Zoli Zouave

[Mark Daiute]

I am a musket shooter. At the moment I am without a muzzleoading rifle. I had an 1861, I still have mini ball on hand.

What are your opinions on the Zoli Zouave? Are they a good solid rifle?

Thanks in advance.

[johnson1942]

what is the cal. and the twist rate? if they are with in the science to make them shoot accurate then you also have the wants for a gun of this type and you should get it.

[Jeff Michel]

I have a Zoli Zouave. They are well made, sturdy. The finish on mine is pretty good. I never checked the twist. At one hundred yards, .575 Minnie bullet/crisco lube and 60 grains of FFG. I can keep them in about 4 inches. I'm certainly no expert, but I think for what it is it's not a bad piece.

[johnson1942]

there you go, sounds like a fun gun.

[Ithaca Gunner]

Zoli Zooies were produced by the tens of thousands in the 60's&70's for skirmish and re-enactment. They're good sturdy guns for the most part with a 1:72 twist as were originals. With a good load and possibly some minor barrel bedding and trigger work they shoot a Minie as well as most any similar production rifle of it's type. Sometimes the mainsprings weren't the best, but it's a cheap and easy fix if it wears out.

They're often found as bargains as re-enactors no longer use them as they were never issued to troops during the war between the states. Originally the Northern government contracted with Remington for rifles of the 1855 pattern, what Remington delivered was a hybrid U.S. 1841/1855 rifle that the government refused to pay full price for and put in storage, or at the most issued some to troops guarding Washington. By the time the contract was delivered, Springfield Armory and contractors of 1861 riflemuskets had caught up with demand. Remington, having the tooling for the 1841 from previous contracts simply updated the 1841 pattern with newer style barrel bands, patchbox, sights, bored and rifled to .58 specs, and other small modifications. On the centennial of the war, original Zouave rifles were cheap, plentiful, and in "new" condition...re-enactors gobbled them up and Zoli copied them in numbers for the next two decades. Originals probably never saw combat, most troops didn't like the shorter rifles anyway. Nothing to do with the rifle really, they hated the heavy saber bayonet bouncing against the calf of their legs on the march, ( some 1841 rifles, all 1855 rifles, and many European rifles were issue with the long heavy saber bayonet).

[Mark Daiute]

thank you all.

Mark

[30calflash]

Zoli made some very good CW copies in the day. I've a Zouave, got it used with lots of miles on it, and it shot pretty well while I used it for skirmishing. It was a back up to a 3 band Enfield, shot well enough to not worry about special seperate loads. 50 and 100 yards FWIW.

I was told they made a copy of the Murray Carbine also. Not sure what else Zoli had, too long ago.

[bedbugbilly]

They have a good reputation and are excellent shooters. My first "Zouave" I purchased in the early '60s. It has had thousands and thousands of rounds through it. It is not marked so I really don't know who made it. The barrel is to the point that I need to get it off to Whitacre for a re-line. At any rate, I purchased q Navy Arms Zoli last just for the barrel. It was an easy swap with the barrel of my first Zouave and I knew from shooting some Zoli brands that friends had that they sere good shooters. The bore to mine ball fit - the minies "as dropped" from my old Lyman 575-213 mold - are perfect fit. As someone stated - crisco in the base over 60 grins of 2F should give you good groups.

Best of luck to you!

[Hellgate]

Zoli also built a sporterized version of the Zouave called the "Buffalo Hunter" in a shorter (24"?) barrel, wooden ramrod, maybe different hunting style sights. It was featured in an article by Val Forget when used on an African Safari. They put some very heavy loads through it as well as through their custom heavy barreled Hawken.

[BPShooter]

The Zoli is a great gun.I just tell everyone to check the lock for wear, spare parts really don't exist anymore and the cost of a lock rebuild is 125.00 or more.

[carbine]

Check out N-SSA.org they shoot a lot of Zoli Zouaves and have a lot of info

[quail4jake]

Zoli Zouave! hey Luigi, avete un moschetto? These mediocre guns go well with red wine, vermicelli, tomato gravy and a shot of Amaretto. BTW...do you know why the Italians lost the war? Because when Mussolini ordered shells they sent rigatoni! OK, I'll leave the Italian people out of this.
Right! well, so, anyway, yes. I own a ZZ and I can't believe how much I enjoy shooting this mass manufactured guess at authenticity! Mine is a 1971 that I bought for $125 when I was drunk. I thought this thing will never shoot...well I need to rethink that! I load cal. .58 cartridges exactly as per the 1861 manual. No Crisco in the base, no NSSA tricks, no nothing, just good ol' paper cachuches. So... I tore the cachuch and poured some of the powder down the hatch, then the ball, ram home, cap and voila! Si calpisce il bersaglio!
I will forward photos of my ZZ when upgrade and improvement is done, I think you'll be impressed. BTW...one of the reasons that you'll find a lot of these in nice shape is that they're unacceptable in the world of Civil War reenacting. 3 band musket required (due to firing in ranks) so the 33" barrel 2 band is not allowed. Reenactors are hard on repros. (I am one) so anything that didn't corrode at the 135th Gettysburg and was thrown in the mud at Chancellorsville 150th is likely to survive better. Mine has a polyurethane finish on the Home Depot white pine stock (it's really birch) which is resilient to every solvent known to the state of California to cause birth defects in Rhodesian Sprague dalsey mice. Strangely it shoots good and the Italian made repros have come along way since the ZZ era and now are well made spaghetti slingers! Stay tuned my Mediterranean admirers... posting photos of the class of '71 ZZ soon! Cordiali saluti!

[Hellgate]

One way to tell if it has been fired a lot is the degree of scorching of the wood right behind the nipple. That is where the wood gets burned if you do not use a flash guard. I would not buy one that is charred in that area. A little is OK but a lot shows either many loads or some real heavy charges that created a lot of blowback through the nipple and back onto the wood from the cup shaped hammer face.

[KCSO]

Don't downgrade them with a round ball either. I have an old Navy Arms Buffalo hunter with the same musket barrel and it will put three shots touching at 50 yards and will shoot into 4 inches easy at 100.

[shdwlkr]

shot one at a North South skirmish a very long time ago. It hit everything I aimed it at and I had a blast at the event. I got to see a real cannon from the great war, saw several of them go off almost together. It must have been really scary when the real war was going on and the two armies met on the battle field.

[SamTexas49]

My 1st Zoli was purchased back in 1971 (I think from Shotgun news) was the 3 groove standard model. A few years later I was traveling and stopped in at Dixie Gunworks and they had (then) a barrel replacement (I think made by Numrich) that was a 7 groove barrel with all same dimensions except for bayonet lug and rear sight. Had local Gun Smith put a nice williams open sight on it and had also purchased that front slide on sight with the cross hairs in a globe. All that plus that 350gr SWC minie lyman made a mold for it now was a serious sniper rifle ! Sadly (as I imagine some of us have done) I sold it. The replacement barrel no longer exists and I regret selling it way back then.

[carbine]

Mark
we have skirmishers in Maine if you need help
tammany42@aol.com

[carbine]

Mark
we have skirmishers in Maine if you need help with Zouave
tammany42@aol.com

[quail4jake]

Out of curiosity... is the ZZ particularly liked in the NSSA world? The flavor I get from the posts here is that it may be better than I think. As I previously posted, I've thought of them as cheap, poorly made but mine nearly matched the 100yd group of my Whitacre barreled 1861 Springfield. Interested to hear opinions...

[Ithaca Gunner]

They are much liked in the N-SSA where speed of loading can determine a team event. There were a lot of Zoli Zooies back in the 70's and they are still popular today as they are accurate, relatively inexpensive, and their 33" barrel made them quicker to load than a 39, or 40" barreled riflemusket.

Many skirmishers now opt for a short Enfield rifle, custom made 1855 rifle, 1841, or Fayetteville now because of the historical correctness of the arm, but still a lot of new skirmishers and those who've used the Zooie for years continue to do so over a more expensive Enfield two bander or even more expensive hand built 1855 or Fayetteville.

We always said, "The first shot's free." Meaning your rifle was already loaded when the horn went off, just make it count. After that, you had to load as fast as possible and shoot just as accurately. The shorter barrel allowed a faster reload. How much did that matter? Imagine being on the line in a team event, you and your seven team mates face 32 clay birds on a cardboard backer, (50yds off-hand). You have five minutes to clean those evil clay birds off the board, but to get in the medals, you need to do it in under 120 seconds, (I've seen it done in under 90 seconds). Every shot has to count, every reload must be smooth and quick. The Zoli Zooie was a very affordable rifle capable of doing this, hence it's popularity with skirmishers. A little dab of accraglass in the breech area and some slicking up of the lock was all that was needed, sometimes mill a slot through the front sight base and solder a taller blade in if need be...