What is the best Minie' ball mold for live firing of Pedersoli 1861 Springfield

[mrappe]

I just got a new Pedersoli 1861 Springfield and while I do reenacting also ,my primary hobby for the past 23 years is Cowboy Action Shooting which is using live ammo. I do reloading and have cast round balls for my cap and ball pistols. I have never shot a musket with live ammo so if I buy any gun even for reenacting I would also like to shoot it at the shooting range with authentic type Minie' balls. I was wondering which bullet molds and sizers would be best for this particular manufacturer's barrel .
Thank you,
Mike

[ms3635v]

there are many good minie moulds available. I use a Moose Old Style minie in .578" that I size to .576" in a bore that measures .577" (.001" under bore size works best). Always use soft lead. With 45 grains of 3F it will shot a five shot group with all rounds touching from the bench at 50 yards. I am shooting a two band Springfield equipped with a Dan Whitacre barrel.

[Maillemaker]

Hi Mike,

Here is a video of CapandBall shooting the Pedersoli Springfield:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWkDPscNyD4

He has good luck getting good accuracy out of the Pedersoli guns.

A lot of skirmishers in the N-SSA like to shoot the RCBS-Hodgdon "skirmish" bullet. It is a semi-wadcutter that makes good clean holes in the target, and it is relatively light (400+ grains) and shoots with a charge of 45 or so grains of 3F powder. It also has generous lube grooves.

Some people also shoot a more historical expanding ball bullet, like the Lyman 575213OS.

As Mike S. pointed out, you'll want to use pure lead in an expanding ball, or otherwise the bullet will not expand to take up the rifling very well. Also as he pointed out, most of us size our bullets to insure a tight fit to our gun and insure roundness. I run them through sizers in .001" increments until I find the size that won't fit down the bore, then back off by .001". Some people will also weigh their bullets and discard any that fall outside of, say, +/- .5% of average.

I am coming around to the conclusion that it is very hard to get voidless hollow-base bullets using a bottom-pour pot. Ladle casting gives much better results. You can verify this yourself by casting up a dozen via bottom pour and casting up a dozen via ladle pouring and weigh them and notice the difference in consistency in the weights. With bottom-pouring of hollow-base bullets you will very often notice a void, or bubble, at the apex of the hollow cavity. But I suspect that even when you do not see it break through into the cavity it is still there in the bullet at least some of the time.

Steve

[LeoSkully]

As Mike S. pointed out, you'll want to use pure lead in an expanding ball, or otherwise the bullet will not expand to take up the rifling very well. Also as he pointed out, most of us size our bullets to insure a tight fit to our gun and insure roundness. I run them through sizers in .001" increments until I find the size that won't fit down the bore, then back off by .001". Some people will also weigh their bullets and discard any that fall outside of, say, +/- .5% of average.

Thank you very much! I'll be taking note of this as well.

[mrappe]

I have used Cerrosafe in rifles but how you slug the bore in a musket since you cannot remove anything by pushing from the other side. i have tried measuring with my calipers but that was not working since it was hard to get the lands and grooves to line up.
Mike

[Maillemaker]

I don't slug them. Though I have heard some people do this by putting a brass rod down the barrel, and then pounding in a bullet, and then jerking the barrel up and down to let the brass rod pound out the slug.

As I said above, I just run the bullets through sizers in .001" increments until I find one that does not fit, and then I go back to the next smaller one.

If you don't have a batch of sizers to try out, you can also buy pin gages and use those to determine your bore size. You can buy a set or a few sizes around .575.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MHC-Plus-501-626-pin-gage-set/123115178680?hash=item1caa3c8ab8:g:s~kAAOSwqfpZ2X2 m


Steve

[RaiderANV]

Take your barrel to about any machine shop and they will have a three way to measure it properly. I use to do it several times a year for decades until I finally purchased one

[Lou Lou Lou]

Fellow in Region, made slip guage .574,.575, 576,577, 578,579, 580, 581,582 each step Is about 3/4 long. works great

[Maillemaker]

That sounds neat, Lou!

Steve

[Lou Lou Lou]

a step gauge made on a lathe. Go/no go bore gauge

[MR. GADGET]

I just use pin gauge to check the bore size.
They are easy to find on line and cost very little for what you are getting.

[tony 1st regt]

about 20 years ago I made a set of gauges on a lathe that measures a bore from one end to the other. What they are is a round medal disc turned to various diameters such as .550-560-565-570-575-580 , in between these numbers I have turned some .572-.577 etc. the center section is flat about 1/16 with the edges rounded, and center drilled to accept a musket ramrod threaded end. It doesn't take long to determine the bore dia. and if there is any irregularity from one end to another. For the center hole I bore a hole tap drill size about 1" deep and cut sections with a parting bit.

[mrappe]

Unfortunately, I don't have access to a machine shop or know of anyone with a lathe. I am not familiar with pin gauges but all of the ones I see online are small diameter sets and are expensive.

Mike

[Lou Lou Lou]

You can buy larger size pins individually .575 to .580

[george7542]

Mike I found then on eBay individually for around 8 dollars each
Also amazon has then around 12 each

[snapcap14]

Lou what material where they made from. Think I may be able to have a few sets made at work.

[Lou Lou Lou]

Some kind of steel . Eddie O made it for Glenn
heck you could use anything on hand. Good luck.

[Kurt Lacko 7862]

https://www.gageshop.com/product/black-ox-english-class-zz-501-to-625/


Kurt

[bobanderson]

I bought mine from Travers Tool. They are from 3 10 to bucks apiece. They suggested using "minus" gauges, aka class ZZ, which are a half a thousandth under size. This lets a .690 pin fit into a .690 bore.

https://www.travers.com/class-zz-individual-pin-gages/p/118248/?lite=true&pricelistname=SITE

[mrappe]

I just got a Lyman 1-Cavity Minie Ball Bullet Mold #575213-OS 58 Caliber (575 Diameter) 460 Grain Old Style Mold and will cast some to try out but I haven't measured my bore yet.
I have done a lot of loading over the years but most of my cast bullets have been for cowboy action shooting and were cast by someone else. I have never seen or used a sizer. What kind of sizer would you you use for a Minie? Do sizers come with the ability to do different diameters? can you also size the bullets larger?

Thanks
Mike

[Maillemaker]

You can't really size a bullet bigger. Well, I have heard of folks squashing them in a die so that they swell up to fill the sizer, but generally sizers are to size down, not up.

I use dies from S&S Firearms that fit in my Lyman Lubrisizer. This allows me to lubricate and size in once step. However I have heard that S&S is having some difficulty getting sizers - not sure though.

Other folks make sizers, like Lodgewood Manufacturing.

Steve

[mrappe]

I just cast my first Minies today with and I tried the fit to my gun and they are slightly too large to drop in. They should be able to drop in right?
If so I will need to size them down some I think. Also the bullets came out pretty well shaped but the smooth surfaces have a little waviness in them. I used a hot setting on my Lee bottom pour pot. I am wondering if the mold was running too cool.
Mike

[Hal]

Wrinkles are a sign of either oil in the mould or mould too cool. Even with a good cleaning, a brand new mould may leech oil for the first 3-4 times you use it. Cast fast and don't take the time to QA between drops. That will get, and keep, your mould up to temperature. Do your QA inspection afterwards.

BTW, I get much more consistent results by using a ladle rather than using the bottom pour function of my pot. Bottom pour is fine for smaller bullets, but larger ones, especially minnies, do better for me when I ladle cast. Check and make sure you don't have voids up inside where the point of the core pin was. I had voids up in there on probably 75% of the ones I cast when I tried doing them with my bottom pour. Ladle casting all but solved that for me.