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Good shooting, Rodders.

PBR - The Kodiacks I've come across through the years run about 1 in 4 being useable right out of the box - with lots of load development, of course. Load development means trying various ball sizes, patch thicknesses and powder charges to attempt to get the barrels shooting together, closely enough to be useable.

Of course, Pedersoli puts two different rear sigths ont he rifle, one for each barrel, but one does desire to use one set of sights, not having to raise a different leaf for the 'other' barrel.

Forsyth recommended back in 1860, that the owner sight for the 'true' barrel and learn to hold for the bad one, rather than spitting the difference between the barrel's errors. This becomes a chore since the bad one in a Pedersoli, with descent hunting loads might be as my friend's .58 double, a full 12" left and 10" low at 75 yards. Difficult to hold for that.

He tried slugs, but found even with sugs that engrave firlay well at the muzzle, recoil from the right barrel would move the left slug off the powder some inch or slightly more with one shot and more, of course, with successive shots from the right barrel. He sticks now with patched round balls only and finds they not only shoot closer to the sights, but there is no movement of the non-shot barrel, even with successive shots from the right one.

Movement of the slug off the powder is BAD. It can cause a catostrophic barel failure that can take off your left hand- or right, if you are left handed. The barrels of these guns are not excessively heavy in the breech and have little 'over-built' strength in them. ML barrels tend to split lengthwise into bannana peels, blowing the locks off and forend down through your hand. Be careful- I recommend against shooting slugs in any double ML, that is, slugs that aren't cloth patched to hold them tightly against the powder. Since for a slug, that means some sort of picket ball as were popular in the States in the late 1800's with their inherent difficulty in accurate loading, I suggest only round balls be used in doubles.

Another friend sent his .58 double back to Pedersoi who re-barreled it and returned it to him. The new set of barrels shot well enough to be useful, only separating 5" at 100 yards (which means abotu a 10" group), not great, but still useable. He sighted for the right barrel, the left shooting 5" left with a 100gr. 2F GOEX hunting charge.

We don't use Pyrodex or other fake powders as they leave a corrosive fouling, which combined with moisture, becomes very agressive in nature. Too, Pyrodex loses power with age. As well, Pyrodex, as a rule, developes poorer accuracy than real BP. T7, I've found in my 14 bore rifle, becomes unstable, with pressure excursions when using heavy hunting loads. With proper tight ball/patch combinations and real BP, there is no fouling buildup in the barrel and sucessive shots are loaded as easily as the first.

Mink oil, as sold by www.trackofthewolf.com is a good hunting patch lube. Many other lubes are unsuitable as they contain water and may promote barrel cancer- ie: rust.

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Daryl

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

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