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ignition problems with pedersoli sharps

Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:59 am
by hja4941
Hello all, I realize that I should have gotten a Shiloh, but the pedersoli was all I could aford. I have taken it out several times and can not get it to fire reliably. I'm using an 80 grn charge of Swiss ffg and a 535grn bullet from the pedersoli mold. I have been using CCI musket caps.

I have gone through about 30 caps to ignite 5 charges. The only way to reliably get ignition is to dribble a few grains of powder under the nipple.

Any advise or help would be greatly appreciated. I would really love to get this rifle working until I can afford to upgrade.

Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2011 3:16 pm
by hja4941
I have religously maintained the fire path and had it completely dry and oil free before firing the first shot. Unfortunately I have had the same ignition failures right from the first shot, and have been unable to get more than three shots before it would stop firing alltogether; until cleaned again.

Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 6:00 am
by Free_Stater
Just a thought here:

Does your rifle have a flash channel screw? I'm pretty sure it would because of the two 90 degree turns the flash has to make to get to the powder.

Pull out the screw and check the tip for damage or for buildup of carbon.

Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 6:51 am
by hja4941
Yes it does have the clean out screw, and I have cleaned it as well. I believe the problem may have been the CCI 4 wing musket caps. I found that the new caps are all for re-enacting only, and have very weak charges. I have ordered some RWS caps, to test this out. I"ll let you all know if that solved the problem.

Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 7:57 pm
by Eric Johanen
One thing to check is to make sure the nipple is not bottoming out in the recess. Have seen it before with some percussion guns. Check the length of the nipple and the depth of the recess to be sure there is clearence for the flame. Might help along with the hotter caps. I use CCI magnum musket caps with all of my percussion carbines. They are hot enough to give good flame to the charge.

Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:37 pm
by Free_Stater
How are you loading your rifle--with Hahn's tubes, some kind of paper cartridge, or loose powder?

making it work ....

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 10:37 am
by Todd Birch
hja4891

There's a reason most of us shoot Shilohs; percussion or otherwise ....

You are getting some good advice here. Try all the suggested remedies and if all is for naught, sell the rifle to someone you don't like .... ;>)

If you succeed in working out the bugs, you may not want to part with it!
These rifles present some unique problems, but that is part of their charm.

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 1:28 pm
by Charlie Hahn
You might try to do the following.

If CCI six wing, German no wing, German four wing. This is the order of hotest to not so hot.

Fire path, Hole in nipple .041 minimum

Check the clean out screw to see if it is flush with hole in block, if it block the hole a little either sand a litlle off or run a drill in the hole.

Under the nipple look at the base of the pocket under the nipple if the drill point from the machining operation is below the transfer hole, it might need to be fixed. To test you can make a small disk and place in the bottom to make the surfacr closer to the base of the nipple but not block the hole.

Once you do all of this put a piece of paper between the block face and the barrel, snap a cap, it should be able to poke a hole through the paper.

Charlis Hahn

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 3:10 pm
by Eric Johanen
Free, I'm using paper cartridges rolled from either onion skin with a paper base plug or ciggarett paper twisted tail. 55 grs of Goex 2 fg and a Rapine flat base 544-415 bullet. Garrett carbine shoots very good with these. Really have to try the ringtailed bullet and some of Charlies tubes just to speed up cartridge making. Have 60 rds left over from last year, plenty of bullets cast and just need to roll up more cartridges. This afternoon I loaded some cartridges for my ERMA Gallagher and Italian Smith carbines. Will have a fun time on the range is the next few weeks if the weather improves