new Zouave

[bigted]

got my package today and in it were my new to me CVA Zouave. little things to fix and play with but so far im a happy camper.

anybody have experience with these CVA Zouave rifles? id like to get the twist and depth of the barrel the lazy way ... without having to fussing about with the small charge and pounding a ball to the breech to blow it out into some blankets or such.

thanks in advance for any info coming this way....:bigsmyl2:

[johnson1942]

cant help but i share your fun. where you live you ought to be able to turn that rifle into a reliable big game taker. my pastor has one but he never shoots it and it looks brand new. he even uses clean cotton gloves when he handles it. it is a good looking rifle.

[bigted]

just took it to parade rest as the sear needed stoning and a bit of stone work on the action in general. its smooth as ever now and ready for some field work however ... got no musket caps. got everything else but those dang caps ... shoulda seen this but ... NOPE !!!

it is a nice looking rifle for sure and I be a remiss bugger for not making sure I had some caps for it for when it arrived... ho hum will go search for em tomorrow.

[fouronesix]

I don't know what the thread is on a CVA musket nipple, but if you can find a regular #11 nipple that has that thread- no problem using #11 caps until you come up with some musket caps. Usually, #11s are a little easier to find than musket caps. Just a thought.

[bigted]

I don't know what the thread is but it is the biggest thread and diameter ive ever seen on any muzzleloader ever. the thing is a huge 4 sided square nipple instead of the smaller 2 sided type rifle nipples im familiar with. my Thompson is half as big as this nipple ... both in diameter and threads per inch.

[johnson1942]

if your going to use this rifle alot why not just order a magspark nipple for it. it will always go off and this is the kind of rifle thats going to have some pretty big game infront of it. some think magspark isnt traditional and they dont go back to the 1840s but the concept and design goes back to the late 1860s. all my side locks have magspark nipples and i use 100 percent blackpowder. even my .45 roundball gun that has a screwed in drum for the nipple has a magspark nipple on it. enjoy your rifle.

[bigted]

well got her out today after making my journey to town ... finding the musket caps nearly shocked me into an early grave. .. specially what with finding them at the very first stop.

shot the Zouave at the little range between me and town that a few of us use and she shoots just as good as she looks. didn't get real sturdy with trying to get accuracy as we are getting our first snow last night and today soooooo ... in the snow storm I had a very good time with my new to me rifle.

now for a sniffle ... beings this is the first time I have ever used the musket caps I notice a strange thing. upon firing the rifle the huge musket caps with the 4 pedals on them split in the 4 spots that look like they are scribed to do just this thing ... however what I didn't expect was the spray on my left hand on the forearm. the caps split up between those pedals and I felt the spray on my bare left wrist and arm and caused me to wear gloves to continue. IS THIS COMMON? or do I have a problem? or should I get the nipples for the number 11 caps that have never sprayed me like this. or maybe if they make it to the proper thread ... get another magspark nipple.

all in all the 80 grain charge of GOEX 2f powder behind the 570 round ball and patched did very well and shoots nice and a bunch better then an old H&R I had back in the 70's that kicked me like a mule in the same 58 cal as this hummer.

[fouronesix]

Amazing you could find those musket caps locally. Must not be a lot of traditional musket shooters around gobbling them up.

That blow back spray may not be so much because of the musket cap or musket nipple in and of themselves. The possible cause is a worn out, purposefully opened up or old style oversized flash channel in the nipple. I've seen some as large at .08" - .1" diameter. That large does allow blow back! I get new musket nipples that start out with about a .030". I try them as-is. If they need opened up a little I use a # drill for about .040"-- about a #60 or so.

[carbine]

Slug the bore and try a minie ball 0.001 under bore size and lower your powder charge a tad.
Most folks shooting Minies shoot 35-50 grains of FFFg.
Good luck with it

[bigted]

so went out and slugged the rifle and am shocked again at what I find. it measures out to ... bore-586 ... and ... groove-594 ... respectively. seems large to me but im new to this musket bizz along with this 58 cal. also I have a rough bore in her so im gonna find a paperpatch slick I can run for a few to see if I cant smooth it out ...

got my slug stuck in the barrel while slugging it and pulled the threads outta the lead slug tryin to remove it from the barrel so had to stuff 2f into the nipple hole a bit at a time ... first try didn't quite get it all the way out so had to re-charge with a few kernels more to finish blowing it out on a pile of towels. got it slugged tho so now the joy of finding the appropriate boolit or ball to make the smoke into an accurate affair. still seems like a bore and groove on the large side tho ... anybody heard of one going this large?

[KyBill]

My zouave 582 using a 510g Ideal mini Ball casts a .575 / 60g pyrodex @ 200 yards 8 inch pattern on the 100 yard sight . @ 100yrds shoots about 20 inches high .35g pyrodex dropped it down . Havent shot a RB . A mini ball should do fine .I had mine 6 weeks or so but shoot alot

[bigted]

thanks for that Bill. so your rifle bore is .582 inch then? and the .575 inch mini shoots ok with no leading issues? does the .575 mini drop into the barrel or is it snug enough to hold in place when it is seated?

[fouronesix]

I shoot 10 different 577-58 muskets. 8 are originals and 2 are repros. The repros naturally get the most use. The one I have, with what could be called an oversized bore, is an original Rem Zouave 7 groove. It has a 584 bore. I'll guarantee that in any one of them, if the minié is much more than .001-002 smaller than bore, the minié can be dislodged from staying put on the powder. In my .584 Zouave I can single wrap paper patch a .578-80 minié and it will stay put on the powder. Or I can use a .584 RCBS minié and it will stay put on the powder. In both cases, single wrap PP or bore sized minié I get excellent accuracy and don't have to worry about an air gap.

Also, as the fouling builds after a shot or two, sometimes there is enough resistance that even a sightly undersized minié may stay put. Or you can "thump" the final seating of the minié so the powder will flare the skirt a little and tighten up the seating. I don't mean slamming or flinging the ramrod down on the ball but tightly grasping the rod, keeping a tight grip and thumping down on he top of the minié. I use a brass jag that I drilled and shaped like a seating plug in a seating die so it doesn't whack the minié out of alignment during seating.