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ALL muzzleloader, smoothbore and rifles purchased from Pedersoli and other manufacturers and importers need the muzzles to be re-crowned to allow the use of a substancial patch. Thick patches hold more lube, give the best accuracy and withstand the higher pressures of hunting loads - if they are paired with the proper size round ball.

Your thumb with a strip of 320grit emery cloth is all that is needed to properly radius the crown of the barrel. Rotate it back and forth, pushing your thumb into the bore with the emery cloth underneath it, with or without oil, turning the barrel 180 degrees every 15 seconds and in a minute or two, you should be finished. Before doing this, I shove a cloth wad down into the bore an inch or so to catch the 'dirt', then pull it out with tweezers. If the muzzles are still too sharp, then a tapered cutter might have to be used - carefully. The crown must be centred, not lop sided to the world.

There is no pounding necessary when loading other than a single sharp whack with a short starter's flat surface knob to put the patched ball flush with the bore. The starter then is used to push the patched ball down the bore 4" to 6", then the rod is used to load it onto the powder in 2 or 3 short pushes.

Hoppe's #9 Plus is a good lube for this and for hunting. You might also try Shanendoah Valley Lube, or Hornady's Cleaner and perserver as a lube. Bore Butter might work in warm climates for a few shots but is useless in cold. Bore butter leaves it's own fouling in the rifling and needs boiling hot water to melt it or solvents to disolve it to clean it out after getting the BP fouling out of the bore. Some knowledgable shooters have lost accuracy after as few as 6 rounds when using bore butter due to this pasty fouling that sticks to the bore, while others report losing accuracy after 9 or 10 shots. The patched ball seems to ride over it instead of pushing it all out. Good stuff!

I use a ball that is .005" under bore size plus a .0215" (10 ounce denim material) patch for all rifles with up to .016" deep rifling. I use a bore size ball with a .020" denim patch - all load esily for me. I suspect the Pedersolis have .012" or shallower and the .715" ball is already .015" smaller than the bore (if it's a true 12 bore at .729") If the Pedersoli is a true .72 cal. with a .720" bore, then the .715" ball is perfect. If shooting WW or a combination of WW and pure lead in a .720" bore, you may wish to use a slightly smaller ball - I'd suggest .705" to .710". If you use the Lyman or Lee .690" mould, you'll need a heavy patch that fills to the bottom of the grooves. Simple mathematics will tell you if your patch is thick enough.

I find it absolutely amazing that no one seems to have measured their Pedersoli.72 double rifle's bore so they can use appropriate components. Measuring is the FIRST thing one should do so proper decisions can be made to what the gun requires.

One the bore's muzzles are re-crowned to a good radius, one must clean the bore, then amass the necessary items needed for shooting. Proper thickness of patching, seveal different ones for testing, balls, adjustable powder measure, powder and caps - I suggest only real black powder. In heavier hunting loads, it has been reported that T7 gets erratic as to pressure - something you don't want.

One must practise and find a load that will shoot both barrels close enough to be useable. Some of the Pedersoli guns cross fire at close range,w hich is unusable and must be retruend to them for replacement while others shoot well with up to 175gr. of powder and parallel to 100 yards range which is perfect regulation, although they don't really regulate the guns as the British did. pedersoli's barrels are lazer aligned and brazed. What you see is what you get. They're pretty good at guessing, but sometimes screw up, therefore you may have to return the gun. I know of 2 that were returned and replace successfully.

I like the style of their doubles and would own one of the .72's myself, except for the fact they still don't know how to properly breech a double rifle. Their fences look good, but are inefective as they mount the nipples too high on the patent breech.

Hope this helps. if it is too hard to start the ball with a proper patch, your crown (or your methods) needs attention. My match flintlock uses a ball that is .002" larger than the bore along with a .020" denim patch. It is easy to load due to it's nicely radiused crown. The crown swages the ball and patch into a perfect fit. The tighter the fit, the more accurate the rifle.

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Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a Spaniel without ears" King George V