Pedersoli 1861 Springfield

[Kenneth L. Walters]

According to Dixie, the preferred bullet diameter is 0.575.
I, however, would like to use a Mouse Mold Wilkinson which can have diameters of .0577 or 0.580?
Will the smaller of these two work?

[Lou Lou Lou]

You have to slug the bore. Tom Crone has plug gauges at his booth and can tell you the actual size of the bore.

[Kenneth L. Walters]

You have to slug the bore. Tom Crone has plug gauges at his booth and can tell you the actual size of the bore.

But has anyone tried these in their Springfield?

[Maillemaker]

I will tell you that in my Whitacre-barreled Enfield, the larger Moose Wilkinson did much poorer than the smaller one, which is now my preferred skirmish bullet as it is an absolute tack driver in my Enfield, and probably in my Richmond Carbine also.

Steve

[Kenneth L. Walters]

What is the bore diameter on your rifle?

[Maillemaker]

I size my bullets to .576.

Steve

[Kenneth L. Walters]

I size my bullets to .576.

Steve

I would have though that sizing those bullets would massively deform them.
How, exactly, do you do that?

[Maillemaker]

I use a Lyman 4500 Lubrisizer.

You've got me second-guessing myself now though.

I think I originally bought the larger size so that I could use it in my Pedersoli P53 and P58 which both like a .578 bullet.

I think I tried them in my Euroarms/Whitacre Enfield which uses a .576.

In any case, I never got good results out of it and sold it off.

I now use the smaller one, sized to .576 without problems.

Steve

[R. McAuley 3014V]

If you don't mind spending a little more money, you could buy a set of progressive dies like .578, .577, .576 or even a larger spread, and set them up in a Lyman T-Max rotary head press. I have two sets: one from .577 to .575 and size to .576 for the Enfields and .575 for the '55 Rifle. I have another set from .561 to .559 for the .577 Whitworth.