Had one in .50 and its 7/8ths inch barrel although it was a tackdriver had bad mirage after 4 or 5 shots..........I cant imagine Pedersoli would use a 7/8ths inch barrel in .54 caliber unless it was some super strong steel?...........Thanks Bob Hatfield

Should be a 15/16ths. Straight walled, 39" long.

LD

It is 7/8" but yes, the steel is different and Pedersoli stands behind it.

Pedersoli states, "With a patched .535-inch ball, we suggest loades of up to 90 gr of FFg and with a conical bullet weighing 450 grains, we suggest loads up to 100-110 grains of FFg. For both round and conical bullets, these powder charges could be increased by up to 10 percent if necessary."

That was copied from an E-mail I received from Pedersoli and was part of my article published in Muzzleloader, Jan/Feb 2008, Cabelas'"Blue Ridge" Rifle by Pedersoli.

Granted, most 7/8" barrels are rather small for 54 cal so it is a must to read the manufacturers data sheet for their suggested loads. Just because a rifle has a 1 in 48 twist, don't think for a minute that the manufacturer recommends large loads behind conical bullets.

A case in point. Traditions used to make a nice little youth rifle called the Fox River Fifty Scout. It was 50 caliber, had a 1 in 48 twist, and a 7/8" barrel. No, they did not recommend using conical bullets in that rifle.

I'm using 90 gr FFg, GOEX behind a .530 round ball in my Blue Ridge 54 flintlock. I have rebuilt sights on my rifle becasue I use it exclusively for hunting. I have a home made peep sight and a taller than factory, 1/8" thick front sight. When I paint that front sight white, it shines like a lighthouse on a stormy night.

By the way, that 90 gr load in the Blue Ridge rifle prints 2 1/4 to 2 1/2" groups at 100 yds.

Load fast and aim slow.

I had a 7/8" 50 cal in a DGW Tennessee Mt rifle - it was a tack driver and really pleasant to hold - a 7/8" 54 would be much lighter I would think?

Dan'l

My concern with the thin barrels and flintlocks is having enough meat for the liner threads if so fittedi had on .54 in an oct to rd and there was not much in the way of threads engaing the liner, it was low enough that the lock covered part of the line I guess that might slow it down a bit.

Thanks...........I always wondered if it had a 7/8ths inch barrel...........Well if it heats up and has mirage sooner it will cool down sooner.......................Bob

Got to figure if the barrel is hot enough to give of mirages you might want to let it cool before pouring powder into it,just my thoughts. As far as steel used in barrels,If it were to be made with modern high strength steel I figure it should be ok,Modern guns build some high LUP and CUP's,they stay together and are a lot thinner.There was a posting from someone at the fire ref. a new barrel builder using modern steel,not cheap but you get what you pay for.

You don't have to worry about the vent screwing into that thin barrel on the Pedersoli Blue Ridge rifle. The vent screws into the breech plug. The inside end of the vent stops at an anti chamber or flue that measures 0.19" in diameter. Therefore, there is 7/8 = .875" so .875 - .19 = .685/2 = .3425" of steel for the vent to screw into. Compare that with .875 - .54 = .335/2 = .1675" if in fact it did only screw into the 54 cal bare which it does not.

That .19" flue being 12" long, extending back from the full caliber bore's chamber to the vent is a recipe for miss-fires and hang-fires. I had a gun smith remove the breech plug and bore it out 5/16 or .3125". He also ground the vent concave so the rifle now fires very dependably. With this modification, the vent screws into .875 - .3125 = .5625/2 = .2813"

By th way, the vent must be removed before the breech plug can be removed. I'm not a fam of this style of breech and had I known that the rifle was built this way, I may not have bought it. I'm not a fan of 1 in 48 twist and if Id have known about this breech desing, would have passed on the deal, made a different choice. For what it's worth, Pederoli is now producing their Blue Ridge 54 rifles with 1 in 65, a big improvement.

You get what you pay for. I couldn't save up over $500 for over 3 years so when I finally had it, I bought the rifle. I'm not shooting dozens of shots since I only use it for hunting. Well, that's not entirely true. I have used the rifle in a few of our monthly matches but that was only to allow the rifle to prove to me that I really did get the bugs worked out of it.

Load fast and aim slow.

Cabelas says that the .54 Blue Ridge has a 1/65 inch twist..................Bob

Leather bark; That is correct but only for the new ones. I'm not sure of the date of the change but mine, purchased in 2004 has a 1 in 48 twist. I beleive they changed in either 2007 or 2008.

I also notice they are also including a toe plate on the new rifles. They didn't used to do this.

Load fast and aim slow.