Many other musket shooters out there?

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linoww posted this 19 March 2013

I have an English made P-H 2 band from the 1980's i like to shoot.What did the cartridge for that one look like? That look s like fun!

"if it was easy we'd let women do it" don't tell my wife I said that!

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Lead weight posted this 19 March 2013

The picture is a typical British Pritchett Ball Enfield Cartridge (repro I made) that was imported into the South during the WBTS.

The bullet is nose up, at the bottom of the case, with the powder sitting on top of the bullet. This style was made with 4 pieses of paper, earlier ones used 3 pieces.

You tore the paper on top of the cartridge, poured the powder into the muzzle. You then inverted the cartridge and placed the waxed bullet end, (paper still covering the bullet) into the muzzle, and broke off the section above the bullet and discard the upper section. You then rammed the wax paper covered bullet onto the charge, cap, aim and fire.

The link below may be of help.

http://www.researchpress.co.uk/firearms/british/enfield/cartridge07.htm

I use card stock for the powder cylinder, and regular typing paper for the other pieces.

I'll be able to help out if you have more questions.

Kevin

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6pt-sika posted this 19 March 2013

I'm going to “try” and get an 1861 contract musket shooting well enough to kill a deer next season .

If I get er done with the Mason I may try another 58 or try an original 1841 54 cal . Also have a fairly decent 1842 Harpers Ferry 69 smoothbore I might take a crack at depending on how well the others go and whether or not I loose intrest .

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Lead weight posted this 19 March 2013

This article has been a lot of help to me...

http://www.n-ssa.org/NATIONAL/CONTRIB/bagdon.html

Kevin

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72coupe posted this 19 March 2013

Nice work.

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Lead weight posted this 19 March 2013

I'm at a loss to understand why Lee, or Lyman do NOT make appropriate sized Minie Balls? Many of your reproductions have bores that are too big for .575” bullets to work in their non-progressive depth rifled barrels.

To get accuracy out of an ArmiSport, or Euroarms repro Enfield, or Springfield, you need bullets 1-2 thousandths smaller than the bore size.

My ArmiSport 1861 will not shoot a .575” accurately out of its .581” bore. But, it will shoot very accurately a Minie Ball that is .579", or better yet, a .580” diameter Minie Ball!

Mold makers of Minie Balls need to make a larger size Minie, so it can be sized down to what the shooter needs.

Now, its my understanding that Parker Hale (older ones) have the progressive depth rifling just like the rifles in the WBTS. I hear they shoot .575” Minie's OK. Lucky you if you have one of the older PH.

Also...Why doesn't Lee, or Lyman make .69 cal RB mold that drops a correct size ball?(.650") I'm a traditionalist, I make my .69 cal Musket ammo the way they did back then, out of paper. It's a BLAST to shoot Round Ball, or Buck-n-Ball out of my 1842 Repro, 110 grains of FFg really makes a blast. A friend loaned me a Dixie Gunworks mold that drops a .66” cal ball, I've cast up enough to last me a good while.

Kevin

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6pt-sika posted this 19 March 2013

Never tried any of the repro 69's , 58's or 54's . But I plan on trying an original in each caliber if I can get my Wm Mason 1861 contract musket to shoot . Got a couple original 1841 Mississippi's and I wanna shoot one of them . Also wanna try a fairly decent Harpers Ferry 1842 69 cal smoothbore musket we have .

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Lead weight posted this 19 March 2013

I'll tell ya, an original .69 cal Flinter is a blast. The picture is of me shooting a friend's 1812 with a RB load.

All I saw was smoke! Kevin

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Lead weight posted this 20 March 2013

6pt-sika wrote: Never tried any of the repro 69's , 58's or 54's . But I plan on trying an original in each caliber if I can get my Wm Mason 1861 contract musket to shoot . Got a couple original 1841 Mississippi's and I wanna shoot one of them . Also wanna try a fairly decent Harpers Ferry 1842 69 cal smoothbore musket we have .

What caliber are the Mississipi's you talk of....54, or converted to .58?

Kevin

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Bob 11B50 posted this 01 March 2014

I have a Navy Arms “Zouave” with a tight bore, a Zoli with a big bore, and a PH 3 band with a .575 bore. I've been looking for sources for sizing dies and push stick for the hollow base for the Minie' balls. Do you have any suggestins? I called Rapine, but the phone was no longer in service. Did he go out of business?

Bob 11B50

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Ed Harris posted this 02 March 2014

Years ago I had a W.J. Jeffery 2-band Artillery Rifle with iron furniture and an Isaac Hollis & Sons 3-band Volunteer rifle, both .577. In those days we shot the Ideal #575213-OS ("Old Style") which was supposedly a true copy of the Union service bullet.

We cast these 1:50 tin:lead and sized them .577” in a hand sizer, lubed with 1:3 mutton tallow and beeswax, with 65 grs. of Curtis & Harvey A5, which, if I recall correctly, in granulation was between Fg ang FFg.

Never chronographed the liads back then, but they shot to point if aim with the service sights, and once the bore was fouled, you could depend on 2 to 2-1/2” five-shot groups at 50 yards, and dispersion was linear to the range back to 200 yards.

I sold both rifles and the original bayonets, tools and kit to a collector in the Richmond, VA area in the spring of 1969 and used the proceeds to pay a year's books and tuition at VA Tech.

73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia

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blixem posted this 12 July 2014

Yes! Muskets are one of my passions! I have both originals and repros. Much prefer shooting the originals as it somehow connects better with history. However, because of the wear and tear on originals, mostly shooting the repros. Odd thing (or maybe not so odd) is that the originals usually outshoot the repros all things being equal like bore condition.

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blixem posted this 14 July 2014

Lead weight wrote: This article has been a lot of help to me...

http://www.n-ssa.org/NATIONAL/CONTRIB/bagdon.html>http://www.n-ssa.org/NATIONAL/CONTRIB/bagdon.html

KevinThat's a good article that follows with what most high power/center fire bench rest shooters do along with the long range BPCR and muzzleloader target shooters do. Weighing the bullets for a minimum of standard deviation will never hurt. At some point though it may all depend on how accurate the rest of the package is including: sights and sight resolution, shooting and loading technique, the firearm itself, etc. Also, I may do it when first starting out with a particular load combination or new gun, new mold and so on. After that, I usually just inspect the bullets for obvious voids and pitch the culls back in the pot. I can see it when competing at high levels with BPCR or target muzzleloaders where there may be a difference realized between a 3” 300+ yard group and a 2” 300+ yard group. But for 150 year old MiniÃƒÂ© muskets or repros loaded traditionally”¦. good luck!

As to weighing each charge?? Hmm, that's one I really don't know about. I just pour the BP into a measure, eyeball the level so it's consistent and drop it in. Seems to work well enough compared to all the other variables in shooting these oldsters. I've never noticed a gr. or two variation in charge makes much difference on target (when I've compared weighed vs volume charges). I suspect all the other zigs and zags in shooting these far outweigh small shot to shot charge weight differences.

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blixem posted this 15 July 2014

Lead weight wrote: I'm at a loss to understand why Lee, or Lyman do NOT make appropriate sized Minie Balls? Many of your reproductions have bores that are too big for .575” bullets to work in their non-progressive depth rifled barrels.

To get accuracy out of an ArmiSport, or Euroarms repro Enfield, or Springfield, you need bullets 1-2 thousandths smaller than the bore size.

My ArmiSport 1861 will not shoot a .575” accurately out of its .581” bore. But, it will shoot very accurately a Minie Ball that is .579", or better yet, a .580” diameter Minie Ball!

Mold makers of Minie Balls need to make a larger size Minie, so it can be sized down to what the shooter needs.

Now, its my understanding that Parker Hale (older ones) have the progressive depth rifling just like the rifles in the WBTS. I hear they shoot .575” Minie's OK. Lucky you if you have one of the older PH.

Also...Why doesn't Lee, or Lyman make .69 cal RB mold that drops a correct size ball?(.650") I'm a traditionalist, I make my .69 cal Musket ammo the way they did back then, out of paper. It's a BLAST to shoot Round Ball, or Buck-n-Ball out of my 1842 Repro, 110 grains of FFg really makes a blast. A friend loaned me a Dixie Gunworks mold that drops a .66” cal ball, I've cast up enough to last me a good while.

KevinI'm trying to keep this thread alive;)

I agree completely and have no clue why at least one choice for larger diameter isn't SOP for all the makers. Probably the same reason many of their regular cast bullet molds are really undersized. I ran into the same thing when searching for MiniÃƒÂ© molds that properly fit many of my originals. I finally just “bit the bullet” and started budgeting for the RCBS N-S MiniÃƒÂ© molds that are available up to .584". As it turned out the RCBS MiniÃƒÂ©s have shot extremely well in my rifle muskets. I will say though the 54 cal Lyman 533476 MiniÃƒÂ© shoots extremely well in the only 54 musket (rifle) I have”¦ a 7 groove Mississippi.

The correct fit for roundballs in smoothbores is a different tale as are any of the paper cartridge varieties! I have two 69s. One is smooth and it's a challenge to get it to shoot a ball straight- it's actually a better buckshot shooter. The other is rifled and luckily the only Lyman 69 cal MiniÃƒÂ© available shoots great in it.

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Dirtybore posted this 28 January 2015

I have one of Colt Black Powder Arms, 1861 Colt Special Muskets. It has progressive depth rifling grooves with a 1:72 gain twist.

I've had my best luck using the RCBS 500 gr Minnie. It has a thicker skirt than most of the Lyman Minnies. I've been using 70 gr of 2Fg, GOEX behind that bullet.

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Many other musket shooters out there?

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