Burnside Question

[dimas]

I have the chance to pick up a burnside and was wondering if someone who fires one in here could tell me how difficult it is to make the rounds for it and how hard is it to find supplies to fire it as well. Any insight is appreciated, thanks.

[Eric A. Savickas, 08663V]

Piece of cake... S&S, Osborne and probably others have shells for the Burnside. Rapine has a mould for it or you can use round ball ( many people use them).

I use 27gr. of FFFg. with the Rapine 556360 bullet. I had a machinist make me a tool that is inserted into the neck of the shell to round out and keep the size correct and uniform.

[louis]

Make sure all the serial numbers match or your case life might be rather limited.

Also if Rapine is still around it would be best to buy both your brass and bullet mould from him. That way you can be sure that the cast bullets will actually, easily fit the brass.

There use to be both brass and plastic Burnside cases. The brass ones are still available but I don't know about the plastic. In my experience, the plastic cases didn't last very long. There may also have been aluminum cases but I don't have any experience with them.

[S.Sullivan]

The serial number of the breech and breech block, both visable on the top of the weapon when the breech is closed, should match. They tend to be individually fitted to some extent, and if these do not match the fit could give you problems with reloads.
S.Sullivan

[dimas]

Thanks for all the input. trying to find a reasonably priced breach loader. I dont have alot of experience with them so thanks again for the help

[Mike w/ 34th]

I have a non-matching gun, and it shoots better than the matching ones I have. It's hard to say when the parts may have been switched, whether it was in the field 145 years ago or by a collector 50 years ago or by a shooter six months ago. There is a big gap between the block and the barrel, which is why the Burnside had the bulge in its cartridge case--that bulge was meant to be compressed when the breech locked up so it would seal. There are lots of places a Burnside block can become loose--each pin in the linkage contributes to the slop--so unless it's a totally pristine example, there will be slop no matter whether it's matched or not. Luckily, Burnside designed the gun to shoot well loose.

I use S&S brass and a Lee .562 double-cavity roundball mould. The original bullet was a dish-base .556 conical with shallow grease grooves, but this bullet is too long to fit in reproduction cases, which are heavy turned brass, not formed brass foil.

NEI makes a .556 HB bullet that is pretty close to the original.