doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com OT-1863 Springfield Civil War Musket

I shot a ton of long range Black Powder Cartridge matches, and thousands of rounds through 45/120 an 50 Sharps. LUBE is important...I know we are talking about a front loader here but the principle i s the same...Even variations in the thickness of the paper patch affect akkuracy....

If you suspect the bore is a little rough or has some leading built up, wrap a piece of green scotchbrite around your ramrod and lube with some borecleaner. Use to really scrub the bore. The scotchbrite will not hurt your barrel does a good job of cleaning up. I use it regularly as required on my muzzleloader. Learned this from a well known maker of muzzleloading barrels.

Steve - Take Jerry's advice and lube those mini's grooves!

You'll be glad you did, the groups will be much tighter and the fouling will not be as much of a problem as it is now, which is also messing with your groups.

Taking it hunting, let alone bagging a deer, is a wonderful show of respect, both to the gun AND your ancestor. Might as well do it up as right as you can.

Best - Marc

The rifling twist in your musket most likely is 1x72 inches, which is also a standard round ball twist for the caliber. Rifle muskets can be made to shoot round balls very well. The trick seems to be using relatively large ball diameters, say .570" to .575", and relatively thin patches of approximately .010" to .015". It is also usually a good idea not to use patch lubes that are too "slick. Appropriate powder charges for round ball loads for these guns can be found in practically any good book on muzzle loading. Many round ball matches have been won using one of these old war horses, so loaded.

If you truly want to shoot Minies, I recommend that you start with Lee's target "ash can" bullet. These bullets cast relatively easily for Minie bullets (which might not be saying much), they shoot accurately even with powder charges as heavy as 60 grains of Ffg, they punch nice clean holes in paper targets, and they strike like the hammer of Thor at normal black powder hunting ranges. Another bullet to consider is the Lee R.E.A.L. bullet. These bullets are much easier to cast than Minies and they can be made to shoot accurately, especially when a wad is placed between the bullet and the powder charge. This having been said, it is doubtful that any conical bullet will shoot much, if any, more accurately or kill any more effectively than a properly loaded round ball can.

The minie ball has a better ballistic coefficient than a round ball. Which made it better for shooting at people at longer ranges, and statistically better for shooting deer up close (much heavier than a ball) but probably not much better.

If my memory isn't too faulty, I believe that the accuracy standard for Minie rifles like your Springfield was to place 60-70% of shots on a 6'x6' target at 500 yards...the area that a field piece occupied. These rifle-muskets were supremely accurate...when compared to the smoothbored muskets that they replaced. You should be using pure lead in those bullets, and a good lube. SPG has been mentioned, it's an excellent choice but a bit expensive for the big grease grooves on your bullets. When I was competing in Civil War Skirmish Association matches, I used a 50-50 mix of beeswax and Crisco. It worked well in my rifles, but was a bit stiff in colder weather.

David