Burnside 5th

[Lou Lou Lou]

look at the Skirmish calendar in the header. There are two skirmishes there before Nationals. You are in the neighbor hood. I strongly advise visiting

[noonanda]

Ive been working with my burnsides, I am using an Accurate .562 bullet its the 56-350B. I use Swiss 3F powder, IIRC my load is 28 grains. I also had trouble getting the bullets into the casings but found something to expand the plastic neck. What sidelined my load development was my locking latch broke. Just got a replacement so I will be trying again to get it comp ready

[John.Hayes]

What did you use to expand the neck? I used a .69 Minie and it wouldn't expand enough for the same bullet you are using in my nylon cases. jh

[noonanda]

What did you use to expand the neck? I used a .69 Minie and it wouldn't expand enough for the same bullet you are using in my nylon cases. jh

I use a hollow punch and use my single stage reloading press to push a punch down into the neck. I then pour powder and filler in through the punch hole remove it and insert the bullet. It makes the process simple and quick.

This is the set I use
https://www.harborfreight.com/6-piec...set-67030.html

[Lee Willy]

Ive been working with my burnsides, I am using an Accurate .562 bullet its the 56-350B. I use Swiss 3F powder, IIRC my load is 28 grains. I also had trouble getting the bullets into the casings but found something to expand the plastic neck. What sidelined my load development was my locking latch broke. Just got a replacement so I will be trying again to get it comp ready

Thanks for the information. What is your bore size? I am having trouble, for some reason, do not know
how my bore is .542 that i can shoot a .562 round ball? Is that not bigger?
I will be at the Gator shoot and be looking for information and even have someone shoot my Burnside
if they would like to.That way i can follow you through the steps of loading and firing.
Thank you again,
Lee in Va.

[Harry Gaul]

I shot a Burnsides. I had two barrels, one good and one junk. I had Bob Hoyt reline the junk barrel to 550 and used a Rapine Burnside mold. It shot very well but I tired of the nylon cartridge issues and sold it. As luck would have it, my Burnside and new owner appeared in a book by Joe Bilby. That could have been me!

Harry in Pa.
03626v

[Hal]

Lee,

BORE diameter has little to do with bullet diameter unless you are using a bullet with a bore riding portion in the front which is not too common in CW era guns. GROOVE diameter is what determines bullet diameter. Most people (All but 1 that I know of) knowledgeable on the subject recommend a bullet diameter .001" to .002" larger than GROOVE diameter for breech loading guns. Don't worry about it being a tad larger. Lead is soft and will form itself to the inside dimensions of the barrel. Any small amount of excess diameter just turns itself into an even smaller excess of length upon firing. What you are looking for is for the bullet to COMPLETELY fill the cross sectional area of the barrel. If it doesn't, leading and poor accuracy can result.

As for round balls, they can be even slightly larger than that, as only the very middle portion of them will be engaging your rifling. If they are a little larger, it just translates into more bearing area when it gets sized down by the barrel. You say your bore is .542". Just for arguments sake, let's say your rifling grooves are .008" deep. That's an additional .016" of diameter, bringing your GROOVE diameter to .558". A .560" diameter bullet should do nicely, and I would not be afraid to fire a .562" round ball down it either. Of course, you need to find out what your GROOVE diameter REALLY is. The dimensions I was referencing were just hypothetical.

[noonanda]

Thanks for the information. What is your bore size? I am having trouble, for some reason, do not know
how my bore is .542 that i can shoot a .562 round ball? Is that not bigger?
I will be at the Gator shoot and be looking for information and even have someone shoot my Burnside
if they would like to.That way i can follow you through the steps of loading and firing.
Thank you again,
Lee in Va.

Lee how did you measure your bore? while they were "Listed" as being a .54 caliber arm, everything I have read is that they are normally .560+. Did you slug it?

I wasnt planning on going to the Gator as my team isnt competing. I might be at the Potomac, but will definately be at the Nationals

[Carolina Reb]

To amplify on that a little, the 54 bore is essentially the size of the reamer that was used to bore the barrel blank, 0.540". Once the blank was finish bored, rifling groves were cut. So, although the bore is 0.54" the grooves are deeper. Burnside grooves are typically 0.01" deep, so the the bullet size required to fill the rifling grooves is actually 0.560". The grooves were individually cut, so each groove can be a couple thousandth more or less than 0.01". That's why you need to push a lead ball down the barrel and measure the actual groove diameter. Your bullets should be one or two thousandths over groove diameter. If it is too small, gas will leak past the bullet as it travels down the barrel and literally cut trenches in the sides of the bullet, which has a terrible affect on accuracy.

[Maillemaker]

Burnside, Smith, Maynard, Sharps, etc. The ammunition came preloaded in cartridges for issue, no air space.

Just want to point out that with the Sharps, it is not possible to not have an air space in the chamber, no matter how full your cartridge is. The breech block has a cavity in it that will never be filled with powder.

But even so, I routinely shoot my Pedersoli 1859 with reduced charges and no filler. Charlie Hahn does not recommend filler with his tubes. I believe the Sharps' massive receiver and barrel, backed up with the extremely strong falling block means it will not suffer any ill effects. This is my opinion.

Steve