Mould for Enfield 1853

[GregLaROCHE]

I just bought a Parker-Hale Enfield 1853. I am new to rifled muzzle loaders and appreciate all the help available to get me up to speed with this gun.

I am looking at moulds and it seems they are all .575, so there is no decision making there. There seems to be a difference in shapes and weights. I’ve been looking at the Lee 500 grain with a conical ogive. There are others with a flat nose. I have had good luck with Lee moulds, the price is right and they’re available. Any reason I shouldn’t buy one of the Lee moulds, at least to start?

What’s the right amount of FF equivalent BP to start with?

Also, I collect range scrap and it is normally harder than plain lead. I am worried it may not work well, because it will be harder for the bullet to expand. Do I need soft pure lead? Is there a maximum BHN?

Thanks

[1Hawkeye]

Forget about the lee and get a lyman 575213 mold its a 460 grain Minnie which works well. The original U.S. loading was a 515 grain bullet and 60 grains of black powder. When casting Minnie's you need soft lead or the skirt is not going to expand into the rifling. Most of the nssa skirmishers use about 45 grains of 3fg with a lyman 460 grain or a copy of it.

[dave951]

I shoot a Parker Hale in North South Skirmish competition. A couple things you need to do for best results.

1) VERIFY your ACTUAL bore dia and that means measure it.
2) For best accuracy, bullets must be pure lead, sized to .001 under the measured bore size.
3) Use real black powder, either 2 or 3f and start with a moderate charge.
4) Avoid using ANY powder or caps labeled with “reenactor”

A word on molds. Lee are built to a price point, but there are much, much better options. In my gun, I use the RCBS Hogdon with extended base plug. The ONLY Lee bullet that shoots well in my gun is the Target minie with a large flat nose but Lee has discontinued this mold in 58. You’ll only find some as used or old stock. Avoid frustration and use pure soft lead. I get mine from a local scrap yard. Any medical facility with an X-ray room has lead lined walls. The stuff is as pure as it gets short of Rotometals and my local yard usually has a good supply.

My competition load- RCBS Hogdon, 43g 3f Old Eynsford, RWS caps, 50/50 beeswax/lard lube. This will shoot 2moa or better consistently in my Parker Hale.

[GregLaROCHE]

There are three Lyman 575213 moulds listed. What’s the difference and which is best?

[Nobade]

The NOE Pritchett bullets are very good in my P-H 1861. It is what those rifles were designed to shoot after all. The Moose Moulds Wilkinson bullets also work very well and generate significantly less recoil, just not as good at longer ranges but fine to 100 yards.

[GregLaROCHE]

Is the NOE mould the one that measures .576 and 458 grains? Unfortunately, they are sold out.

[carbine]

.575 is a nominal dimension, for bores and molds. Use pin guages and measure bore, or get a machinist to do it. I like captive pin moulds. No fiddling with base plug. Dave is right size bullet one thou under bore size. Nothing wrong with Lyman molds per se. Newer makers make and mark moulds for .576,.578, .580 makes life easier

[GregLaROCHE]

Can you buy just a few pin gauges or do you need to buy a whole set? How much di they cost? Can You find used ones?

[dave951]

Can you buy just a few pin gauges or do you need to buy a whole set? How much di they cost? Can You find used ones?

You can get individual pins on amazon. You’ll need 574, 576, 578, 580. If 574 is under size but 576 isn’t, then your bore is 575. If 576 is under size but 578 isn’t, then your bore is 577. See the pattern?

[GregLaROCHE]

You can get individual pins on amazon. You’ll need 574, 576, 578, 580. If 574 is under size but 576 isn’t, then your bore is 575. If 576 is under size but 578 isn’t, then your bore is 577. See the pattern?

I looked on Amazon, but could only find kits, that get to be too expensive. Can someone send me a link to where individual one are sold?
Thanks

[1Hawkeye]

Any of the 3 lyman 575213 molds would be fine. When I was shooting a 3 band and others I used 575213os which is the 460 grain. 575213 is a copy of the original 510 grain and 575213ph is a copy of the parker hale bullet. Another bit of trivia is for our musket ammo we used a 60 grain charge of powder while the english used a 68 grain charge but there bullet was also a 580 grain slug vs our 510 grain. This is the reason we preferred to purchase enfields during the civil war as the english .577 and our .58 caliber could use the same american made ammo.

[GregLaROCHE]

So what exactly is the Parker Hale bullet? What makes it different, anything besides the weight? Is it simply the weight the British originally used?

[john.k]

Nope,the PH bullet is not like a traditional minie.....it has a shallow base cavity with a flat interior inside the skirt.......Somewhat heavier than a minie of the same size,I have found them particularly useful in guns that wont shoot with minies.....Dont ask me why,the just do.

[john.k]

Problems with a rifle can often be cured by "flaring out" the cavity of the bullet with a steel ball of suitable diameter ........make the skirt a tight fit in the muzzle ,and the rest of the bullet doesnt matter ,within reason.......Soft lead is good ,but with harder lead flaring is the go.......obviously Im not talking wheel weight alloys here .

[GregLaROCHE]

I have a Parker Hale gun manufacturered in Birmingham. Are the bullets from the mould designated PH better for this gun?

[carbine]

Not necessarily. Any bullet can be worked up, with patience
FWIW someone just posted 5 Enfields of different make for sale on the N-SSA bulletin board

[fgd135]

I shoot both the Lyman OS and NS 575213 with good results. The 575213PH seems to shoot better for me in the faster-twist P58.
The NOE Pritchett designs also shoot well but require paper patching or Enfield-style cartridges to use them; the .550" Pritchett, for me, has only the advantage of repeated easy loading but is not a target bullet, imho. The .566" Pritchett is a better choice for target shooting, esp. in P58 as it is a very heavy bullet.
Why not buy a few sample bullets from moulds you are considering, and test them out for accuracy? Contact Pat and see if he has sample packs:
https://www.lodgewood.com/Bullets_c_7.html

[quilbilly]

I had that same rifle for many years. It was surprising how well it shot patched round ball with 50 gr of 3F Goex. It even brought down a smallish cow elk with dispatch using PRB.

[varsity07840]

I shoot both the Lyman OS and NS 575213 with good results. The 575213PH seems to shoot better for me in the faster-twist P58.
The NOE Pritchett designs also shoot well but require paper patching or Enfield-style cartridges to use them; the .550" Pritchett, for me, has only the advantage of repeated easy loading but is not a target bullet, imho. The .566" Pritchett is a better choice for target shooting, esp. in P58 as it is a very heavy bullet.
Why not buy a few sample bullets from moulds you are considering, and test them out for accuracy? Contact Pat and see if he has sample packs:
https://www.lodgewood.com/Bullets_c_7.html

Pat's recovering from COVID.

[varsity07840]

Regardless of what mould you settle on, be aware that, for example, a ".575" mould may cast larger than that. If .575 is your ideal size, you may need a sizing die to get you there.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

I use both the Lyman PH copy and the Lee .575"

https://i.imgur.com/RH7Jdnp.jpg

[dave951]

I have that Lee mold. It casts the bullet on the left. It’s the ONLY Lee bullet that works in any of my guns that take a 575-6 bullet. If anybody wants that mold, good luck. Lee discontinued them. I go two off eBay.

[barnabus]

I shoot a Parker Hale in North South Skirmish competition. A couple things you need to do for best results.

1) VERIFY your ACTUAL bore dia and that means measure it.
2) For best accuracy, bullets must be pure lead, sized to .001 under the measured bore size.
3) Use real black powder, either 2 or 3f and start with a moderate charge.
4) Avoid using ANY powder or caps labeled with “reenactor”

A word on molds. Lee are built to a price point, but there are much, much better options. In my gun, I use the RCBS Hogdon with extended base plug. The ONLY Lee bullet that shoots well in my gun is the Target minie with a large flat nose but Lee has discontinued this mold in 58. You’ll only find some as used or old stock. Avoid frustration and use pure soft lead. I get mine from a local scrap yard. Any medical facility with an X-ray room has lead lined walls. The stuff is as pure as it gets short of Rotometals and my local yard usually has a good supply.

My competition load- RCBS Hogdon, 43g 3f Old Eynsford, RWS caps, 50/50 beeswax/lard lube. This will shoot 2moa or better consistently in my Parker Hale.

at what distance do u get two inch groups

[carbine]

2 MOA implies 2 inches at 100 yards or 1 inch at 50 yards. I believe he is talking about 50 yards a one hole group

[Good Cheer]

A couple of tricks that some may find useful.

1. When trying to determine the bullet diameter for your minie ball gun a few cast minies can be machined down using the rifling to do the machining. Grip the nose of the minie with your favorite set of big pliers or channel locks and feed the bullet into the bore tail first while twisting it and doing your best to keep it straight. Try that a few times until you think you're getting pretty good at it, make up your sampling set and then write down multiple diameter measurements off of each one. The resulting data should give you a definition of the diameter that will pass into the bore of your rifling.

2. The older various designs of Lyman minie molds used base pins of fairly large diameter and could be swapped out from one set of blocks to the other. Four different bullets could therefore be cast using the components of two molds. Nine different bullet designs could be cast using three molds. So if you bought old molds on the cheap you were way ahead.

3. OK, I'll go for a third. Because the molds had base plug channels of diameters very close to one another it's also possible to have an interchangeable adjustable length base plug. And in those 48" twist guns (pretty quick twist for that big a bore!) that opens up just a whole bunch of fun.
http://i.imgur.com/X8if2dt.jpg (https://imgur.com/X8if2dt)