Quote:
Originally Posted by Tobra
Man, those Italians make some sweet reproductions of old guns
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They sure do. They have upped their game tremendously in my lifetime, having gone from some pretty poor quality more or less "novelty" kinds of guns to some pretty darn nice stuff. When I first started competing in the early '90's in the mid and long range black powder cartridge rifle game, one simply had no chance of winning with any Pedersoli (or any other Italian) reproduction. National and world championships are now being won with them.
While all of my match rifles are American made reproductions or originals, I do own two Pedersoli long guns that I use for hunting. This one has been my main "go-to" hunting shotgun for going on 40 years, a side by side 10 gauge percussion gun that I built from one of their kits. Pedersoli have cleverly bored it to an actual 11 gauge, so we can use modern wads meant to fit inside of ten gauge shells. I use traditional cardboard and cork, but if I wanted to tighten up patterns a bit, it will accept plastic shot cups. Interestingly, this was sold through and branded as a Dixie Gun Works gun, and nowhere on it does it actually say "Pedersoli". Dixie demanded much higher quality from them than was typical for their "Pedersoli" branded stuff at the time, but it did serve to demonstrate what they were capable of when they tried.
This one is a double rifle of .72 caliber, or 12 gauge, firing a .715" diameter round ball over a pretty darn stiff charge of black powder. This one arrived complete, I did not build it from a kit.
Unfortunately, Washington does not allow us to load both barrels during a muzzle loader season, so I have wound up only using it during modern firearms seasons. It's kind of heavy at over 12 pounds, so it's kind of a lot to carry and it doesn't get out much. The quality of it is fantastic. Oh, and at 1 in 144", it has got to have the slowest twist I have ever seen in a rifled barrel. Enough to stabilize a .72 caliber round ball, though.
