Pedersolis MAY shoot .459 bullets OK but most likely you will find .460 performs the best. Cast lead bullets should be .001 - .002 over the bore diameter and most Pedersolis are at .459.
I notice you said .460" diameter bullets. I thought .458" or .459" were the norm for 45-70 rifles, so this is interesting.
Jim G
As Chief TC notes, cast bullets want to be ever so slightly over groove depth, .001-.002”. Pedersoli 45-70 barrels are well known to prefer .460 bullets and long years of experience have shown that they perform very well with the 535 grs Postell and similar weight Money bullets.
i have the pedersoli 1874 target model and it loves the 535 gr postell ./457132 dia with h-4198./
Jim - every rifle is different and you have to try different things to see what works. Generally the Pedersoli chambers are generous and will slug at .459, and most people find .460 works best. So many variables - diameter, weight, alloy BHN, gas checks or not, jacketed or not, etc. Some rifles are magical and seem to shoot a variety of everything but that is rare.
Ideally you slug the bore to get your measurement and then try soft cast bullets .001-.002 over and see what works best. Then you can order the mould you want based on that. For traditional velocities of 1200-1300fps, I'd try commercial 20-1 type bullets and see how they work before buying a mould. You want a mould for type of bullet as well as size. Montana Bullet works, Chey-cast, Bear Creek, Laser Cast all make bullets you can try. If you shoot smokeless and higher velocity then I am less familiar with finding the best bullet/load. But to respond you question more directly, I believe most people have sizers that can usually size .001 - .003/4 smaller than what comes directly out of the casting mould.Oh, ok. I'm sorry my ordered copy of the Lyman Cast Bullet book, which should have arrived yesterday, has been delayed somewhere in the mail, so all I know about cast bullets so far is what I have been learning here! Can I assume that a cast bullet from "any" mould of the same "nominal" diameter can be sized to different diameters after casting, within a reasonable range of diameters? Say for example a .004" range, so you can test different diameters during a ladder test?
Jim G
Ideally you slug the bore to get your measurement and then try soft cast bullets .001-.002 over and see what works best. Then you can order the mould you want based on that. For traditional velocities of 1200-1300fps, I'd try commercial 20-1 type bullets and see how they work before buying a mould. You want a mould for type of bullet as well as size. Montana Bullet works, Chey-cast, Bear Creek, Laser Cast all make bullets you can try. If you shoot smokeless and higher velocity then I am less familiar with finding the best bullet/load. But to respond you question more directly, I believe most people have sizers that can usually size .001 - .003/4 smaller than what comes directly out of the casting mould.
Oh OK, I see. Maybe you can find a local group of cast bullet shooters and see if you can try some different things. I would not hesitate to get a 535gr Postell mould at .461 for a Pedersoli Sharps if I was limited in accessing commercially made bullets. Good luck and I'm sure you will get her shooting well.Thank-you, that answers my question on sizing. My pre-cast commercial bullet selection here in Canada is much more limited than in The U.S., and we cannot as individuals legally import. So, I have to buy what is available from Canadian manufacturers or licensed importers. Right now, that means 405g bullets are available to me, but NO 500g or above bullets at ALL are available to me. Hence, my early interest in casting bullets if it is not too difficult or too costly to get set up to do so.
Jim G
Oh OK, I see. Maybe you can find a local group of cast bullet shooters and see if you can try some different things. I would not hesitate to get a 535gr Postell mould at .461 for a Pedersoli Sharps if I was limited in accessing commercially made bullets. Good luck and I'm sure you will get her shooting well.
I'd love to have a Pedersoli however I do have an IAB, (yeah I know what that stands for)......... Mine functions perfectly fine, no hiccups, nothing broken. I do only shoot BP loads through it though.I managed to buy my Pedersoli Sharps yesterday, and even got a really good deal on it:
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It's the Pedersoli Sharps "Hunter" model, which is the now discontinued lowest priced Pedersoli Sharps model, that has none of the fancier features of some of the more costly models. In the U.S., it is still available at a price of about $1900, but it recently disappeared from the Pedersoli website. In Canada, these are pretty rare. But Cabela's Canada in Calgary, about 220km = 136 miles from where I live, had ONE in actual inventory, but they actually needed to verify that it was actually at that store before I could buy it.
I really did not want to spend a lot of money on another rifle right now, but I had one lever rifle whose condition a selling dealer had misrepresented to me that I did not want to keep, and my wife encouraged me to jump on this Pedersoli because if its anomalous Cabela's Canadian price. In The U.S., Cabela's advertises this model at the regular U.S. price of $1900, which is about $2600 Canadian at the current currency exchange rate. But for some reason, here in Canada, Pedersoli rifles are sold at about that same amount, or lower, paid in Canadian, not U.S. dollars, despite the fact that the Canadian dollar = only $0.74 US. That makes these Pedersol rifles a REAL bargain. This specific rifle model in fact has been advertised on Cabela's Canadian website at $1780 Canadian, which is about 1/3 less than in The U.S., for at least the few weeks that I have been looking at Pedersoli Sharps rifles, and incredibly, no one else has bought it! So, I drove up to Calgary, traded in a lever rifle I did not want to keep, and got back into Cowboy Action long range side match shooting at the lowest possible cost!
The Pedersoli Sharps models are apparently not as finely finished as the U.S. made "Shiloh" and "C-Sharps" models, but the prices for those are in the "several thousands" category even in The U.S., and so importing one into Canada would be, for me, ridiculously unaffordable as a retiree.
The Pedersoli rifles, which are made in Italy, have an awesome reputation among knowledgeable shooters that like to shoot "Old West Buffalo rifles". They are very high quality, machined from forged metal, with "progressive" broached rifling that becomes a thou or two smaller in diameter from the breech to the muzzle, apparently to facilitate use of the largest diameter bullets to improve bullet sealing in the rifling and avoid leading. All the models come with the typical rifle blade front sights and barrel mounted rear leaf sights with elevator ramps, but ALL models are drilled and tapped to accept multiple brands and sizes of "Creedmoor" vernier peep ladder sights and front tunnel sights with interchangeable inserts, for those 500 to 1000 yard shots these rifles are capable of making.
I had a different Pedersoli - a Rolling Block" model - a couple of decades ago, and at a national SASS match in Cody Wyoming, I successfully shot a full-size steel buffalo profile at 500 yards = 1500 feet with a good set of sights on it. It was a treat calculating the required rear sight setting, aligning the sight picture, taking the shots, and waiting about a full second for the 1350 fps muzzle velocity 405g bullet to reach and "clang" the target, and then waiting another second or more for the "clang" sound to be transmitted back to me! (Sound travels at only about 1100 fps).
So, this "Plain Jane" model can be equipped with aftermarket items to perform just as well as the prettier much more costly models ($3000 US or so). So I have a great foundation to build on. I will be looking for a good deal on new or used MVA or Shaver or other highest quality rear sight and front tunnel kits.
And this Sharps Hunter model has a couple of specific features I particularly like: a pistol grip stock, a 30" barrel, a hefty weight of 10.5 lb before adding the aftermarket sights, a full octagon barrel, and a "Shotgun" butt plate instead of the more typical "concave curved" butt plate (I find the shotgun butt plate much more comfortable when firing some of the heavier loads). And the dual set trigger has an amazingly low trigger pull and is very crisp.
This is a rifle I will not be foolish enough to sell or trade off.