.565 Round ball

[58cal]

Anyone know where I can buy some?

I know my rifle with progressive depth grooves was made for shooting minie's but
I'd like to try them in my P/H Enfield. I've been told they work well with 10 oz canvas soaked in moose milk.

I've used .570 rb and .015 patch, have to mallet them down 4" with my starter and can't use much more than 60g FFg. Have to swab several times between shots also.

Thanks,
58cal

[oldhickory]

I would try a thinner patch with the boolits I have on hand first. Most P-H Enfield type rifles have a 1:48 twist, probably not the best for balls to begin with and shallow rifling to boot. I've been shooting .58 rifle muskets since 1973 and never tried a ball in any of them. The Lyman 575213OS is about the best bullet out there for .58's, (if you can get one big enough to size boolits .001" under land dia. these days). The Rapine 580460 international style is also a good mold if you can find one, same profile as the Lyman OS but with a heavier skirt and flat rather than pointed hollow cavity.

Lyman designed a mold for the P-H rifles, but I never had much luck with it, a shallow skirt 570gr. boolit, (sold the mold years ago). The LEE 500gr. hollow base .58 mold casts an almost identicle boolit to the Lyman 575213NS-and they're cheap. The trick to accuracy in these rifles is, a well bedded barrel, tuned lock, bullets sized no more than .002" under bore dia. good lube, and proper powder charge, (usually between 40-55gr. FFFg, or 45-60gr. FFg). A well set P-H should shoot 1-1.5" groups from the bench @100yds. The rest is up to you. Personally, I wouldn't be fumbling around with balls in this thing, there are those here who swear by balls in rifle muskets, but I ain't one of em.

[masscaster]

Hi 58cal,
We make a .562 RB Here @ Forefather's Casting.
You can go view our selection by using the Forefather's Casting - Shop Link below in my Signature.

Jeff

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Only the PH carbines had 1/48 rifling. The 2 banders and 3 banders had slower twists. I owned and shot them all. The .562 and for sure the .565 RB are the correct ones for shooting in the 58 muskets, unless of course you want to mallet load and short start every ball. Even My 1967 Zoli shot the .562 well with a thin patch.

Now I can load a .570 RB in a Caywood trade rifle, with a short starter and a ten K greased patch but its tough, and shoving it down with the hickory stick is tough too. A 3/8" range rod is pretty good though. The Brit PH enfields were very similar to the Caywood in loading/ ramming with the .570/.575.

I don't want to hunt with a load like that, and don't like it at the range either. Some do I suppose.

If you want to shoot RB in a CW nominal .58 caliber, do yourself a favor and use the smaller balls, not the .570s and .575s. The muskets are not RB guns although in some the twist is the same, BUT, the depth of the rifling is greatly different. The Caywood noted above was 1/56 with 12 thousandths deep rifling, the PH carbine was 1/48 and I recall the 3 bander was 1/76. I totally forget the 2 bander twist now, but it was not 1/48 and rifling on all was very close to 4 thousandths at the muzzle. My Hoyt 2 bander Potts & Hunt Contract Enfield was 1/56 and 10 K deep rifling as is my Richmond Carbine with a Hoyt Barrel. The Hoyt's had a .5765 bore.

Slug the barrel before you get a RB mold or buy RB. Look at the rifling. Thinner patch for shallower rifling. These are minie guns though. BvT

[oldhickory]

Baron, both the musketoon and P-58 2 bander made by P-H in England were 1:48 twist, 5 groove as per originals. The P-53 was supposed to be 1:78, 3 groove, again as per original. Rumor has it that P-H experimented with the 1:48 in the P-53 also, but I can't confirm that. http://www.researchpress.co.uk/firearms/british/enfield/management02.htm

You may be thinking of Euroarms, or Armisport made guns, I've seen various twist rates and groves advertized for either.

[NickSS]

I have a PH musketoon that I shoot both minis and RB in. With a .015 patch I use the .562 RB and with the 570 RB I use a .010 patch both work fine in my rifle. As for Minis I have tried about six different ones and the one that shoots best is the original mini made cast from a Rapine mold with 45 gr of FFFG Goex. Interestingly at 50 yards the mini and RB shoot to the same point of aim and the RB only groups a little tighter. The groups switch at 100 yards with the mini out shooting the RB but again only slightly better.

[10 ga]

Some years back I found some "Buffalo" RBs, in a blue plastic box, at .565 on clearance at the local shop. Bought 10 packs of 50 for $1 each. They do real good in my .58 Cabelas "Hawken". It's 1/48 twist. Last year bought a . 562 mold from Sellin/swappin forum and it is good. Cast 50/50 WW/Pb and those balls are nice. Plenty of weight and shoot same as any. I use pillow tickin, red or blue, for patches in that gun. I don't know if the 90 gr of FF Swiss makes them mushroom or not, aint had one stop in a deer yet. .562 is a BIG hole in a deer and they bleed out of both sides! 10