....Davide Pedersoli that is, of that same Italian clan that has been bringing us all those cool repros practically forever....



....stopped by the Alamo today.

A gracious and pleasant man, to us he was practically a rock star

In conversation with him turns out he was the go-to guy providing most of the firearms from everything from Last of the Mohicans through The Patriot to the recent Free State of Jones and The Revenant.

Birdwatcher

Great!!!

What a dopey looking guy, you should have had him wear sunglasses like you were.

That's cool. What did he think of your flintlocks?

That's cool BW, did you let him know he spells his name wrong?

Slick. Tough to beat one of Italian heritage.

Maybe for background extras. But the rifles for the main characters for hand built by a well-known gunsmith whose Name Escapes me at the moment. You can find it on the American muzzleloaders forum

Monte Mandorino?

That's very cool Mike!

With a guy like him you can talk shop. Fer example, you can point out the Jim Chambers round-faced Colonial Virginia lock on your fowler and he's familiar with the product and the time period its appropriate for. It seemed like what he thought of a given gun is pretty much what anybody familiar with 'em thinks. IOW the guy knows his way around muzzleloaders.

We talked about how in The Patriot the extras playing the Colonial militia were turning their faces away from their muskets while firing on account of the director added magnesium filings to the pan powder to give a brighter flash (I think it was our own Kaywoodie I learned that from).

He related a similar story from Russia. They were making a movie about the Battle of Borodino and ordered a bunch of muskets, but those same muskets had to have steel cross-pieces set inside the barrel just down from the muzzle to prevent them from being loaded with ball. Mr Pedersoli provided them but they were having problems because these cross-pieces quickly burned out.

This was a puzzle, and when he inspected them Mr Pedersoli found a strange yellow residue all over the inside of the barrel.

Turns out they were using a mix of mostly magnesium filings for powder

Birdwatcher

Ya, true of The Revenant too, in fact in the Revenant IIRC they took delivery of two identical custom period longrifles for DeCaprio's character but then sent 'em back for some reason to have the barrels shortened.

Likewise they ordered a few identical custom knives for DeCaprio's character, with the exception that the one for the grizzly fight had to have a longer handle so you could see it in DeCaprio's hand (now I dont recall if he actually stabbed the bear in the final version).

Birdwatcher

No worries, there was homeless guys in 1836 too, I play one of those.

I believe Hershal House built several of the principles rifles.

Most of the colonial militia were seasoned Reenactors. With all their own clothes, gear, and weapons. We didn't turn our heads head when firing. I dont remember anything about magnesium powder in the cartridges they passed out. Just plain old black. But,,,, most all the Brit and American regular troops were just people off the street in need of a job. With the exception of the Brit cav. They were all Reenactors with thief own horses. The director told the folks off the street who had never see. A Brown Bess before let alone an muzzleloader to turn their heads to prevent the possible injury. Yeah we all laughed. It was a lawyer thing.

I will add that just like in the last Alamo flick they set had experienced Reenactors training all these people off the street. They would have been in their appropriate uniform Brit or American. Now there were Reenactors in The rank and file troops too. But they're generally wasn't many. I suspecy o. The set of the patriot there were probably only 150 to 200 dedicated Reenactors on set. Everybody else was off the street so to speak.

You would be broken up in "platoons"'and they trained in period correct drill, marching, loading etc. Then you kinda had to pass an inspection for safety, authenticity, etc. I remember several of the coordinators coming up to our group and stating we were the folks they werent worried about simply by looking at our weapons and clothing. Btw I carried my Northstar West Light Infantry Fusil in that production. A 2/3 scale Bess. A lot lighter gun!!!

At least he does not to be Sicilian, whom are not Italians.

I must have got it from a reenactor forum.

Maybe its and urban legend, I googled on it and found this....

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0187393/goofs



I didn't notice anything different about the smoke. Googling the battle scenes on Youtube, maybe some guys were turning heads on account of I can't make out flashguards on the side of those pans.

(For those out of the loop, a flashguard is just that, a sheet of brass or steel that attaches to the edge of the pan using the screw that the frizzen pivots on. It protects the guy next to you from the lateral stream of hot gases shooting out of the vent. They didn't exist back then but they are pretty much required at every modern reenactment. )

Hell Birdy. It could very well be true. It was a big production. When shooting a close up they could have used it as they would simply just prime the pan for effect. Need lot o' sparks! When we were out on the battlefield it would not have mattered. Just lots of smoke anyway. No close up stuff.

I also remember the day all the Reenactors came close to walking off the set. In the middle of the big battle finale. Another story for another time