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Thread: Burnside Carbine Question

  1. #21
    mgmradio is offline
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    During the war , the carbine bullets were usually made larger than the average groove diameter of the guns. The Burnside bullets usually fall in the .556-562 range for originals. Base obduration wasn't really necessary as as the bullet was 2+ thousandths over grove diameter and was swaged down when traveling down the bore.
    Your Burnside should shoot well out to two hundred yards, after that they get a little loose like a round ball gun.

  2. #22
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    A teammate has been shooting a Burnside for the last twenty-five years. He started shooting it with a .56 caliber roundball. When Rapine moulds made a conical that was very similar (also in .56 caliber) he tried it. The bottom line was the roundball was far superior in accuracy than the conical. We just competed last weekend in a MA Region carbine match and teammate used as usual and had sixteen hits using the roundball and the nylon/plastic cases. His Burnside hangs in there with Smiths and Maynards.
    Mike Santarelli 03635V, Adjutant
    Member since 1979
    Co. B, 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry, #229
    National Inspector General
    Small Arms Committee

  3. #23
    patio is offline
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    Loaded 5 rounds. Starting with 40gr of 1 1/2F Old Eynsford. Accurate Molds 390B bullet. Dipped the bullet in lube to the case neck after the bullet was seated. Need to replace the nipple before firing.
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    Last edited by patio; 04-25-2020 at 08:10 AM.

  4. #24
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    Labor of NSSA love.

    Many years ago when bitten by the NSSA fever, I decided to rebuild and shoot a Burnside. It was one of the those "labors of Love" which is definitely part of the NSSA experience. I bought a decent Carbine and a crappy barrel and had the crappy barrel relined by Bobby. I saved the original barrel for resale options. There was a Rapine mold. I figuratively "sold a kidney" to buy the necessary brass cartridges and original replacement parts whether I needed them or not to compete in Individuals and team. There may be a few original parts in the deep bowels of my shooting box waiting for the Call? The Carbine shot reasonably well, but my Team mates were banging away with "the" Smith so I sold the Burnside and never looked back. Smith Carbine is the way to go. The molds are everywhere; cases come in brass, aluminum, and plastic, blue, gray or black at reasonable cost. The Maynard shooters just grasped in horror. Did you hear it? I heard it. If you bought a Burnside to shoot in competition, you have the NSSA fever real bad and the only cure is to bang away at paper and breakable targets after the virus thing has run its course.

    TBDH,
    Harry
    03626v

  5. #25
    Dheisey#7003 is offline
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    Harry wa the reason I bought a Burnside, and I also later sold mine for a Smith...It is a really interesting carbine and unusual, but trying to get it accurate was out of my wheelhouse.

  6. #26
    CAGerringer is offline
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    "It is a really interesting carbine and unusual, but trying to get it accurate was out of my wheelhouse."

    OMG. I bought a museum quality 1865 version Burnside back in the mid 80's. It was beautiful. The most exquisite example of 1800's machining capabilities that I'd ever seen. It was the 80's and there weren't a lot of stuff to make this work. I had brass cases that would lose their lips after 5 or 6 shots. My mold was some god awful Dixie Gun Work thing that had no sprue cut off. I had to nip it with pliers and file it smooth. Even with all of this, I loved this gun, but as you're guessing, I couldn't hit diddley. So I ended up selling it. I wish I had had the Neoprene cases and a damned good mold. I'd probably still be struggling to get this bad boy to shoot!!!
    Respectfully,
    C.A. Gerringer
    Old Dominion Dragoons

  7. #27
    EPPS1919 is offline
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    Moose Molds makes a new Burnside 2 cavity mold that shoots pretty good in mine


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  8. #28
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  9. #29
    Carolina Reb is offline
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    Back in the 1980s, my first breechloading skirmish carbine was a nice Burnside with a perfect bore. It shot the Dixie bullet very well after I modified the mold with a sprue cutter. That Burnside was my go to carbine for about 5 years, but in a moment of weakness, it got sold. Burnside #2 was in great shape, but the breechblock was from another gun. It blew out cases on the first shot, every shot, so that one didn't stay long. I now have Burnside #3, which is a 4th model without the guide screw. It too has an almost perfect bore. This is the most frustrating carbine I ever owned. It will shoot a great group, and then at the next skirmish shots go all over the place. I've tried 4 or 5 different bullets. The Rapine bullet invariably shoots lousy. Round balls group great, but in 5 shots there are always one or two flyers, and they aren't even close. The best bullet has been the Accurate Molds 56-390A. When the Ol' General is smiling down on me, his carbine shoots great. But when he's feeling dyspeptic, things don't go so well. One of these days I'll figure it out! Two things that did help quite a bit were making a cartridge loader like the Harmon Maynard loaders, and annealing the case mouths. Getting all the bullets sized, seated straight and crimped consistently was definitely a step in the right direction.
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  10. #30
    EPPS1919 is offline
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    Burnside Carbine Question

    The Rapine shot like crap in my gun to I?ve got a Tennessee bullet mold that shoots just as good as the Moose molds bullet


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    Last edited by EPPS1919; 05-04-2020 at 06:48 PM.

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