Pennsalvania Dixie by Pedersoli

[ridjrunr]

Is anyone here familiar with the Penn./Dixie, .45 fullstock made by Pedersoli for Dixie Gun Works? I am not all familiar with Pedersolis , aside from a pistol I have. Any input is appreciated.

ridjrunr

[Hanshi]

I've never had any experience with the Ped/DGW Penn rifle but I did own their "Cub" for many years and shot it a great deal at the range as well as in the deer woods.  The Cub is basically the Penn rifle with a 28" barrel.  The rifle was attractive, well made and accurate.  I had a percussion and a flint lock for the rifle.  The flint lock was not reliable at all though I did kill two deer with it in place.  The percussion lock was great and as good a lock as any I've had experience with.  I think they are over priced for new guns.

[pathfinder]

I shot their Bess for years and it was a very good and dependable gun. I now have one of their Northwest gun's that is also an excellant gun,although not to accurate as far as style,but a well made,quality gun. Couldn't buy the parts for one for what I paid for it.

[Uncle Russ]

FWIW; I own and shoot a Penn. Longrifle from Pedersoli in .45 cal.
I would imagine they are about the same, if not the same, as the Pedersoli / DGW rifle.
Mine is approximately eight years old and I have owned it for about five years, IIRC.

At the time I first saw it, a new one was selling for about $800.
I first saw the little rifle at SportCo in Fife, WA where it was on sale for $710, and I liked its feel, its balance.
I went back there several times to look at it, and then, when I finally made up my mind to get it, I went back and the darn thing had been sold.

At that same time, for me to order a new one from SportCo, or Tri-State Sports it would have cost me, with tax, shipping, or whatever else they could dream up close to $900 maybe just a few bucks more....which was well over my head.
Dixie was not offering the gun at that time.

To get the gun I ended up trading a 1861 "Signature" Colt .58 cal.Musket for it to Hawkeye here on the forum. Hawkeye said it had less than 50 shots fired from it, so it seemed a pretty fair deal.

Having never looked back on that trade, I have no regrets. I shoot the .45 a lot more than I did the Musket.

The twist is 1:48, eight grooves, and with RB and Patch, using 70gr Goex FFFg, Hoppes #9 lube, I get an honest 2,050 fps across my own chronograph, with a standard deviation of 36 fps.(according to some old notes.)
For "punchin paper" 45gr Goex FFFg seems just fine.

Typically I prefer something bigger, with a .58 or .62 caliber loaded heavy being my choice.
Although I do own these same calibers and shoot them on occasion, I still prefer the accuracy and handling of the little .45.

Two or three years ago a fellow TMA member, ShadowHawk and I, spent a morning on the range with my little .45 cal Penn. using that load of 70gr FFFg.

I shot about 30 rounds from the bench at 50 yds and about 20 rounds from 25yds with the Penn rifle.
At the end of that shooting session I discovered my right shoulder was literally black and blue with a smidgen of yellow and purple thrown in for good measure.

IMO, this little gun is a great "off-the-shelf" rifle.
I suspect I have fired no fewer than 400 rounds through mine, and I learned early on that it is NOT a bench rifle.
For off-hand or supported shooting the little rifle would be hard to beat for Deer hunting, and maybe even Squirrel, although I'm sure many Squirrel hunters will shake their head at this notion.

Here in Washington State the .45 cal is legal for Deer, so if you plan on killing anything other than paper, small rocks, or dirt clods, you may want to check your Game regs. But then again it may be offered in larger calibers now that DGW is in the game.
Either way, I feel sure you will like the feel and balance of this gun.

Sorry for ramblin so much....

Uncle Russ...

[ridjrunr]

Thank you for all the feedback. A guy at work is gettin rid of one for his dad that he got stuck with in n odd deal. Never wanted it, just got stuck with it. I'll take a look at it . Thank you again, ridjrunr

[ridjrunr]

Russ, you were correct,I do like the feel as the sights are right there when I shouldered it, which surprised me at 13.5" LOP. I shot it Thurs. for the first time and grabbed a load out of the air @ 40 g., 3F Goex, .440 rb,thin wonderlube patch. My first 3 shots where within 1.5" @ 25 paces kneeling. So I used it shooting my rifle competition at our spring rendezvous.Not too bad, one miss out of 6 gongs at 50+ yrds.,off hand.
Unfortunately, when I recieved it, it had been shot,not cleaned and pawned. So when I first dropped a light down the bore Thurs. eve., I couldnt see rifleing.After more cleaning than I have given anyother rifle, its looking like it will probbably be ok (rifleing). It mite have to get reincarnated into a flinter.

[greggholmes]

I shot about 30 rounds from the bench at 50 yds and about 20 rounds from 25yds with the Penn rifle.
At the end of that shooting session I discovered my right shoulder was literally black and blue with a smidgen of yellow and purple thrown in for good measure.

Thats what Tenino used to be like for me. Haven't been able to get down there in to many years.

[Uncle Russ]

Gregg, ya dug up an another old one here.

That little Penn.Flint Riflegun will be going hunting with me again this year. Looks like our Deer hunting thing starts on 29 Sept. up in the Molsen / Chesaw area on the Okanogan Canadian border.
If this weather ever cools off I will get back on the range again...it has been so hot for the past two months I've been bottled up in the house, or in the shop, where there's air conditioning.
I just can't take the heat like I used to.

I would suspect you could say I have learned a little bit more on how to shoot that little gun comfortably, without it making Hamburger out of my shoulder.
As I pointed out in my earlier post that butt-plate and stock design is certainly not for bench shooting, but once you learn to raise your right elbow up high enough, it is one sweet little gun and will get the job done quite properly.
Plus, I have also become quite impressed with the "power" of that little .45 round ball.
Many times on the range I pick out a rock, an old piece of 4x4, or a piece of 2x6 and carry it out to about 75 yds. and I will proceed to kill it....I have no problem at all with killing it, but I do hate the mess that I sometimes have to clean up, and I always leave the range picked up, cleaned up, and the firing line swept.
Quite often it looks much better when I leave than it did when I got there!

After seeing the considerable damage that little .45 will do at 75 yds, I think I would feel reasonably comfortable in shooting at a Deer at that distance, if that just right angle was there.
I know, with all my heart, that if I can a shot in the "boiler-room" with that little .45 it will do the job quite well.

Anyway, you mentioned Tenino....Back in the mid 1990's, I bought a retirement home on the Cowlitz River in Salkum, actually it was in "Cowlitz Timber Trails" about two miles south of Salkum and right on the river. Sure did like that place, and I've always loved that river. Beautiful country, for sure...
Pete, here on the forum, is from that neck of the woods.

Mt. St.Helens has never looked better than this year...I was down there a a month or so back and the old girl was standing out like a sore thumb. Mt.Hood could be seen in the background, and driving back home I could see Mt. Adams off to the east.
Some of the most beautiful mountains in the world can be found in western Washington, and on a clear day I can even see many of them from my own backdoor right here in central Washington.
During the day, I have been seeing the smoke from the Cle Elum fire, but I couldn't see the flames.....at night the area of Cle Elum and Ellensburg has a distinctive red aura above them.
They are supposed to have that fire 100% controlled by today.

Uncle Russ...

[huntinguy]

Anyway, you mentioned Tenino....Back in the mid 1990's, I bought a retirement home on the Cowlitz River in Salkum, actually it was in "Cowlitz Timber Trails" about two miles south of Salkum and right on the river. Sure did like that place, and I've always loved that river. Beautiful country, for sure...
Pete, here on the forum, is from that neck of the woods.

Mt. St.Helens has never looked better than this year...I was down there a a month or so back and the old girl was standing out like a sore thumb. Mt.Hood could be seen in the background, and driving back home I could see Mt. Adams off to the east.
Some of the most beautiful mountains in the world can be found in western Washington, and on a clear day I can even see many of them from my own backdoor right here in central Washington.
...

RussB, come on, don't say things like that. You know it rains here all the time. It is soo wet that powder goes bad in a sealed horn, that the buckskin will rot off you back in one week of hunting, if you load your gun in the morning by night time the barrel will be rusted shut and if you don't build your fire on a floating barge it will go out before your supper is even warm. That is why in Washington, especially on the wet side we only eat soup, may not start out that way but, it sure ends up that way.

(shhhh, do you really want people to think this is a good place to live? sheesh.... :peace   )

[Uncle Russ]

 Oooops! I forgot.

How about.........
We rust, we never tan.
Pet slugs are quite common.
Our toes are webbed as an aide to walking.
We have three seasons:  July, August, and Rain.
You can't see the supposedly beautiful mountains for all the trees.
There is a least one recorded instance of where it didn't rain on the 4th.of July.
The Washington State Dept. of Commerce invites you to visit;  Idaho, Oregon, and beautiful Southern California.

Uncle Russ...

[greggholmes]

I've shot my .50 all weekend at Tenino, talk about sore. My folks live un Bucoda. When i lived in Federal way it was an hour to get there,  after my involuntary transfer to Everett its a 4 hr trip.

[New hunter]

I have one in .45  I got out to shoot today. I really want to change to flint.  It is an accurate rifle, fun to shoot. It seems hard to clean. It has good set trigger. It is the bottom one in the avatar photo.  I am shooting mine in my album.

[ridjrunr]

New hunter, I did recently finish converting my Ped. Penn/Dixie to flint. I went ahead and bought the flint lock right from the U.S. Pedersoli parts guy,(it wasnt cheap). Fit wise, it drops in with just a slight amount of wood removal needed ( for the tumbler and main spring ). I first shot it with a home made touch hole liner, as they sent me the wrong  threaded one. I made about 50% of the shots in the same hole at 25yrds. resting ( about 20 shots,4 targets ). Then when my store bought liner came, I put that in and was just slightly quicker. Last Sunday at our monthly club shoot, I shot 2 X's out of 6 shots off hand. The one complaint I have is that the threads in the flint lock plate are different than the ones in the stock cap lock plate ( for the two lock screws ). Still happy I made the switch.

[45.70]

I've got a flint Frontier by Pedersoli, it shot great when I first bought it.  But after a few months I couldn't get to fire anymore, good flash in the pan, just no bang.  Someone here finally clued me in on how pedersoli flint rifles are built.  Pedersoli drills thru the breach plug for the vent hole and drills thru the middle of it to access the barrell.  Basically I hadn't been cleaning the little .22 cal hole in the breach plug and she was rusted close.  I ended up soaking it in oil and using a ball puller to get the rust out and then a .22 cal bore brush.  I'm not sure if Pedresoli percussion rifles are built the same, someone here may know.  You might want to check your rifle, that's the only problem I've had with mine.  Otherwise a nice little rifle.

[ridjrunr]

Ya, I don't understand the reasoning behind that design,cva,Jukar is the same. Interlocking threads, yuck! But if you pump flush it when cleaning,that works pretty well.