Muzzle Loading Fan

[Bis]

wouldn't a 58 cal minie ball be a lot easier  :grin:

[quickdtoo]

wouldn't a 58 cal minie ball be a lot easier  :grin:

I know yer just jokin, but seriously, I've heard some nasty stories about minnies and hunting cuz of the way they are so loose fitting in the bore and not staying on the charge while hunting. Not that I've done it, or even know anyone who did, just what others have said as heresay. I've never shot a civil war era weapon so I'm certainly not knowledgable about em, but the thought of it does make sense. I have shot a short started round ball with no ill effects other than a shot that sounded funny, so it may not even do any harm with minnie charge being somewhat on the low end.

[filmokentucky]

My Enfield has a .577 bore and I load a .575 minie. I do check to see if it is seated down on the powder now and then, but it has never moved off
once. 'Course this is a tight load--I believe a somewhat smaller diameter bullet is usually used--but I like the accuracy it provides. I seem to recall that the Southern troops often used captured Yankee ammunition in their
Enfields, and probably enjoyed this little bonus, too.

[Bis]

Quickdtoo-You are making me think back a long time ago, but when I was active in the Civil War club, we would shoot about 1500 rounds a year in timed events plus practice rounds and I never had a problem with a minie coming off the powder, granted the first round did go down the tube with little force just like a patched round ball. I have taken my Zouave deer hunting with no problems.
 I must say that you can take a heavy barreled Hawkins and pore a ton of powder down it and get some great ballistics out of it but how accurate is it at a longe range? I am just guessing, but I think a conical bullet will do better at long range than a round ball.
 I have shot patched round ball way back when (before the days of moose milk  :-) ) and it was a pain, shoot 1 or 2 rounds and clean the barrel (keep in mind that I am an old timer :grin: ).
 Let me reminisce. I started shooting black powder in the late 60's, at that time I was about the only front loader at the gun ranges. I use to go to a range in Upland Ca. (now a housing tract) where the range master would bag on me about my charcoal burner. He had a small bore center fire that would drop an inch at about 200 yards. One day we were the last people on the range when he started in on me again. There was a gong at 350+ yards at the bottom of a canyon. He told me if the gun was worth anything that I could hit the gong. Thank goodness there was a boulder about 20 foot above the gong that I sighted in on. I had 3 rounds left and hit the thing 3 out of 3 off hand.  It was so rewarding to put some with the latest hi tech weapontry in there place. The guy never bugged me again. I have know idea what this has to do with what you were talking about but is does show the accuracy of the minie :grin: .
 I guess I am really getting long winded, sorry. Even though I have not shot black powder in many years, I sure enjoy reading your threads.
 Thanks for enduring my ramblings

[quickdtoo]

Bis, We're the same age, so I guess that makes me an old timer too!    For what it's worth, there is a rondezvous event called the Long Gong, contestants start out at a mid range of 100yds or so and start shooting at the gong, usually a good size target like a 36" circular saw blade or a hot water tank or maybe an acetylene tank. Everyone that hits it moves back 50yds or so and takes another shot and so forth....I've seen em shooting at well over 400 yrds and still hit'n albeit a lot less shooters than started out, and this is with round ball only and offhand, no body support. The biggest mistake folks make is messin with their loads, I had 2 loads I used, in my .50 lancaster flinter, 50 grains for target and 95 for huntin, the huntin load(used pine scent borebutter on my patch when huntin, btw) was used for looong targets and I always held color, meaning I always put my front sight on the target, never cover the target buy aiming at something above it. This was done by using a fine sight and a high sight, bury the front sight in the rear for fine and move it up even with the very top of the buckhorn for high, it worked fantastic and won me a lot of shootin contests, some informal, like shootin at a stick floatin in a remote lake a quarter mile out! It was some fun!  Back to the minnie, I've read that they were fantastic accurate in the right hands and you're right on about the minnie or conical being a better projectile than a round ball, it's a ballistic fact, the round ball in comparison might as well have a negative BC for the difference! But, ya know, there's something to the blackpowder magic of a round ball hittin a deer out to about 75yds, it flat kills em if shot through the lungs! That soft ball doubles its size and makes a heck of an exit hole, I just love shootin deer with a round ball. I recovered one round ball that I shot with my flinter at a deer trotting past me at about 25yds, the ball went thru the front part of the chest and lodged in its knee on the offside, picture perfect mushroomed flat, almost an inch in diameter. Er .....what were we talkin about?

[Bis]

Quickdtoo-I guess when it gets right down to it really doesn't matter if it's RB or Minie, just as long as you are having fun with it. I have never the opportunity to bring down a deer with a muzzle loader. All my ML shooting was in Ca. and deer hunting was not very good in S. Ca. for me. Now that I live in East Texas I may try it this year (I must fess up, last year I used a 243  :oops: ). My only concern is that my powder is 20+ years old. It has always been stored in the house (which is probably not a good idea) and still looks like it did when I bought it.
 In a few months are little towns population will probably double with deer hunters from Houston and Dallas. It would be interesting to see how many deer would be taken if all hunters were limited to gear and weapons that were available in say the early 1860's.
 Your "stick floating" thing sounds interesting. I may try it on the beavers in my lake  :-) .
 Have a good day.

[maddmaxx]

Do you guys use moosemilk for keeping the fouling out, or for keeping it from geting so crusty it makes loading hard? Reason I'm wondering is, I've got a .22 I have to brush out after every other shot, and if there's an easier way, I'm looking for it.

[quickdtoo]

Do you guys use moosemilk for keeping the fouling out, or for keeping it from geting so crusty it makes loading hard? Reason I'm wondering is, I've got a .22 I have to brush out after every other shot, and if there's an easier way, I'm looking for it.

A .22 muzzleloader? Moosemilk works great as a patch lube, you can shoot all day without loading problems, you're always only one shot dirty. There are several threads here about moosemilk, read a bunch of em and pick your recipe.

[zrifleman]

In-line /sabot shooters could take a lesson from bowhunters. Good bowhunters regularly take their animals at close distances and learn to limit their shots to reasonable distances. Traditional muzzleloaders with a patch-roundball in the hands of an experienced hunter have it all over a bowhunter. All this talk about flat trajectory, higher velocity and more humane kills with sabots makes me feel like we are back hunting with a modern rifle. Seems like we have kind of lost our way with modern muzzle loaders. Give me black[powder, round balls or slugs, and a traditional rifle and I will show you how to get a deer.