gun and how it shoots.

The Bess certainly has a "history" to it and is an interesting arm. I rememberer when my wife and I were in England in the late 70s and doing some tours and see racks full of original ones. Would have loved to have been able to have my pick of one of them and bring one home! Somehow, I think I would have gotten into a "whole heap of trouble"! :D:eek:

Enjoy that new flintier - it will sure provide you hours and hours of fun! :)
 
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