I just got this gun and ...........

[NJCOP]

I just picked up a low serial number Parker Hale 58 with a round count of 8 through it from a guy in NJ on an obsure gun website. In other words I lucked out. The barrel is going to Hoyt to have the front sight elevated. Now here's the 50,000 dollar question.

I'm sure some of you have this gun. What's a good load for it? Bullet/powder charge etc? Molds cost a lot of money so I thought I'd get some insight before throwing good money after bad.

BR

[Pat in Virginia]

There are a number of PH's in .58 caliber and not all of their rifling twists are the same. Is yours a musketoon, a two-band, or a three-band example? At what distance(s) do you expect to shoot?

Pat in Virginia

[NJCOP]

2 bander english model 100 yards

[Joseph Plakis Jr, 00302V]

BR
The first thing you should do is find your actual bore size. They do vary slightly. You want a bullet 1 o 2 thousandths smaller than the bore diameter.
Contrary to popular belief you can get just about any bullet to shoot if it is sized for the barrel properly.
Do you belong to the N-SSA? If you do are you going to the Springtown shoot this weekend? If you are my son or I could check your bore size for you.

Joe Plakis Jr. 00302V Hampton Legion

[Muley Gil]

I have an English made P-H 1958 Naval Rifle (2 bander). It is very accurate with load of 42.5 grains of FFFg Goex, topped by a .576 new style Minie cast from a Rapine mould.

[NJCOP]

Not a N-SSA member yet but I'm working on it. Will be cash strapped for a short period of time but after that I'm planning on joining and getting ducks in a row. Did check the bore and my current minnie mold should work well for the time being. After buying this gun I realized how oversized my Miruko Zoave bore was. I fixed that problem with a cheap Lee .578 oversized mold. My normal minnie mold couldn't expand enough for the skirt to engage the rifling, i.e. the keyholing minnie thread. Checked the fit of my minnie in the PH bore and its reasonably snug.

Muley. Thanks for the charge, at least I have a starting point.

[Southron Sr.]

Dear NJCOP:

If you glass bed your Naval Rifle and have the lock "tuned" to a 3 pound trigger pull-you will see a dramatic improvement in accuracy. Even P-H Naval Rifles usually come with a lousy bedding job from the factory.

[Pat in Virginia]

Southron,

Where would you suggest we look to find good instructions on how to glass bed a Naval Rifle?


Pat

[DAVE FRANCE]

Pat,

It is on the Internet somewhere; I looked at it online. And it is included in the instructions with Brownell's Acraglas bedding. Their instructions are good.

Good Luck!

David