minie bullet sizes

[maccoy]

What is the most common diameter in .58 cal minie bullets? I bought Lee´s 500 grain .575 mould and the bullets are too small as they drop right down the barrel, so i will try the .578 mould( as soon as I get it) The gun I have is Enfield P53 from Euroarms.
How about wrapping those undersized bullets in paper kind of the Pritchett bullet style? Which rifle that .575 bullet fits?
It seems that repro muskets are closer the size .578 or even .580 or am I wrong?

[dodd3]

maccoy any mini bullet is not suposed to be a tight fit in the bore they are suposed to slip down the bore easy the hollow base will ex pand when you fire the gun.if you onet a tight fiting bullet get the lee real bullet. you can get a .577 mini from lyman mould the # of the mould is 577213ph it is the corect bullet for the enfield if it is the packerhale one, dont no about the euroarms ones and what there bore dimensions are. an outher good one is the lyman577611. i sold my packerhales still had the boxes they came in and all the paper work and there proofe loads they used ,got 5 times what i paid for them they where like new wish i had hung on to them as they just keep going up in price.yours being the euroarms one i would  use the 577611 mould it's  weight is 530grn a very good mini hope this helps.
bernie

[maccoy]

Thank you bernie. I know that the bullet has to be loose fit, but those bullets that i cast will drop right down and when the gun is turned muzzle downwards, bullet will drop out. I had two boxes Hornadys 525 grain pre-lubed bullets and those were right size i think as they needed light press with the ramrod.

[dodd3]

maccoy i find with lee molds that if you drop the temp a bit they will come out biger as we no when a mold gets real hot it just does not expan out it expands in all directions so the bullet will be smaller. i have an older model pedersoli tryon .54 that has a .530 bore  and a lee mini mould at .533 i cast realy  hot and they come out at .530 i then put them through a lee custom sizer at .529  they work a treat.
bernie

[quickdtoo]

FWIW.... my brother has a civil war musket, don't remember exactly what model, he didn't have a minnie fall out the barrel, but he was concerned it might come off the powder because they're so loose, so he started seating an over shot card on top of the minnie to keep it it place, no minnie's off the powder and it shoots no differently which he says is still minute of deer. 

Tim