Davide Pedersoli Kodiak Kombo shotgun/rifle?

[Zerstoerer]

Does anybody have any experience with the Davide Pedersoli Kodiak Express Kombo Rifle/Shotgun? (~$1200)
The shotgun barrel is a 12 GA, the rifle barrel either a .50, .54, or .58 muzzleloader.
The .50 and .54 have a 1:24 in twist, the .58 a 1:47 twist (although the description at Dixie says 1:48 for both the .50 and .58 with no mentioning of the .54)
After I shot a flintlock shotgun the other day, I now think I need one of those but don’t really want a shotgun only if I could have this cool double.
How accurate could the rifle barrel be? Should I go for the smaller caliber and still have the 12 GA filled with #4 shot or a patched round ball as back up?
Thinking hunting of animals with hoofs in the land of animal with claws…

 

[andrewstorm]

kodiak dub

A fine firearm,good accuracy I held one at cabelas long ago,felt good,load it with buckshot and conical ,add a roa to your hip and take any game in north America

 

[Zerstoerer]

roa ?
Do you remember what the sights looked like?

 

[Cosmoline]

I've had two of the double rifles, one in .50 and one in .54. They don't really have regulated barrels. Instead Pedersoli puts up double flip sights for the rear, so you can have a different sight setup for each barrel. I found that annoying. I also had a devil of a time getting regulation. In that respect the shotgun/rifle combo makes a lot more sense. You can sight in your rifle bore as usual and just use the bead on the shotgun side.

Should work great, though I had more FTF's than I should have due to the overly small and rough channel from the nipple to the powder chamber. Kept getting clogged and impacted with crud after about the tenth shot. The first and second shots never failed though, which is comforting for a hunting rifle. I ended up switching the nipples to musket cap size and keeping a special long wire handy to prod out the channels. I prefer flintlocks because they just have the simple straight hole from pan to powder.

I also had a problem with the wedge keys working loose. I prefer barrel pins and hate the play of the hooked breach, but maybe that's just my foible.

Twist rate changed over the years. The .54 and .50 may be a fast rate for conical slugs. I've also seen two types of designs, one with a pistol grip stock and one with a straight grip stock.

Accuracy should be good if you match your projectile to the twist rate.

 

[Zerstoerer]

Cosmoline,

thanks for the answer. Do you remember how the sights and triggers were?
Meaning are they usable out of the box or do they need some fine tuning?

They don't specify wich barrel shoots first with the forward trigger - the rifle or the shotgun barrel?

There are some horror stories out on the web about very rough cut rifleing and poor factory support, have you experienced that?

For over $1100 I would like something that works and looks good.

 

[dogrunner]

I bought one of Cabela's double .50 versions of that rifle in about '95........very, very nicely done, finely rifled, good wood and finish, bluing of a sort and depth that OUGHT to appear on every new gun! Case hardening of various parts, guard, butt plate etc. very well done........Singular gripe I had was the flimsy loading rod so I quickly replaced that.

Mine'l group about 1" at 50 yards with both bbls, the right bbl seems to consistently shoot lower that the left. At 100 its absolutely no problem to keep both rounds in a deers kill area.....I don't fool with round ball in this rifle, just the maxi's over 90 grains of 3f. That grouping I mention is with the use of only the rear of the two sights on the gun..........I was aware of the basically non-regulated bbls but maybe for once I just got luckly.

Don't know about the sg/rifle combo in terms of weight, but likely it's close to the dbr, if so it IS somewhat of a load to pack around, manageable, but no lightweight!

Far as trigger application goes I'd bet it's the same on the combo as the rifled version..........right bbl fired by forward trigger & so on. For what it's worth I also fitted musket nipples on mine, not that the standards were an issue, but it's a LOT easier to remove those winged caps if you've gotta have 'em off to satisfy some idiotic game regulation, like I said tho ignition issues were non existant....... overall it's just one damned good gun I've never regretted buying.

 

[Cosmoline]

Triggers were good but were too light for my touch. My accuracy was never as good as what dogrunner reports, but with these I think you have a luck of the draw issue. Sometimes they'll end up regulating pretty well sometimes not.

Never had to deal with the factory so I don't know about that, but I remember looking online for info on charge amounts and noticing that there was only one place authorized to take Pedersoli returns. As a general matter, I found the various Pedersoli caplocks I had when I first got back into ML'ing to be OK but not great. I would not pay over $1,000 for one, since if you've got that kind of money to spend you can get a quality US made custom gun.

The Euro is another issue. When you buy a new Pedersoli you're automatically getting hit by the exchange rate. So a mid-level factory piece suddenly sells for over a grand.

Another thing about the Kodiaks--they're not light or easy to tote. They carry like a heavy pipe. I know folks who've taken them hunting, but I had no fun even on day hikes with mine.

You might consider perusing GB for cape guns, which is what Pedersoli's rifle/shotgun combo is an homage to. The real ones are surprisingly easy to find and not much more expensive. Here's a nice old Pryse Redman for the price of that Kodiak. Uses an odd style bullet, but that gives you an idea of what's available. I've seen a lot of nice old ML cape guns come and go on GB. They don't go for as much as you might expect.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=205642711

 

[arcticap]

Traditions imports their Express Double Over/Under .50 rifle which is an inline having more modern features than the Kodiak.

The Express has an adjustable top barrel that tunes with an Allen wrench to line up with the bottom barrel’s point of impact. A “barrel jack” has four adjustable screws that encircle the end of the top barrel, allowing it to be adjusted in relation to the bottom barrel....Traditions probably has the best production double barrel muzzleloader on the market for the price.

http://www.chuckhawks.com/traditions_express_article.htm

Previous post:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=378197

Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plJDzBkSYBo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn1J0LRrYb4&feature=related

 

[Molasses]

Ditto on what Cosmoline says.
I've got one of the Kodiak .50 double rifles and it's a great rifle to carry only as far as a stand or blind. Heavy thing, and if it wasn't for wanting that second shot ready, I wouldn't have or use it.
As far as the twin rear sight situation goes, I've messed around with mine, trying to find a way around needing to use one sight per barrel. After some range work, the best I've found with my example (using only one sight) is that the barrels shoot about 8" apart at 100yds with the right projectile/charge weight and it gets ugly with the wrong one. Biggest problem is that as a general rule, the more powder and/or the heavier the projectile, the farther apart they are. Kinda stinks when the goal is to get it to print close enough together to use just one sight for hunting. Mind you, this is just my experience with my particular rifle, YMMV.
Regarding the Kodiak rifle/shotgun combo, I know one guy at my gun club that has one. He was sighting it in for muzzleloader deer season a couple of years ago, using patched round ball in the smoothbore barrel and one of those modern-day Minie variants in the rifled one. Seemed to be grouping okay, although I want to say he was shooting at 50yds. Still a heavy thing.

 

[Proud Boer]

I have a .72 Pedersoli Kodiak ''Safari'' Express.At 75 yards it groups regularly at less than two inches separating the two bullet holes.I fire from a good set of shooting sticks.I fire 770 grain lead conicals,lubed before loading and use a 120 grain charge of Sanadex.

It is a beautifully made double rifle,superbly finished,accurate and plenty powerful.Up to 100 yards it does everything as well(or better) than my Sako .375 H&H Magnum and is much more exciting to shoot.

This winter I will use it to shoot myself a big Eland! I think 80-90 grains of powder will be a good load for the purpose.

 

[andrewstorm]

kodiak safari double

I would like to see a traditional hunt for kodiak bear,anyone know of any videos out there?

 

[Play Hard]

I have a Pedersoli .54 double (also two double shotguns and a Howdah). Beautiful guns! I struggled with a load that would regulate and finally ended up with the manufacturers recommended load: 425 grain conical over 90 gr ffg. The two barrels shoot within 3" at 100 yards using the same sight. Don't bother with roundballs if you want to use one sight for both barrels.

 

[PapaG]

I've got one of the "dangerous game" rifles, 72 cal, single shot, and it is a well made, attractive firearm. I've only shot round balls so far, and...sorry about this, will be trying it with Lyman sabot slugs (lead) and AA wads to see if I can get hundred yard accuracy without severe bruising. (I know, the round ball should be enough at over 500 grains, but I'm an inveterate tinkerer)

 

[Loyalist Dave]

You might want to check on the smooth barrel, and see if it has a choke. Sometimes choked barrels shoot a solid projectile well, sometimes not. I point this out because the idea with a rifle/shotgun double is to be able to shoot large game, and get a bird or small game on the same outing, or the reverse looking for a rabbit say..., and you see a deer..., not to have a backup for the rifled barrel. So this may have a single set of sights, for the rifled barrel, and a bead for the smooth barrel.

LD