Plain Base .58's?

Anyone here shoot plain base .58 boolits?
Having a few .58 (.575/.577) minie molds, I'd considered getting a plain base plug, perhaps adjustable length, that would be interchangeable from mold to mold and giving some plain bases a try.

What rifle? It's hard to load a musket hot enough to work with plain base, might work in a really heavy barreled hawken type.

I don't think that even the one turn in 48" muskets would be a fast enough twist to shoot plain bases. But the shallow three groove rifling wouldn't likely work well. Maybe the five land with tapered groove depth? I dunno. I'm asking if anyone is shooting them.

If I was to do this I'd probably send off a one inch TC barrel for rebore. Got a scaley bored .56 diameter that needs to have something done with it. Thought about making it a minie barrel.
Maybe the best way to go would be a multi-groove fast enough twist bore, shallow hollow bases and paper patches. But, I don't know and would love to hear from any bear hunters that's done been there done that got the tee shirt and how they done did it.
Come to think of it, would bet a New Englander could work pretty good.

As short and squatty bodied as minies are, they don't have much inertia relative to their diameter.
Plain bases might need a (relatively) high initial pressure to get the expansion to seal the bore?

Have a T/C Big Bore. Years ago before EBay turned finicky I bid and won a couple discontinued Ideal molds. 577030 _ 575213 _and the brother -0S mold. (old style)
The 030 is quite the thumped. As I recall it took awhile to figure out a safe B/P charge for it being the FP dumb dumb looking cast weighs 570 grs. That's a real concern when shooting heavy weight cast no longer in print. How much powder do you measure by volume?

The 577030 is a blunt booger isn't it. The 575602 is as well.

Do you have a copy of the older Lyman Black Powder Handbook for loads?

I had pretty good luck from a Lee REAL in a Euro-Arms 2 band musket, in fact it shot better than the Minie's.

Bob

Lyman B/P Handbook no I surely don't. I do have a Lyman 45th (modern cartridge) handloaders book that shows only one 58 cal loading for a Zouave. {60 by volume measure of 2_FF under a 575213.} And that's the charge I started my load development with.

http://www.fototime.com/2F3AB89A064CE52/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/96EFF680D8DB6F7/standard.jpg

.............I have the above Parker-Hale P58 2 Band Naval pattern Enfield, and it it exceedingly accurate. I has 5 lands and grooves. The bore is .580" and the grooves are 'Progressive Depth' being much deeper at the breech then at the muzzle.

http://www.fototime.com/0744963E3A064B6/standard.jpg

The above slugs are from a mould I purchased from NEI in the late 90's. It was labeled as a 500gr 58 cal Target bullet and produced the above group at 50 yards off the bench. The load was 80.0 grs of Elephant 2Fg, lube in the groove and a card wad under the slug. Due to the deep and comparatively narrow grooves, I was a bit concerned with how it would shoot. The rifle also shoots the Lee REAL slug well, however I have no target photo's of it.

http://www.fototime.com/6BF0D8313CD43F3/standard.jpg

However, just to show it's eclectic tastes, I'll throw in the above :-) Since these Minie's weren't scaled, the flyer wasn't completely unexpected. However still a disappointment!

.............Buckshot

Now that's awesome.
My Armisport P-53 has 48" twist but three grooves. I wonder how long of a solid base slug it will shoot (probably longer than I would imagine:-P).

http://www.fototime.com/DEF4B7618B8F986/standard.jpg

Good Cheer, the above photo was taken to show a rather obvious lube preference my 2 Band has, but that Challenger slug is about the longest I have to measure. It is 1.145" long. The NEI 500gr Target slug (solid base) is 1.010" long. The Lyman 575611 @ 530grs (shown in previous post is 1.00" long.

http://www.fototime.com/C75E453AEFB1E35/standard.jpg

In the above photo is the Lyman 575611 made longer and heavier via dropping the core pin down which increases it's weight from 530grs to 624grs. I have none on hand to check with the calipers, but from the ruler behind it in the photo, it's length seems to be very close to 1.187". I have no group photo's but as I recall I only have 'Good Vibes' about it, and had it been worthless I'm sure I would have remembered that! :-)

I do have another solid base slug that was done many years ago on the British and Militaria board, along with some others for the .577 Snider and the 577-450 Martini. The solid base was intended for the .577 Snider and weighs 460 grs and it's as cast OD is .590". It's length is only .680". I'd have to make a Lee type push through die to reduce it to .580". This is the max OD I can hope to get into my P58.

I just checked on the Accurate Bullet Molds web catalog @ http://www.accuratemolds.com/catalog.php?page=19

He lists many designs for FB 58 & 59 caliber solid bases. He does not do base cavity type moulds, so they're all solid base. Cavity inserts have to be outsourced.

................Buckshot