Armi Sport .58 Zouve

[slayer]

Hi guys. I am getting a used Armi Sport Zouve soon and it is 8 years old. It has a 1:56 twist and the previous owner said the .575 Minnies were toosmall and wouldn`t print well. Do you guys reccomend the .577 Minnies? He said .570 roundballs and .018 Tick patch shot very well. Your thoughts on this rifle?

Jack

[Semisane]

All I shoot out of my Zouave is patched balls.  Never had any luck with Minnies.

[slayer]

All I shoot out of my Zouave is patched balls.  Never had any luck with Minnies.

Awsome!! I think I`ll go that route also. How tight of a combo is that?

[Semisane]

How tight of a combo is that?

In my barrel, the .575 ball/.018 patch combo shown on that target is pretty tight and requires a sharp whack on the short starter to seat in the bore.  After that it goes down smooth.  I only use that combo when I do serious target work.  I use a thinner patch for plinking and casual shooting.  It's not quite as accurate as the tight load, but comes pretty close.

EDIT:  Also, the "BW/C/OO Lube" shown on that target is a combination of bees wax, Crisco and olive oil.  It worked well, but I'm now using straight olive oil for patch lube in all of my muzzle loaders.  I like it better than anything else I've tried (and I've tried a lot).  Saturate a stack of patches with olive oil, wrap the stack in a couple of paper towels and squeeze/massage the stack so that the towels soak up as much excess oil as possible.

[slayer]

Great info!! Thanks a ton

I forgot to ask. Is your Zouve an Armi Sport or Euro Arms or ?

[Semisane]

"Zouave" is a nickname for the 1863 Remington Contract Rifle (google that) which was originally manufactured by Remington near the end of the Civil War.  Over the years many different companies produced replica Zouaves, including Armi and Zoli.  Many of them are marked with the importer's or distributor's name, i.e. Euro Arms, Navy Arms, etc.

[mcwoodduck]

I have a Zaballa Bros Zuave and Mine never really shot well with the ball but worked best with the Buffalo Bore Minie Ball.
I load 65 equiv grain of Pyrodex and a 535 grain minie HP.  and it shoots to the sights with the Musket caps. 
With 35 grains of Pyrodex the ball covered the touch hole and I had to pull the ball.  40 grains or more that I need to get the gun to go bang are not going anywhere near the sights.

[fatoldfool]

Mine is a Navy arms, shoots best with .577 patched round ball (I use 010 ticking for hunting).

[Hopalong7]

     I've got one of the old Navy Arms versions made by Anton Zoli that must be getting close to 40 years old.  Been guarding my mantle in the living room for a good twenty years at least.  I hate to admit it but I've never shot the rifle .  Thanks, guys. ya'll just found a new toy for Walt to play with.....Yes!...now if this snow storm would just go away.

[coyotejoe]

I have a Navy Arms/Zoli Zouave which I bought as an elk rifle. Since it was strictly a hunting rifle I never even considered shooting minie balls, low velocity, high trajectory. It does very well with a .570 ball, .018" pillow ticking patch over 80 grains 2f Goex. For hunting I cover the shinny brass with camo tape.

[mcwoodduck]

I have a Navy Arms/Zoli Zouave which I bought as an elk rifle. Since it was strictly a hunting rifle I never even considered shooting minie balls, low velocity, high trajectory. It does very well with a .570 ball, .018" pillow ticking patch over 80 grains 2f Goex. For hunting I cover the shinny brass with camo tape.

Do you have problems with small amounts of powder and ball in your rifle?
Seeing as we have the same rifle. I always looked at the round ball out of the 577 as more of a pistol round and was trying to make a 45 Colt type round.
230 grain ball and 40 grains of black. 

[Lawful Larry]

I also shoot a Zoli Zouave and only shoot conical minis.  I shoot a .578 RCBS Hodgdon mini and this was a five shot group at 50 yds:



This is the Miniball:



This is my Zouave.  The barrel is in the because I had to remove the bluing.  The gun belonged to a reenacter and he used Naval jelly on rust spots on the barrel and made a mess.  I am thinking of browning the barrel.