Buying an 1853 Enfield?

[Gen-Stonewall_Jackson]

Where's the best place/site to an p1853 enfield for reenacting?

[harley_davis]

Sir:
You will get a plethora of opinions in terms of "best". Frankly, watching this Forum is probably as good a place as any, but ya gotta be quick to get the good deals. Short of that, there are a couple of vendors for new
http://blockaderunner.com/Catalog/catpg2a.html Scroll down the page to the Defarbed Enfields.
http://www.regtqm.com/Articles.asp?ID=239
http://www.fcsutler.com/fcweapons.asp
I have one of the Todd Watts defarbs from Blockade Runner, it is a beautiful rifle.
Good luck,

[Brett]

Like Harley said. You'll get a lot of opinions. But since you asked for mine...

1. From another reenactor. Ask around your unit (if you're not in a good unit, find one) and usually somebody is about to get out of the hobby, or has an extra musket, or knows someone considering selling a musket, etc. You will probably get the best deal from another reenactor in your unit, who knows you are going to use the musket to participate with the unit at events.

2. From this forum. You have to be quick but there are deals all the time. This is also probably the best place to find a defarbed musket at a reasonable price.

3. If all else fails, price-shop on the major sutlers. Shipping will add $20 or so to the price, so another option is actually going to a reenactment, going to the sutlers present there, and taking the best deal for a 53 Enfield. This has the added benefit of being able to see and handle the muskets personally. Ordering one online doesn't give you the opportunity to select based on the striping of the wood stock, and such.

Good luck in your musket search.

[maillemaker]

My next Enfield will be a Pedersoli.

Setting aside custom rifle makers, there are currently only two major manufacturers or reproduction P1853 Muskets - Pedersoli (who took over Euroarms) and Armisport.

Just within the last 6 months Pedersoli has re-tooled the Euroarms Enfield and made significant changes to improve the authenticity.

http://www.davide-pedersoli.com/tipo...s-enfield.html

Some of the things they did are:

Correct sling hardware
Correct lock washers
BSAT cartouche on stock
Correct lock plate markings
Correct barrel bands
Correct weight
Correct hammer

All improvements over the version that Euroarms was making.

Very recently Armisport has now made changes to their Enfield, no doubt to try and keep up with the changes that Pedersoli has made:

http://www.chiappafirearms.com/product/2614

It's hard to tell exactly what changes Armisport has made. The barrel bands appear to be the correct Palmer style, but appear case hardened colored when they should be blued. It remains to be seen what else they did to it.

The Pedersoli has been reviewed and shown to be a very accurate shooter. This may not matter to you if you are not going to do live fire, but Pedersoli seems to be putting the effort in making this a good shooting arm.

I personally have been disappointed by the poor lock internals on Italian reproductions. I have had problems with soft sears, tumblers, and springs in both Armisport and Euroarms weapons that resulted in broken sears and soft springs causing drops to half-cock. I had to do gunsmithing and home heat treating to correct issues. The lock internals on those reproductions are absolutely nothing like the quality of the originals.

I cannot say if it is so yet or not, but my hope is that the Pedersoli, being known as a higher-quality manufacturer and somewhat more expensive, will have higher-quality lock components so that the firearm will function under the rigors of being fired many thousands of times, as I do with my arms in competition. Even if you are only going to be shooting blanks, if you are going to be shooting a lot you want a good lock.

Another option is a "defarbed" Enfield done by Todd Watts at Blockade Runner or similar. In fact, all of the imported arms, no matter what changes they make for authenticity, will have modern stampings on them to identify the manufacturer. The only way to get one completely marked properly is to get a defarbed one.

Steve

[Pumpkinslinger]

Like Brett said, your best choice is to find one in your own unit or maybe one of the loaners. That being said, the loaners are usually the red headed step-child when it comes to being maintained. If you would have bought one from my old unit you had some serious cleaning to be done before I would have pulled the trigger. My first was practically a new P53 from a guy getting out of the hobby. Recently traded it for a MS rifle since I never used it after picking up an 1842 off of the NSSA classifieds. That and here are great places to find one, but you have to jump when you see it, they don't last long.

[major]

If you haven’t gotten one yet you might want to try the Company Quartermaster. They have been around for a long time and make a quality product.
http://www.coquartermaster.com/

[Craig L Barry]

If you haven’t gotten one yet you might want to try the Company Quartermaster. They have been around for a long time and make a quality product.
http://www.coquartermaster.com/

1. Terry: Referring to yourself in the third person?

2. Yes, Pedersoli springs are not produced from the soft machine grade steel that Armi Sport uses. Their springs are very, very good. Read the detailed review of the Pedersoli P53 long rifle in the July/August Citizens & Soldiers Digest (www.citizensandsoldiers.com).