Round balls in a '61 enfield short rifle?

[XTR]

I find myself living in the frozen northern half of New Hampshire these days. Up here there is a winter event known as a Primitive Biathalon, the idea is basically to slog around a course in wood frame snow shoes and shoot some steel targets ever so often using a non-inline muzzle loader. They take time off of your total for hits. (shooting seems to be in the 35 to 50 yard range)

I have a P-H '61 short rifle (Musketoon) that I currently shoot for fun with cast minie's and ff or 1.5f (I shoot Swiss and Schutzen, I keep them around for my BPCR). My dilemma is that the rules specify round balls only.

I'm guessing that if anyone has experience shooting rifles muskets with round ball it would be someone here. Looking for recommendations and advice.

[Bruce Cobb 1723V]

Buy some .560's use a thick GI 30 cal cloth cleaning patch and it worked well. 50 gr 2ff Good Luck

[hobbler]

Shooting round ball in three groove "minie rifling"...

What I've found is that if the grooves are on the shallower end of the spectrum (for minie rifling) with those broad lands the patched ball is more so sitting inside a poor quality smooth bore than a rifle.


For a timed event at 35 to 50 yards you may find a loosely patched load that will shoot accurately enough.
For the greatest accuracy with minie rifling a relatively tight patch / ball combination will be needed.

[MR. GADGET]

What do the rules say about shooting a round ball with the use of a sabot instead of patch.
If they dont exclude them work that up. Could shoot good. I remember some for the 58 sabots years back but not sure they are still around.

[Muley Gil]

What do the rules say about shooting a round ball with the use of a sabot instead of patch.
If they dont exclude them work that up. Could shoot good. I remember some for the 58 sabots years back but not sure they are still around.

Track of the Wolf may have them. I believe Lyman and/or Thompson-Center used to build .58 Plains rifles.

[Bruce Cobb 1723V]

I replied originally because I have shot a Enfield , 3 groove with a patch with great results while Deer hunting. At that time Michigan only allowed round balls too ... Sabots are usually not for round balls which the law specifies. Maybe they do have have round ball sabots now. I hear all the time sabots peel of plastic in the bores and it is a pain to get out.

[XTR]

Anyone have a suggestion for a mould for casting balls? I already cast for my 45-70s and minies so it's not like I'm adding much.

When you were seating tight balls I assume you needed a ramrod other than the one on the rifle. I'm afraid I'd bend it stuffing tight balls down the tube.

[John Bly]

Lyman makes and has made lots of round ball molds. Ebay is a good place to shop for round ball molds at decent prices. They don't have to load all that tight to be fairly accurate.

[bobanderson]

Anyone have a suggestion for a mould for casting balls? I already cast for my 45-70s and minies so it's not like I'm adding much.

When you were seating tight balls I assume you needed a ramrod other than the one on the rifle. I'm afraid I'd bend it stuffing tight balls down the tube.

Buy a .575 round ball mould from Lyman, RCBS or Lee, cast them from pure lead and use the tightest fitting patch that you can still load without pounding it down the barrel. Start with .015" 100% cotton or linen, or pillow ticking. Lube with bore butter or good ol spit. For shooting at 50 yards, start with 50 grains of 2f. The old rule is one grain per caliber, so 55 to 60 grains is a good starting load. Use 1 1/2 grains per caliber, 80 to 90, to use the same sight picture out to 100 yards or as a good hunting load.

You can buy a stainless steel range rod, plus assorted jags, brushes and ball pullers to go with it from Track of the Wolf. Skirmishers seem to prefer aluminum range rods with a 5/16"-27 thread, but round ball shooters usually use a 10-32 thread. Can't say what is better because I've never used the larger thread size, but I've used 10-32 rods for many years across many disciplines with 100% reliability.

I know this is more than you asked for, but this is solid advice for someone trying something new.