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Buckshot
04-16-2006, 07:02 AM
...............Anyone have any experience with the Colt Signature series 58 cal RIfled muskets?

....................Buckshot

shooter575
04-16-2006, 09:32 AM
Buckshot The orgional Colt special musket was a cross between a Enfield and Springfield.Build on machenery made in the US that was going to be sent to UK to build patern 53'sColt took that equptment and made a cross between the two to supply the federals.The parts do not iterchange with the springfield.The stock has the straighter drop of the Enfields.
From what I hear they were typical Italiam made with a better fit and finnish.The only problem I have heard of is a few were bored and threaded to deep for the breech plug leaving exposed threads in the breech.[bad]They fetch a small premium over standard italian clones though

Buckshot
04-17-2006, 07:54 AM
...............Shooter575, thanks. I'm not going to pull the breechplug to check. I just bought one. A 2 band Artillery carbine. Sure is purty!

..................Buckshot

RBak
04-25-2006, 09:59 PM
...............Shooter575, thanks. I'm not going to pull the breechplug to check. I just bought one. A 2 band Artillery carbine. Sure is purty!

..................Buckshot

Yep, They sure are right nice. I have had a 3 band for a few years now, and I am downright pleased with it....After Jim Webber (Shooter 575) "clued me in" on how it should be used a few years back.

I have manytimes wished I had the 2 band...a 40" bbl in the Pacific Northwest is just not the handy rifle of tomorrow......or yesterday for that matter. However, I suspect that you learn to live with you got.

The 575213PH with about all the Goex FFg powder you can stand makes a right nice Elk load out to about 70 / 80 yds....probably more if you're both shootin just right, and you know your trajectory real well....still yet, my favorite target load is 42gr FFFg, and the Lee OS 520gr at .580...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/RussB256/powderhorn-shotcartridges-1861017.jpg

The Elk in the picture is not the one I took with this gun...However, it was about the same size, or maybe, if anything, just a bit smaller in weight, the rack was somewhat nicer though. .....anyway, you get the idea.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/RussB256/1861ColtElkRifle.jpg

52 pounds of rack!....2 days and 4 trips of hard / heavy packing, and the meat is in the freezer! :drinks:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/RussB256/RussBwithElk.jpg

Respectfully, Russ...

versifier
04-26-2006, 03:26 PM
Russ,
Nice rifle, impressive trophy, best dog a man can have (could you tell?).

Buckshot
04-28-2006, 02:56 AM
................Russ, nice rack! You got it mounted on the hood of your car yet :-)? The guy I bought the 2 Band Artillery from had been having difficulties getting it to shoot. Apparently the bore is .580" so he ended up ordering a Raphine .580" mould for a little 315gr Minie'. At least I think it was 315gr. He sold me the mould along with the rifle. After he'd cast some of them up, it's first group out of the muzzle was somehting llike 2-3" at 50 yards, no load development.

This was a major improvement over previous shooting. Sometime back I'd made up a .588" swage die to make up boolits for a 3 band Snider. So I made a .581" size die for this rifle, as I think a bit heavier slug may fare a bit better then that light Minie'. Heck a 58 cal RB isn't much less in weight.

..............Buckshot

RBak
04-28-2006, 11:19 AM
Buckshot.....I have somehow misplace my owners manual that came with the rifle.
However, it said the rifle had progressive rifling.

Now, I'm not real sure about the concept of "progressive rifling" being the greatest thing to ever happen to heavy conicals, but the gun will shoot quite nicely with a somewhat longer than average boolit. That 315gr you spoke of seems to be just a bit short...at least for me.
I told Shooter575 one time it looks, and acts, more like a big ol' air rifle pellet than an actual conical.

If ya should run into any problems with that gun, I think Shooter 575 is the man to ask about it. God only knows how he came up with all that knowledge about Civil War guns......Heck! Maybe he was there:confused:

Here is a web site that tells you a few of the specs on the gun, in case you didn't get the manual.
http://pdmall.com/COLTBP/1861mu~1.htm


Versifier.....Thanks for the kind words about my hound dog. He is a pup that has the heart of a full grown lion. His Mom & Pop come from the "Dynamite" Springer breed down in Kansas. He's all business when he gets in the field, and can find a Chuckar if it's to be found.....We are working on him honoring another dogs point this year. Wish me luck, it may just not be in him!
Still yet, Ya gotta love those Springer Spaniels!

Respectfully, Russ...

versifier
04-28-2006, 07:01 PM
I have never had much luck when there was more than one dog involved, they always seemed to want to play with each other - unless they have been brought up together and learned to hunt as a team with an older dog as a "mentor". Mine liked to work for up to three hunters, but if a bird was hit, she'd always bring it back to me regardless of who shot it. [smilie=1: None of ours have ever pointed, though I have known two out of dozens of Springers that would. We need flushers that will swing wide when they get a scent and push the birds back towards you, like a buttonhook pattern. The woods here are thick and the partridges (the rest of the world calls them grouse) will just run until they have a clear take-off zone - you can hear them, but not see them. The dog surprises them and they are looking back over their shoulders thinking they got away when they come flying at you.

Buckshot
04-29-2006, 07:11 AM
..............RussB, thanks for the link. I had heard that the Colt's had progressive DEPTH grooves like the P53, etc, but that link said. "Features 1-72" progressive GAIN twist rifling". Me thinks they know not of which they wrote :-). I'll go for the progressive depth grooves, if they were built as the Enfields were, but would bet they are NOT 'gain twist' rifled.

He also sold me the bayonet and scabbard along with a sizer deal he'd bought from Raphine. The sizer is very simple. The base is an aluminum casting. At one end is a simple sholdered hole with a setscrew to retain an equally simple tapered push through cylindrical die. At the opposite end are 2 legs with an arm pined between them that extends out over the end with the die, and a pivited arm used against the bullet to force it through the die.

The die DOES size to the diameter stamped on it, but it is kind of roughly finished inside. If I had made it I would not have shipped it to someone who had paid money for it. Since the dies were so simple, I made up a .577" for a Zoli Zouave, a .580" for my P58 Naval Pattern 2 Band Enfield and a .596" of the Snider Carbine.

....................Buckshot

shooter575
05-01-2006, 02:22 AM
[If ya should run into any problems with that gun, I think Shooter 575 is the man to ask about it. God only knows how he came up with all that knowledge about Civil War guns......Heck! Maybe he was there ]

Ouch Russ, Just because I attended a few GAR meetings with the boys later doesent mean I was there. :groner:

Buckshot.My first sizer I ever had was for minnes was just a 1 1/4" x3"piece of barstock with a .575 hole and a short leade.Had a 1/2 " or so turned down to a inch to set in a drill press table.I used a wood dowel in the chuck to push em through.
I have gotten lazy in my OLD age and now just use custom dies in my lubersizer.They are a bit thin walled but work well. In my sport there are a bunch of machinest and inventer types.So there are a lot of diffrent types of equptment to look at.I will dig up some pics and do a post on it later.