Shooting the 1861 rifled musket

[hawkeye]

Thanks to a generous trade by our very own Uncle Russ, I'll soon be in possession of an 1861 rifled musket. I have the powder. I have the musket caps and I have a .575-500gr Minie Ball mould.  Now for the question: Do I need to lube the minie ball? I'm assuming so but I'm new to bullet firing smoke poles.  I planned on either using Crisco or a mix of bee's wax and olive oil.  Do I lube just the outside of the bullet or do I need to fill the cavity as well?  I know to keep the powder charge to around 50gr-60gr of 2f to prevent blowing the skirt on the Minie.  Any advice from you experienced rifled musket shooters would be greatly appreciated.

[hawkeye]

Well, here's what I did. I cast 30 Minie Balls (which weighed 526gr from a 500gr mould   ) and then I dipped them up to the grease rings in a mix of bee's wax and olive oil.  

Now I can't wait to get the musket out to the range and give her a try!

[butterchurn]

I fill the bases, too.  I use crisco for now beacause I have a big can of it.

[dbm]

I've never been keen on filling the base of the Minie, and don't think there should really be any need. Primary reason to me is the risk of lube migrating into the powder and dampening ignition.

Beeswax and olive oil should be fine as a lube.

I shoot 75 grains of a 2f equivalent powder and don't experience any problems with the skirt 'blowing' - my Minie is heavier at 560 grains. I won the MLAGB National 600 yard Championships with this last year and was 2nd this year, so it works OK.

David

[hawkeye]

I just thought I would add a couple of pictures for you guys and gals:

[butterchurn]

Very pretty!  I like it.

[hawkeye]

And here's how the Minie's turned out:

[Uncle Russ]

I have tried 3 times to post to this tread...INVALID SUBMISSION..

I hope this one makes it!

Anyway, that is indeed a good looking rifle!  

Uncle Russ...

[hawkeye]

Anyway, that is indeed a good looking rifle!  :rotf  You would know best!

[Uncle Russ]

Now that the thread has allowed me to post, here is what I wanted to tell you........

In my very, very limited experience with that rifle, I discovered that shooting Minies is something of a trick.....
I am told it is due, in most part, to the progressive rifling of the Colt, but a similiar situation exists with most all Minies, and that is matching the powder charge to the "skirt" of the Minie.

In particular, the 575213PH, a heavy 562gr "weighted forward" (the majority of the weight is beyond the hollow cavity) Minie with a very stout, thick skirt, will take a rather hefty charge of powder w/o blowing the skirt.
A 575315, 315gr Minie has something of a thin or fragile skirt and appears to do best with around 40 / 45gr of FFFg Goex.

The RCBS NSS Hodgdon .580 @ 416gr is another good Minie for this style of rifling. This particular Minie has a very wide margin of error for powder charges and some even feel you can safely go up the charge of FFg to 120+ grains for hunting and still maintain accuracy.

The one thing that is certain when using Minie Balls....if you blow the skirt, you will loose accuracy. Plain and simple.

A friend of mine in Olympia, WA has a Colt 2-Band, and he prefers the Lee REAL for hunting....it is a .592 @  440gr and I have chronographed that particular Minie, over my own chronograph, at 1800 fps from his gun..... I don't recall the particulars of lube, or powder charge, but that is one whup butt chuck of lead for hunting.

Personally, I have always though the Colt was quite possibly the most handsome of all the muskets made.

Col. Sam Colt sold the Government a bill of goods when he came out with the 1861...promised the world that the parts would interchange with the Springfield, and they could use all the "extra parts" they had on hand in his gun if the need should ever arise...that was all just sales talk because only a very limited number of the parts do actually change out without special fitting.

You may want to read the following, if you haven't already.
http://www.civilwarguns.com/specmod.html

Good luck, and I do hope ya bring home the bacon with rifle!

Uncle Russ...

[Pitchy]

Nice rifle, have fun.  

[Roaddog]

A darn nice lookn gun. are ya going to take her deer huntn this year?

[hawkeye]

A darn nice lookn gun. are ya going to take her deer huntn this year?

I might use it but my primary deer gun is my .62 early Virginia flint rifle. Our deer season starts in 2 weeks so that may not be enough time to get the rifle sighted and be comfortable with it.

[Roaddog]

I guess I would go with one I'm comfortable with too. That .62 will get the job dun for sure. Good luck on the hunt.