Pedersoli 1862 Richmond

About the Pedersoli 1862 Richmond

The Pedersoli 1862 Richmond is a modern Italian reproduction of the Confederate Richmond Armory rifle-musket, a .58 caliber percussion muzzleloading rifle. Built by Davide Pedersoli in Gardone Val Trompia, it recreates the Springfield-pattern long arm that the Confederacy produced in Richmond, Virginia using rifling and stocking machinery seized from the Harpers Ferry Arsenal in 1861. It features the distinctive hump-backed lock plate, a roughly 39.75-inch polished steel barrel with three-groove 1:72 rifling, an American walnut stock, triple barrel bands with sling swivels and military ladder sights. Chambered for the .58 Minié ball or patched round ball and fired by a #11 percussion cap, it is used for muzzleloading target competition and American Civil War reenactment.

The original Richmond rifle-muskets were made on machinery captured at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal when Virginia forces seized it in 1861 and shipped it south; their unmistakable hump-backed lock plate is a leftover of the tooling for the Maynard tape primer that the Confederacy never used, filled in with a solid boss instead.

Pedersoli 1862 Richmond specifications

Modern black-powder reproduction, not an original antique. Retailer specs list a 39.75 in (~1,010 mm) barrel, 56 in (~1,422 mm) overall length, weight about 10.14 lb (~4,599 g) and 1:72 rifling twist. The hump-backed lock plate derives from the original Model 1855 Maynard tape-primer lock, though the reproduction uses ordinary percussion caps. Approved for reenactment by the North-South Skirmish Association. Offered in Type II and Type III lock/pattern configurations.