pedersoli tang site nightmare

[cregan]

bought a pedersoli quigley 45-110, with the long range soule sight(4") the tang was tapped off center so pedersoli had me send it to a reputable gunsmith,he welded it and retapped it, but now that it is verticle(the sight) it still is at least a quarter inch off center, the sight is useless,i mean like 32 minutes of horizontal adjustment useless,there is no way to adjust this site so that you can shoot it at all straight,any one have this experience, will the goodwin sight work out the problem? this aint too cool, a two thousand dollar gun and a 250 dollar sight and i can out shoot it with a slingshot....well how bout you, what to do?

 

[Shultzhaus]

I would have returned it forthwith. Also how "reputable" is a gunsmith that can't get something closer than 1/4"?

 

[72coupe]

Just move the front sight over to match.

 

[hang fire]

About ten years ago I bought a Pedersoli .54 Gibbs Deluxe muzzleloader with a factory fitted (ha, what a joke) interchangeable 12 gauge shotgun barrel.
IIRC, cost almost $1,400.00 US. The bloody thing was a train wreck from the get go, so many faults it was ridiculous, so here will just stay with the tang sight..

It had a threaded steel insert in the wrist the sight screwed into, it was off center and canted off into left field. If sight picture was on target at 100 yards, the rifle’s bore at equi'distance was looking at a fence post ten yards over from the target. I took pictures of all the bad thingies and fought for a resolution with the distributor for weeks.

Finally went straight to the source in Italy and corresponded with Davide Pedersoli himself. He explained there had been barrel changes made and the two barrels should not have been installed as a matched interchaneable set on that firearm. We agreed I was to send it back to the distributor and Pedersoli would make up a matched set firearm for me without all the other faults..

The distributor, said send it back to him and he would refund my money, but nothing else. I did, he did, and I was damned glad to be finished with that mess.

 

[cregan]

am waiting to here back from pedersoli, i can see now that the long range soule site, or any sole site would never work with this gun, it never should have been sold for it, the stock aperes to be deliberately offset to the right for easier eye line up on the barrel sights, the only sight i think would work is their goodwin style tang site, it installs from the left side and it's elevator is far left, i emailed them and asked to trade with one if it would fix my problem. i think that it can be zero'd on the hinge bar and then i'd have a true venire zero on my windage screw, if not, they'll have to buy it back.the gun and the site, rediculous that nobody picked up on this.rediculous.

 

[Jim Watson]

the stock aperes to be deliberately offset to the right for easier eye line up on the barrel sights

That is known as cast off, more usually seen on high end shotguns, and completely out of place on a Sharps copy. I can't imagine it is deliberate, maybe warpage or too much vino in the stock shop. Or a company party, considering the tang screw screwup.

After all that, you might get the idea you would be better off to Buy American.
Maybe they will give you a refund like hang fire's and you can use it for a down payment on something nicer.

I don't know what you paid for it, but that model is $1427 at Buffalo Arms and the Soule sight is $303 at Cimarron.
A Shiloh No 2 Sporter is $1902 (let's don't get into the $3298 for a REAL Quigley) although with a long wait.
A C. Sharps Bridgeport Sporting Rifle is $1895 and available sooner.
Their 1875 Sharps didn't get in the movies, but is a good shooter for $1325 and up.

 

[mykeal]

Cast off is common in custom built muzzleloading long guns. It's certainly possible that it was done in a stock custom built for a Sharps, although it wasn't done on the originals.

 

[cregan]

can't see how it was a mistake, workmanship is damn good, thinking now that the original offset taps were parrallel to the barrel and that the soule was never intended for that design but that the goodwin sight was. the gun cost 2200.sights were 250.or 300.( this is not the umberti or cinimin arms version),i'would have thought that the gunsmith would have caught the problem and not have sent it back to me unusable, but it appears that both he and pedersoli are sleepwalking,i do not like shipping a gun anywhere as it is always my risk and not the mfg or gunsmiths, and it does piss me me off when i'm waiting for a viable response ,i didn't make anybody wait for my money, so this will be the missouri one way or the other.there are a thousand guys in my shooting club,we sponsor everything from nbra to national match,and i am the second vice president,i'd rather have something good to say about my choice in guns, the result rests with pedersoli right now,they have the opportunity to make this right, post haste..we'll see what they're made of...i will post the results one way or the other.

 

[KeithL]

How is the front sight? Is it centered? Can it be drifted? Might be the easiest fix.

 

[cregan]

no, the front side cannot drift that much unless you welded a shelf on one side,there is about 3/8 difference in the parralelism from the tang site to the barrel. ridiculous.

 

[Jim Watson]

A properly made and correctly installed Soule sight works just fine on a well made Sharps type rifle, even though the design did not come out until after Sharps Rifle Co was out of business. I see a large majority of Soule sights and a lot of Sharps rifles on the line every time I shoot BPCR.

The main purpose of the Goodwin sight is to allow wiping the barrel out between shots without having to move the sight.

I think your problem is workmanship, not design.

 

[cregan]

i cannot see how workmanship is a problem, there is no way that i can think of for the reciever body to be accidentally cast,or machined in such a manner that the tang and stock were fitted so perfectly and canting right,it appears to me that it was inventory controll of some sort that the wrong gun went with the wrong site,there just ain't no way the seole will work on this particular gun, i've seen them work on all the others, but their tangs and stocks were in line with the barrel, so someone at pedersoli better figure this out soon,this is discouraging, i emailed them thursday, no response yet..unreal,imagine buying a$ 2500 remington and gettin dicked around like this, never happen.

 

[Jim Watson]

Can you show pictures?
I have trouble imagining a Sharps repro made so it would not accept a common tang sight of the same brand.

 

[cregan]

take a look, but don't shoot!

 

[Jim Watson]

It has a visible lean to the right. Maybe you could shim the base to get it vertical.

 

[cregan]

nope,horizontal and verticle bubbles are fine, it's only sitting in a cleaning rack that way, look at the left right position, the left part of the tower is were the center should be, look at the tang ,it is moulded way off center from the chambers ramp, which is where center is,the seole cannot reach center with it's windage adjustments,(which by the way is 35 minutes) the gun is a fluke, useless.

 

[72coupe]

Looks like the only solution is a barrel mounted sight.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Fill the hole with JB Weld and drill a correct hole and tap and remount the site.

 

[cregan]

the tang that the sight mounts to is so far off center itself that it is impossible to use the soule site in this gun.the centerline is on the left nearly on the wood.

 

[Jim Watson]

the left part of the tower is were the center should be, look at the tang

I think we are talking about the same thing, what I see as "lean" is the sight staff relative to the lines and features of the receiver.

Perhaps the action warped when heated and quenched to case harden.
Any way you look at it, you have a lemon. I hope Pedersoli will treat you right.

I have been, once. A friend and I bought the Armi San Marco version of the Schofield, on the sayso of an Australian shooter who said it was better than the Uberti. He was wrong. After some back and forth, Cimarron gave up on the whole project and refunded our money, the wholesale cost, at least. Since the local dealer had discounted them pretty well, we were not out a lot of money. But it nearly put Cimarron out of business.

 

[BHP FAN]

Good candidate for scope.

 

[Jim Watson]

You are mighty free with HIS money. A good period styled scope is expensive.

 

[cregan]

the case hardening distortion makes sense, do you know that to have happened before?

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Send it back!!!

 

[Jim Watson]

No, I can't say that I have known it to happen with a modern factory produced rifle, but since we are down to long distance speculation, I figured I would throw it out.

Good luck in your dealings with importers and manufacturers.
Or maybe even a gunsmith who can get it straight the next time.