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[Second-rate Marksman]

I recently picked up a Pedersoli AN XIII .69 caliber pistol, and I have to admit-- I absolutely love the pistol in every respect except one: I cannot hit a thing with it.

And I'm not talking about poor groups or shots drifting off center. I mean complete, embarrassing misses at point-blank distances. The first time I took it out, I set up a steel silhouette at roughly fifteen feet and managed to miss the entire target repeatedly. At that range, I should at least be accidentally connecting with steel, but instead I was sending balls into the great unknown like artillery fire.

Since then, I've experimented with just about everything I can think of. I've altered my sight picture endlessly-- orienting the pistol so that more barrel is visible, less barrel is visible, sighting straight down the breech, trying different elevations and points of reference, despite the pistol's complete lack of conventional sights. I've tried patched ball, bare ball with cartridges, varying powder charges, different loading methods, and different holds. Nothing seems to produce any meaningful consistency. Every shot feels like a guess.

Now, I know there are probably a few folks reading this and rolling their eyes, assuming the problem is simply the loose nut behind the barrel. Fair enough-- it's usually wise to rule out the shooter first. But in this case, I'm not exactly new to the game.

That's part of what makes this so baffling. I can generally pick up just about any traditional pistol and shoot it respectably, but this AN XIII has humbled me in spectacular fashion. At this point, I'm genuinely trying to determine whether there's some peculiar trick to these pistols, or whether they're simply regulated in a way that makes them extraordinarily difficult to shoot well.

What makes it especially frustrating is that the pistol itself handles beautifully. The lock is fast, the balance is good, and it's an impressive reproduction overall. But accuracy -or at least practical pointability- has been elusive to say the least.

Pictured below are my '63/'66 Charleville and the AN XIII. I've defarbed both, removing the factory engraving that was present on the left side of both firearms.

[Rob DiStefano]

Sweet looking guns! 

How's the trigger pull?   

[KDubs]

You better give to me Eric, it's obviously causing you to much stress 😭.
 Ha e you tried shooting at a poster board.
 Atleast you'll get an idea of where you're hitting, it'll give you a starting point to correct your aim.
 Are you bringing it to the shoot Sunday??
Kevin

[Jim in Wisconsin]

It sure is good looking! It's hard to solve the problem when you can't tell where the balls are hitting.  A big (4' x 8") cardboard sheet behind the target helps. Shops that do sheet metal work sometimes have these - they are put on the pallet when the metal sheets are shipped.

[Second-rate Marksman]

You better give to me Eric, it's obviously causing you to much stress 😭.
 Have you tried shooting at a poster board.
 Atleast you'll get an idea of where you're hitting, it'll give you a starting point to correct your aim.
 Are you bringing it to the shoot Sunday??
Kevin

Haha, at this point I may just have to hand it over for the sake of my blood pressure! 😭

That's actually solid advice, Kevin and Jim. I haven't tried a full poster board yet, but I probably should. Right now I'm not even sure if I'm consistently missing high, low, left, or right because the thing seems to scatter shots into another county altogether. A big sheet would at least let me diagnose what's going on and give me a baseline to work from.

Trigger pull is about what you'd expect from a Pedersoli military arm: not exactly crisp or refined, but not unbearably bad either. The AN XIII does have a considerable amount of slop in the trigger, though, and I suspect a good portion of it could probably be corrected by building up a little material on the top of the trigger and carefully fitting it.

If I'm being honest, I've got just a slight case of buyer's remorse creeping in here. I have a bad habit of getting these wild hairs where I convince myself I absolutely need one particular gun or another. In this case, I justified the purchase by imagining how neat it would be to have a proper .69 caliber pistol to pair alongside the Charleville.

And really, there are precious few options out there when it comes to genuinely large-bore pistols-- fewer still in .69 caliber. That uniqueness was a big part of the appeal. On paper, it seemed like an incredibly cool addition to the collection. I think my frustration now stems less from the pistol itself and more from the fact that I haven't yet figured out how to make the darn thing shoot worth a lick. But I'll keep at it and follow your advice. Thanks!

To be honest, buddy, I'm not sure I'm going to make it to Sunday's shoot after all. Meg's got a bachelorette weekend planned for her soon-to-be sister-in-law, so she'll be gone all day Saturday and most of Sunday, which leaves me holding down the fort with all four kids. I tried lining up a babysitter but struck out completely. And frankly, I can't really justify leaving all four of them with Grandpa-- the poor man's already got enough gray hair as it is!

[Rob DiStefano]

From my many dayze spent with firelock pistols of any caliber and bbl lengths, their accuracy nemesis has always been about far too hefty a trigger and its effect with aiming such short bbls, worse yet if the gun is a smoothbore.  Couple that with a long ignition time and that's a recipe for missing the side of a barn kinda "accuracy".  You can change the trigger sear leverage to greatly lighten the pull from the typical 7 to 10 pounds down to a far more accurate 2lbs or less. 

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[Winter Hawk]

I did that with the Hodgepodge rifle, removed the rear (set) trigger and slid the front trigger back a little.  The trigger pull is nice and sweet now.