Armi Sport 1861 musket

[MR. GADGET]

Was in a shop the other day and ran up on a deal. The gun was a wall hanger some place.
Looks like an older gun never fired. When I checked the bore it is around a .580 to .581 larger tha. What I have currently.
So my question is, the Older Armi Sports, how are then...
Standard, better than or same as current. Bore runs larger from what I hear and see.

Don't know what to do with it. May use it as a project gun and cut it down or do something.
Not sure I want to get new molds for it and short of SB I do not shoot the 3 bands or longer guns.
Thoughts?
This would be the only gun with the larger bore.

[ms3635v]

A team member and I worked on an Armi Sport Richmond rifle Musket this summer that belongs to another skirmisher. I don't recall how old it was but we milled off the original front sight, which by the way was mounted at the factory crooked; when you looked at the sight from above, you could actually see that it was pointed to the left. We cut a dovetail and mounted a new taller sight that was square to the muzzle. We were told that the skirmisher was shooting a .579" bullet with 45 grains of 3F. We went to the range and noticed immediately there was an issue with the bore size so we plug gauged the barrel and discovered the bore was actually .581". So, we came back to the range a few days later with several rounds of minies sized to .580". I brought powder charges running between 45 and 55 grains. After shooting three shot groups in one grain increments we found that this particular Armi Sport shot the best three shot group with 55 grains of 3F - 3 shots all touching. I returned the rifle musket the owner, and at the first shoot since the work, the owner won an individual 50 yard musket medal. Sometimes figuring out a specific issue can be time consuming, but in the end it's worth it when you see better results.