I just got a Pedersoli Rolling Block rifle, caliber 45-70, in the shop for repair. It's one of the pistol gripped models with a tang sight. Anyhow, owner is complaining he can't chamber ammo in it. It's filthy, so I give it a good cleaning and then start to measure things. The chamber has no end - it just abruptly funnels into the rifling at about a 45 degree angle. The chamber is not polished at all and quite rough. The bore measures .444 and the grooves are .458. What are these people thinking? Is this typical of Pedersoli blackpowder rifles? The owner is going to have me run a 45-90 reamer in it to give it a real throat and a chance to shoot, luckily it's a removable pilot design so I can make a pilot to fit the bore, otherwise he'd be out of luck.
