Making Minies from round balls

[nanuk]

Accurate shooting minies, be they pure lead, or a ww/lead alloy, all require sizing to fit your bore properly. If you cast a lead minie and it measures X diameter, adding WW to the mix will make it X + diameter. Now a minie gun also requires a lube so it can be repeatedly fired, hot or cold, without fouling out and ruining accuracy.

My practice was to mold minies as well as I could and cull severely for visible defects. I always wanted a slightly oversized ball so I could size it down to the fit that worked for me, AND TO ENSURE ROUNDNESS. Due to the nature of the near molten minie coming out of any mould, it is hard for a cast minie to be round. You must size them so. For the last number of years I was shooitng an .58 Italian Mississippi and later a Hoyt barreled 2 band Enfield. The 1841 copy took a RCBS-58-500M sized to .576. The 2-bander took a .5755. The fit I wanted was a perfectly round naked minie that would slowly slide down a clean, upright bore and I could hear the trapped air slowly hissing out and the soft "thunk" when it hit bottom. I wanted it to slide out the same way with a soft tap of the muzzle on the floor. This was my experience with bullet fit. BTW, the crown must be perfect and the rifling near the muzzle must be undamaged. A perfect lube star must form. You have to use a sizer to get this kind of fit unless St. Pete has his hand on your shoulder. Your mould must be a little oversize the bore to size down, the mould a very good one, and your handling of potentially
"best" bullets very careful. Don't just order out the cheapest, potentially out of round .58 something to shoot and expect MOA shooting. Some designs are on auto-failure.

I found that a lube of home rendered beef tallow and beeswax about the hot weather consistency of chapstick worked well in the summer and a different mix of the same consistency in 30 degree weather. Two lubes for my shooting. I skirmished so I shot in timed events , sometimes shooting 5, sometimes 10 rounds. The lube must work, warm or cold.

Now I tried and used WW minies and they work just as well under these conditions. They do expand to seal. They don't deform as well on impact. I do prefer the mostly lead balls though. Now they do not shoot like a golf tee, with only the base expanding. Even with quite a bit of WW in the mix, the whole thing expands with any reasonable hunting or target charge. Go dig some up out of the backstop and when you see rifling engraving on the nose, it expanded in the barrel. Do not shoot significantly undersized minies seeking accuracy, no matter what you make them of. BTW, Lube is for the grooves, not for seeing the bullet smoke as it travels down range to see where you are shooting.

Next comes the same dedication to the charge as the BPCR fellows take. It must be utterly consistent in measuring, making your cartridge if you use them, and in loading . Three of 45 grains going on the ground does not help.

Nipples are critical. My Enfield shooting 40 grains of Goex FFFg and the heavy RCBS could burn a iron nipple out in 200 shots, stainless and ampco were much better. Now don't just go buy one. buy them at least 6 at a time so you can at least look a handfull in the flash hole and select the smallest six. Make a buy pin gauge and a toss burnedout pin gauge for the holes. Why buy a new nipple with a burned out hole size? You wouldn't reload that way. These are some things that worked for me. BvT

Sorry to quote the whole thing, but it made so much sense it was worth repeating

Thanks BvT!

[cwskirmisher]

I skirmished with the N-SSA for almost 30yrs.before retiring from it in 1999, and like Baron, I used the thumb nail test for my boolits. A little alloy in the lead doesn't hurt a thing. I never shot w-w alloy out of my Springfield, but if that's all I had, I'd give it a try. Skirmishing ain't bench rest shooting, and some tin/w-w alloy doesn't make a difference.

Been shooting these things since I was about 12. N-SSA for 16 years and counting now. I too always use the thumbnail test, and now get my lead from a foundry to ensure its purity. Anything else I use in my breechloaders. My "challenge" was tongue in cheek and you seem to have thin skin. My comments were meant to inform and help, passing my experience on, as did you - it's just that my experience is far different from yours. Be that as it may, the 'challenge' stands.

[oldhickory]

Been shooting these things since I was about 12. N-SSA for 16 years and counting now. I too always use the thumbnail test, and now get my lead from a foundry to ensure its purity. Anything else I use in my breechloaders. My "challenge" was tongue in cheek and you seem to have thin skin. My comments were meant to inform and help, passing my experience on, as did you - it's just that my experience is far different from yours. Be that as it may, the 'challenge' stands.

I always just "mined" my lead from the backstop at the fort-free and nothing wrong with it at all. Just had to work for it a little.

My 1862 Fayetteville rifle likes the Rapine 580460 International Style, and 45gr. FFFg Goex. The Windsor Enfield prefers the Lyman 575213OS and 55gr. FFFg. The Springfield likes the Rapine 585500 with 50gr. FFFg. They'll shoot 1-1.5" groups At 100yds off the bench-if my eyes care to co-operate that is. I don't think pure foundry lead would improve it much, (just my opinion).

What ever happened to Rapine? He retire? Get a paying job?

[cwskirmisher]

I always just "mined" my lead from the backstop at the fort-free and nothing wrong with it at all. Just had to work for it a little.

My 1862 Fayetteville rifle likes the Rapine 580460 International Style, and 45gr. FFFg Goex. The Windsor Enfield prefers the Lyman 575213OS and 55gr. FFFg. The Springfield likes the Rapine 585500 with 50gr. FFFg. They'll shoot 1-1.5" groups At 100yds off the bench-if my eyes care to co-operate that is. I don't think pure foundry lead would improve it much, (just my opinion).

What ever happened to Rapine? He retire? Get a paying job?

"Ray" Rapine retired, sold off all his stuff and closed up shop.