Dixie Jaeger .54 Edington or reline .58

[twines]

I am playing around with a Dixie Jaeger Shutzen. It is still in .54 cal. I have been reading a bit about them on the forum. The gun has a Greg Edington .54 mold. The owner could never get it to group with that bullet. I see that shooters have them relined by Hoyt to .58 with good results. Can anyone give some details about the shooting the .54 cal. vs. the results with the .58 reline.


Tom Wines
McGregors

[Space Cowboy]

Tom,

I guess the gun was made py Pedersoli. Is it the fast twist version or the slow one? The fast twist version has 1:23", it is ok for conicals. The slow twist version (1:65") was designed for patched round ball.

Best regards,
SC

[Don Dixon]

Mr. Wines,

The "Dixie" rifle was manufactured in the Czech Republic by Arms Moravia as a copy of the M 1854 Austro-Hungarian Jägerstutzen. The Arms Moravia rifle was a gunsmithing course in a box without an instruction manual. I wrote an article for the Skirmish Line 4-5 years ago on how to make them shoot. Several high points:

* Check the muzzle of the rifle. When some of them were "crowned," they pressed a lip into the barrel which makes the muzzle smaller than the bore. By the time you size the bullet small enough to go past the lip you effectively have a smoothbore. If your's is like that, have it recrowned.

* Check the bedding of the barrel. Mine was very poor in the breech, and Tom Hunger glass bedded it for me. He might be persuaded to do another Jäger, but I'm not sure.

Regarding the bullets:

* The bullet needs to be sized no more than .001-.002 inches under bore diameter; .001 is best. John at Northwest Trading sells push-through dies that are very effective for sizing these bullets. Lube them with a squirt of modern cartridge case spray lubricant, let them set for 10 minutes, push them through the die with your modern loading press, and then wipe the remaining lube off so that powder in the plastic tube doesn't stick to the bullet.

* The Lorenz/Wilkinson bullets are compression bullets, not expansion bullets. THE COMPRESSION GROOVES ON GREG'S BULLET ARE NOT LUBRICATION GROVES. If you fill them with lube, the bullet will not properly compress and will be inaccurate. Don't use a Lubrisizer.

* You have to use soft lube. MCM works very well. One very quick dip of the bullet in the melted lube after the bullet is inserted in your plastic tube. Lube the bullets during the week before a match so that it remains soft. Anything left over is for team matches at the following event. And, anything left over after that is for practice.

* Use enough powder: 45 to 50 grains of Swiss FFFg/50 to 55 grains of GOEX FFFg. Swiss is MUCH better.

I suspect that the prior owner of your rifle was doing something that was not consistent with the above. Or, you can waste your money and turn it into a .58. If you do that, there will be lots of people who will want to buy your .54 caliber mould.

If you doubt what I'm telling you, you might look at my Distinguished points elsewhere on this site: Distinguished Skirmisher, one grand aggregate, and two grand aggregate second places, all shot with the "Dixie" Jäger. Or, talk with Mike McDaniel. He's on your team. He might suggest that I know what I'm talking about.

Regards,
Don Dixon
2881V

[Mike McDaniel]

I'll vouch for Don.

He isn't mentioning that fiddling with that rifle sent him on a research spree that is radically reshaping our information on the use of Austrian arms during the war. :D

And I'm filing that tidbit about the Wilkinson bullets for future use...I've got a Hege-Whitney and an Eddington mould for it.

[twines]

Don & Mike

Thanks for the information. Not looking to challenge anyones knowledge just looking for information.


Tom

[Rich Foster]

Don advise is accurate. Check muzzle real close. Glassbedding is necessary if has not been done. I have seen wood cracks behide the tang on those guns that weren't. I have one still in .54 and have figured it out. Try 42grns of fffg Goex with Gregs bullet .001 under bore and no smaller. When loading just push the bullet down to seat. Do not wack it like a minnieball. These guns set up right will shoot very well. They are finiky with loading procedure. I use mine as a back up gun. If you got the time and money have Hoyt bore it and rifle it to .58. Then you have a wide range of bullets to try. Rich Foster, Dismal Swamp Rangers

[Don Dixon]

But, I also use Greg's .58 caliber Lorenz/Wilkinson ball in my .58 caliber Richmond carbine. The bullet is vastly superior to the Minie. Easier to cast, much fewer rejects, and more accurate if you know what you are doing with it. Unfortunately, the moulds are no longer available, and Greg never made any of them in 13.9 mm/.547 inches for the originals in the M 1854 family of System Lorenz weapons.

Regards,
Don Dixon