Musket ammo question

[vulture47]

I have two civil war repros, an Enfield and a Remington Zauave, question I have is about the mini slugs. I have a mold and I've purchase a few off an auction site just so I could get going until I have a chance to get some cast, but the purchased ones are a real tight fit so I purchased a sizing die from Dixie Gun Works that you mount in a hole in a borad or in a vice and then just drive the lubed minis through, question is what the heck do I use that won't deform the slugs as I drive them through. If I push them through point first which makes sense, then I'm deforming the skirts and I just wondered if anyone on here did this and if so had they come up with a drive rod that didn't mess up the skirts?

[Mk42gunner]

I have never sized minie balls for my P-H Musketoon; but I would think you would need a punch that matches the base cavity, and size them nose first. A hard wooden dowel and sandpaper might suffice.


Robert

[oldhickory]

Somebody used to make a form-fit dowel just for that, haven't seen one in a while though. Use the base pin from your mold as a template and sand a hickory dowel down to about the same shape. I always pan lube first then it's easier to push them through.

[2shot]

Gosh, I wish I had your problem of the Minie being to large. Except for my Lee R.E.A.L. all my other .58 Minie's rattle down my bore of my Zouave as they free fall down the barrel. All my Minie molds cast to .575, I guess I should get a larger mold that cast .578-.580.
I never had to size a Minie but is it possible to push them through skirt first? If so then I would thing that deforming the skirt would be less of a problem then trying to push them nose first.

2shot

[oldhickory]

Gosh, I wish I had your problem of the Minie being to large. Except for my Lee R.E.A.L. all my other .58 Minie's rattle down my bore of my Zouave as they free fall down the barrel. All my Minie molds cast to .575, I guess I should get a larger mold that cast .578-.580.
I never had to size a Minie but is it possible to push them through skirt first? If so then I would thing that deforming the skirt would be less of a problem then trying to push them nose first.

2shot

Burton boolits, (what they really are) should be .001-.002 smaller than bore, (land) diameter for best accuracy and ease of loading. Much under .002 and accuracy will noticablly detererate at 100yds.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Actually, to push them through nose first you can use a solid cylindrical, flat faced object of slightly smaller diameter than what you are sizing to. That's the basis of the ram and die system, such as the Lee sizing die. I would suggest a minie ball 1 1/2 thousandths smaller than bore size. BvT

[missionary5155]

Good morning
IF the Hollow base plug from your mold is long enough you could use that with some care. I would not think much pressure is needed to push a thin wall slug through a sizer.
Are you using near pure lead for this MINI ? My 58 zouave never needed a SIZED Mini ..

[2shot]

Burton boolits, (what they really are) should be .001-.002 smaller than bore, (land) diameter for best accuracy and ease of loading. Much under .002 and accuracy will noticablly detererate at 100yds.

I really mean they rattle down the bore. The barrel on my Zouave is a Zoli and on the large size. Taking the breach plug out I slugged it at .581. I don't normaly take breach plugs out but this one was so loose that I could unscrew it with my fingers, I've since fixed that problem. The R.E.A.L. groups on average around 3"@100yds. My Lyman O.S. can't do that at 25 yds because it's so loose. I'm thinking about trying paper patching the O.S. and see if that works better.

2shot

[oldhickory]

I really mean they rattle down the bore. The barrel on my Zouave is a Zoli and on the large size. Taking the breach plug out I slugged it at .581. I don't normaly take breach plugs out but this one was so loose that I could unscrew it with my fingers, I've since fixed that problem. The R.E.A.L. groups on average around 3"@100yds. My Lyman O.S. can't do that at 25 yds because it's so loose. I'm thinking about trying paper patching the O.S. and see if that works better.

2shot

I noticed that Dixie Gun Works has "Challenger" molds on sale for $10.00 each, or 3 for $20.00. The good news is, these come in large size .58, up to .585. The bad news is, the handles are very light duty. The blocks are tollerable as I remember, (yes I used one once that a friend loaned me) the handles WILL break very soon though, (they're made of chincy cast aluminum). I just rigged other handles to fit, the blocks are simmiler to LEEs with a "floating" base pin. As I recall the boolits were o.k, but I bought a good Rapine mold for shooting original Springfields with .580+ bores and returned the Challenger mold to it's owner with new handles. Too bad Rapine isn't making molds anymore, he filled a great many voids with original style boolits and sizes no-one else made.

https://www.dixiegunworks.com/default.php?cPath=22_101_283&sort=2a&&page=4&osCsid=17f1ede21b35a2c5749db1d03a6ddeaa

[2shot]

I noticed that Dixie Gun Works has "Challenger" molds on sale for $10.00 each, or 3 for $20.00. The good news is, these come in large size .58, up to .585. The bad news is, the handles are very light duty. The blocks are tollerable as I remember, (yes I used one once that a friend loaned me) the handles WILL break very soon though, (they're made of chincy cast aluminum). I just rigged other handles to fit, the blocks are simmiler to LEEs with a "floating" base pin. As I recall the boolits were o.k, but I bought a good Rapine mold for shooting original Springfields with .580+ bores and returned the Challenger mold to it's owner with new handles. Too bad Rapine isn't making molds anymore, he filled a great many voids with original style boolits and sizes no-one else made.

https://www.dixiegunworks.com/default.php?cPath=22_101_283&sort=2a&&page=4&osCsid=17f1ede21b35a2c5749db1d03a6ddeaa

Thanks for the info, I'll check it out. Also thought about getting one of the Blue/Grey molds that come in larger sizes.

[oldhickory]

Thanks for the info, I'll check it out. Also thought about getting one of the Blue/Grey molds that come in larger sizes.

Just going from poor memory here, but they may be the same thing as the challengers. You could also lap out a LEE fairly easy.