I'd like to try shooting a gun I recently acquired, but I'm not sure where to start. All my experience with muzzleloaders so far is with patched round balls. I have no experience with conical bullets, or with casting.
It's a .58 Armi-Sport 1853 3-band Enfield, three groove. A check with the cleaning rod showed a 1:48 twist. It has the flip-up ladder sight graduated to 1100 yards (yeah, sure). The longest range I have access to is 200 yards, but after I've done that for a while, I'd like to go a little farther, maybe 300 or 400, but I'd have to find a place out in the boonies for that. 200 is my limit for now, but I have a feeling that will be plenty for a while. I'd like to see what kind of accuracy I can get out of this gun.
I got it used at a pawn shop in very good condition, the bore is pristine. It has a Spitfire nipple, and I have a tin of RWS musket caps for it. I read an article in one of the current gun magazines about slugging the bore with melted wax instead of lead, so I tried that (I don't have the means to do it with lead), but I couldn't get accurate measurements from it with my caliper. The factory specs say it's a .580" bore with .004" grooves. I tried taking a measurement inside the muzzle with the caliper and I actually got a solid reading of .580"; couldn't get that with the wax slug. But I don't know if that's really an accurate measurement.
I have a bag of 50 bullets from Track of the Wolf someone gave me, they're two-groove, 530 grain, hollow base .577" Enfield bullets, I think cast from the Lyman 577611 mould. I measured a few of the bases and got different readings, but they seemed to average .577". I tried a couple in the muzzle for fit and they feel like they'll go down with a little resistance. I'm posting all this info because I've heard the fit of the bullet is critical to accuracy, but I don't know how, so I figured these details would be important. Is it supposed to be a tight fit? Loose?
I'd like to start casting my own bullets for this gun, but I don't know how to decide which bullet mould I will need. Someone said you need a bullet sizer to do any accurate shooting. What exactly is a bullet sizer, and where do I get one?
I'm thinking about ordering a 20 lb. Lee Production Pot IV, because I heard it's big enough to use with a ladle or with the bottom pour spout and I thought it would be good to have both options available (unless someone can recommend a better one that won't break the bank). I'm currently investigating several sources of lead. Should I also get a scale to help determine if any bullets have voids in them?
I'm down to a couple of cans of GOEX, I'll have to order another case soon. I've found a couple of places that have decent prices. I should use 2F in this gun, right? What other equipment will I need?
Sorry for all the questions at once, but this is new territory for me, and it seems a bit more complex than the old roundball.
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