doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Double Rifles, Paradox Guns & Gauge Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Pedersoli 45/70 Double Rifle

I have a Pedersoli two barrel set 20 gauge and 45/70. How strong is the rifle? When reloading the 45/70, should I stick with loads for the Trapdoors? or is the design and materials stronger permitting other loads? Comments...........

It should have proofmarks

Should be fine with any commercial or reloaded ammo that meets CIP standards:

CIP 45-70 Standards

2200 Bar is about 31900 PSI.

Pedersoli has long stated 29,000 PSI as MAX for their products.

https://www.cimarron-firearms.com/Manuals-Forms/PDFs/PedManual.pdf

This multi-barrel set is something of rare item it would appear.

Thanks for your responses. I don't think they offer this 2 bbl set any more. I shot a lot of skeet with the 20 gauge, but very little with the 45/70. At 25 yards, the barrels shot the Remington factory 405 grain near the point of aim. I have tried some trapdoor lead loads--but these were quite lightly loaded. I need to shoot it more, but haven't had the time.

I haven't seen a 2 bbl set offered for several years, nor have I seen any in cartridges other than .45-70. Seems like it could be had in 8x57R and another cartridge at one time, maybe 9.3x74R, with or without 20 ga bbls. Nice looking guns on a strong action.

I have the rifle, but not the 20 gauge barrel set.

I had not shot it in years and was thinking of selling it due to the fact that I have hunted almost exclusively in a shotgun zone for the last 12 years and it just sat in my safe.

But then PA just passed the straight walled case exception for shotgun zones.

I know a couple of guys that ran out and got 450 Bushmaster guns. They asked me if I was interested and I just laughed. I have 3 45-70's

With sabot slugs going for $25+ a box, I just can't wait to use some of the 45-70 ammo stash I have in the Double 45-70 this season as well as my Ruger Number 1 Tropical and Marlin cowboy, guns that I have not hunted with for years.

BTW, I always got 2-3 inch groups at 50 yards with the Pedersoli and factory Remington 405's.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts. Certainly a poor man's double rifle!

Hal, that rifle ought to be lots of fun for deer and hogs at open sight ranges. Hope you can get it regulated easily. My son, my grandson and I killed lots of deer with a 300 gr. jacketed hollow point load in a Ruger No. 3 and a Ruger No. 1. I loaded it ahead of 50 gr. of RE7. Heckuva deer load, but don't know about the pressures in your rifle, or if it would even come close to shooting both barrels to the POA.

That No.1 was, and is, a fun rifle to load for. I once loaded up some 500 gr. jacketed RN bullets at 1800 fps, only 350 less than a .458 Win. Mag. Recoil in the No. 1 was, shall we say ...............noticeable. But fun to shoot offhand.

A few years back, I read a magazine article about hunting in Africa with one of these rifles in 45/70. The loads he mentioned were of concern--as they seemed to be pretty stout. I will stick with milder loads for mine. Perhaps trapdoor plus loads, but not those listed for Ruger #1's. [Wish I still had mine, but....]

Shoots really well with the 20 gauge barrels. Had Briley chokes installed as IM/IM limited uses.

Best wishes all,

I also have one of these very nice rifles. It is indeed fun to shoot. I have had it for several years now but have never hunted with it. I would like to take it hog hunting in Texas or some other hog infested location. I too read an article, perhaps the same one, about the Africa hunt. I don't remember anything about the loads used but I do remember some of the large game he killed with it. I found that mine was not regulated as well as I would like for it to have been with the factory loads I was using. I do not reload so I started experimenting. I finally got it to where the left barrel would shoot about 4 inches low and 4 to the left, but I was shooting at 75 yards. I now realize that this is a bit farther than most of these are zeroed/regulated. A friend asked what the factory had said to use. Since I had never thought of asking them myself I simply stated that I was going to go to them as a last resort if I could not get it regulated myself. Satisfied with myself with that answer I immediately looked for and found an e-mail address for the company and sent them a note. In my message I included the serial number of my gun and lo and behold, in a few weeks I received a message from a very nice lady at Pedersoli apologizing for taking so long to get back to me. She told me she had already mailed me the load data as well as the original target they had on file from when they shot it for regulation prior to sale. I realized upon receipt of the data and the target I was shooting too far and too heavy!! If I remember correctly without going down to dig it out of the safe that it was regulated with 300 (or 350) grain Winchester round nosed lead bullets , factory loads. When I tried them, whichever load it was, I was amazed that at 50 yards supported on a bench I could put two rounds just right of the center bullseye by about an inch or so with the left barrel firing second hitting about 1 inch low and to the right of the right barrel. I decided that I was satisfied with that!! Now, to find my shell vest and pith helmet and hit the fields with the hogs!! All said, a very nice rifle and much fun to shoot. (and fantasize about African safaris from the early days!!)

Perry-
Thank you for your report. It was great to hear about Pedersoli's customer service. I have never tried contacting them, but did hear back from Bosis about a SxS of theirs I was considering.

I have had decent luck with factory 405 grain shells at 50 yards. Here in Central Florida, our golf course has had intermittent problems with feral pigs. But I am reluctant to carry the SxS in my golf bag! That would guarantee I would never see another pig.

Best wishes,

Hal,
It might also guarantee that you never see another golfer while you are on the course!!! Since you mentioned the 405's I now remember that I also tried them, but at the 70 or 75 yards at which I was shooting them. 50 yards with the heavier bullets may have produced more favorable results for me as they obviously did for you. As to weight, I think that around 35 grainers would be all I would probably ever need to shoot at hogs, etc here in the states. I will probably only ever get to an African safari in my dreams now or living vicariously through others I know who have gone and continue to go. Happy hunting!! Also, let us know about your golf game with the 45-70 club!!

350 grainers!

I have shot 100's of clays with the 20 gauge barrels. Had to remove the sling stud from the 20 ga. bbls. as recoil would bang my hand, and I had Briley install a set of screw chokes to replace the IM/IM chokes, but this made it into a fun gun to shoot. Bottom line, I shoot it a lot--just not the 45/70 rifle bbls.

The Pedersoli is no longer the "poor man's double rifle".

Eightbore,
What are they going for now?

Do they have separate sights for each barrel? I know the muzzleloader version certainly did.

Cherry's, 45-70 $6875, .450 Nitro $9375, 45-70 with 20 gauge barrels, $9375. I may be off on the exact amounts, but you get the idea.

Mine was brought in by Cherry's and in 1996 I paid just a tad over $2K for it. It is a keeper.

A friend bought one of the 45-70s at a gun show. $1500. I asked him who sold it to him. He said the fellow's name was Kirkland.

Mercy! Not impulse prices-

sounds like the $1500.00 buyer got a good deal!

Kirkland, Kirkland, now where have we heard that name;-)

Turner Kirkland, Dixie Gun Works was apparently considering, or had already decided, to handle the brand. My friend's $1500 gun was a sample. Lucky him.

45-70 double rifle on Dixie website, $5750. Figure that out.

Since Turner died in 1997, prices were a lot different before that, even 15 or 20 years ago with Charles Kirkland running Dixie.