So far so bad. I've just learned the hard way why DGW (Pede rebrand) Bess kits are sold about $300 less than Pede Bess and Charlie kits. They're fraught with issues. The first Bess wasn't too bad with only some stock and pipe thimble issues as the major problems.
This 2nd Bess has those same issues along with a horrible lock inlet that produced a stripped rear lock screw. I fixed the stock issues with lotsa rasping, sanding, and scraping.
Both kits had the ramrod pipes and stock pipe trough way offline that made working the ramrod in and out near impossible. I mean it was a two hand struggle to get the gol durn rod in and out!!
Unlike the first Bess, where I had a lot of work effort to get the dang pipes to line up, the center pipes on this Bess were so off that nothing could save them. I had some .015" brass sheet that I cut out pipe pieces, annealed them with propane torch and water quenched, rolled 'em into tubes using a 3/8" mandrel and bench vise, cut and filed, laid into the pipe inlets, ran in the ramrod and drilled the pipes to take stock pins. Now the rod works just fine.
Oh yes - both the Pede Bess and Charlie muskets take .095" stock pins, not the .060" stock pins like USA builders such as Kibler and Chambers use. I used finishing nails that fit quite nicely.
The BIG problem was that the lock was cockeyed set into the stock. Since DGW Bess kits come with the bbl and lock installed, at first glance the lock looked fine and tested to fire well. After pulling off the bbl, I could not budge the pair of 6mm-1 lock bolts. It took some serious effort to release them and the lock and then rear bolt had buggered the female lock threads. Long story short, I did a Lot of added lock inlet work, re-tapped the rear lock thread, and after a full hour of tweaking the stock lock mortise it's all set perfectly now.
And yet another issue, that I created. During all the hours of this work I scratched up the wrist area of the stock that I had just finished with 6 wipes of Tru-Oil. To add further injury, during the oil curing the walnut stock ever so slightly warped, requiring humidify management to get the bbl into the stock.
SO ... where I am right now is that the musket is "demo" built, with pins sticking all over it to keep its bbl and pipes in place. It works well. Now to take it all apart again and refinish the stock, then stick it all together again for final testing. I expect this musket to be 95% used for reenacting with blanks, and so I'm not concerned with it being a bit hodge podged looking here and there - it's gonna get banged up fairly good in the field. I'll get some pix of what it looks like now put up in this thread.
Topic: Pedersoli 2nd Land Pattern Brown Bess Kit number two (Read 195 times)