Recommend a Minie ball for me

[wrench]

I've dipped my toe into the muzzleloading pool, and have an Armi Sport repro 1863 Springfield rifle on the way.
.58 caliber. I've plenty of pure lead, and tin if I need it...but no molds.
I'd like to shoot a minie ball, as I have read that this rifle was designed for these. Is there one that I could start out with, or should I just wait a bit until I have the rifle in hand to check bore size? Does one size these giant things like a normal boolit, or shoot them as cast?
I have read about a crisco/beeswax mix for lube, so I can whip up a batch of that easily.
Also, I would love to begin with a Lee mold, as I don't want to spend a ton of $$ on this to find out that I'll only shoot it once a year.
I plan to use real black powder, love that cloud of smoke!
Any other advice would be very welcomed as well.
Thanks for the help...:grin:

[Nobade]

I would recommend waiting until you can measure the bore diameter. You'll want a Minie' that is .001" smaller than that. No smaller than .002" under. I tried Lee minie' moulds and had terrible results with them. They made nice looking boolits, but they wouldn't shoot. Then I tried a Ideal #577123OS, and that was much better. Then a RCBS 500, and it is better still. There are lots of them available out there, and your rifle's bore size and twist rate will determine which work best. Moose Molds also makes Wilkinson style picket bullets, I want one of those next to try. They supposedly work very well. For sizers, I made a Lee type press mounted one. Works great. I dip lube the boolits after sizing, let them dry, and go shoot. Use as soft lead as you can manage. Skirmishers seem to like FFFg in 35 - 45 gr. charges for target work. I found my rifle works a lot better with 65gr. FFg, but my boolits aren't pure lead either. Experiment to see what your rifle likes the best.

-Nobade

[Hellgate]

One of the problems with the 58 cal MLs is inconsistency in bore diameter. I have 4 different 58s and two like larger minies and two don't. One will let the 575213-OS slide right out the muzzle if I tilt it down. You don't want that. LEE makes two different sized minies in .575 and .578 diameter. Lyman molds generally throw .575 dia but they also make a 577611 hunting (heavy load) minie that has a thicker skirt and slightly larger diameter.

[carbine]

Find a plug gauge to size the bore. Size the bullets .001 under bore size. Pick up some Capplugs to hold the powder. Put the powder in the Capplug, Put in the bullet nose first up to the first ir second ring. Then use the "cartridge" as a handle to dip the bulluets in the melted lube.

[Hickok]

Wait until you get the musket. Most of the repos have a slightly large bore diameter. As stated above, best to have a minie .001-.002" under bore diameter. Moose molds and RCBS make minie molds of different diameter.

Service load was around 60 gr. 2ff, but it varied at times. Start with a load around 40 gr and work up and check for accuracy. 3f most times shoots best, but 2f should be tried too.

Strive for 2 inch groups at 50 yards and 4 inch groups at 100 yards. This is the standard of a excellent shooting rifle musket. And yes with careful load developement it can be done!

The standard musket sights will shoot very high at 50 and 100 yards, so you may need make and intall taller front sight.

The N-SSA forum has the answers to any questions. Ain't nothing as good as black powder in these rifle muskets!

[mooman76]

I have a 58 Cabelas Hawkin rifle. I Usually shoot roundball but I did work up loads for a Lee copy of an original minie. It didn't shoot great but not too bad either. Certainly good enough for hunting. The Minie weighs about 520 gr.

[johnson1942]

you might want to consider when you get your mould is to run it through a reduceing die and paperpatching it. so when it is wrapped it is 1 or 2 thousands under top of lands diam. that way you can shoot more powder with out striping out the lead bullet as paper grabs the lands better than lead. just a thought.

[wrench]

Lots to think about guys....I should have the rifle later this week. I'll wait to measure it.