Bessie

[Rob DiStefano]

The Pedersoli 2nd Pattern Short Land musket "kit" arrived.  It's not really a kit as it's fully built and can be shot as is, just needs the wood to be rasped, sanded, and oil finished.  On a scale of poor-fair-good-excellent I'll call it a "good plus" and so far worth the $1268 shipped to my door from DGW.  As expected, the touch hole is very low to the pan as has been reported by all who have this musket, but all say the ignition is quite good (as I have seen).  I expect at least 2-3 days of wood working and then decide whether to just Tru-Oil or stain before oiling.  I plan to load and shoot paper cartridges with it for reenactment with the 3rd New Jersey Regiment "Jersey Blues". https://www.jerseyblues1776.org/ - shown below with .575 cartridges for the Kibler .62 bore fowler.

[rollingb]

.62 or .75? 

[Rob DiStefano]

.75 bore that will get .69 cartridges once the Lee mold arrives.

The .575 cartridges are for the .62 Kibler fowler.

[Rob DiStefano]

Work on Bessie has begun, slowly but surely.  It's all about the stock and its shortcomings.  As Brown Bess expert Dave Persons states, none of the commercial Bess offerings are true to any model or pattern Bess.  Getting the huge amount of proud wood removed is the first effort, then contouring specific parts to better align with a real Bess follows.

Two deep gashes in the butt stock were filled with slow set epoxy that I stained with LMF walnut, then sanded and scraped - it'll all blend in when finish is applied..  LOTS more rasping, sanding, and scraping to complete, this will take weeks.

[Bigsmoke]

I would have expected better from Pedersoli.

[dmarsh]

You do not want to hear my opinion of Pedersoli. 

[Rob DiStefano]

**ALL** of the offshore guns are hit or miss and Pedersoli is TYPICALLY the "best" of the lot, on average.  You want/need a period correct Bess, there are gunsmiths who will oblige.  My main interest will be function over form as it will be used in reenactments where all that matters is that it goes !bang! when it's s'posed to as that's what the onlookers require and that would be period correct.  Dave Persons is a Bess expert and a Pedi Bess can be fairly well corrected ... except for the butt stock, which like all other repro Bess guns is overall too small.  I've never been picky about "authenticity" but I am making a number of wood corrections, though I will not change or add metal markings.  Wood will get reshaped, for the most part.

[Rob DiStefano]

Breech plug removed and as expected the touch hole drill went into the breech plug face.  that small channel will have a habit of getting blocked with BP residue and need picking between all firings.  I filed that trough a bit wider and more open at the touch hole, which will help.  I usually make the trough twice as wide but couldn't find the special file for that process.  I'll wipe the plug threads with Nikal and home it back into the bbl at its witness mark.  Meanwhile the stock reshaping work is done and I didn't stain it, just started its first Tru-Oil wipe.  Working on the brass now with files and abrasives.