.58 Caliber - 1861 Springfield Rifled Musket

[RCB1917]

Not to hijack. But I just watched a youtube of a guy shooting an 1861 Peder. Spring. Question; he is using a hand sizer and separate hand luber. Just can't find that made to order sizer. Anybody?

Here's the part of the video that deals with sizing;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...DPscNyD4#t=135

[ResearchPress]

Is this what you are looking for: Bullet sizer
Pedersoli: "Easy to use, it is made of aluminium with two steel dies having a different size. The punch has a flat head for the long and maxi bullets (USA 514) and a conical head for the Minié bullets (USA 515)."

David

[RCB1917]

Exactly it. Looked everywhere but the most obvious place! Thanks!

[Seabee1960]

I have an 1861 Springfield replica I bought from Dixie Gun Works 20 years ago. I found that of the three molds I have the Lyman 575213 460 grain on top of 60 grains of GOEX FFg is the most pleasant to shoot and gives me about 6 inch groups at 100 yards. I have noticed that the 530 grain Lyman bullet is also called a 575213 and I am guessing that the difference is in the size of the base plug. The plug for the heavier bullet wobbles in the 460 grain mold. I bought a 1853 Parker Hale Enfield replica at a garage sale here in Ogden Utah for $100 but the Minie bullets that slide freely down the Springfield barrel are a pretty hard press in the Parker Hale. I bought a Lyman 576213 PH 566g grain mold for this rifle but the as cast Minie is still pretty tight. I liked the link to the Pedersoli sizer. That might be just what I need.

My BSA Scout troop loves the annual Musket shoot I put on every year. They prefer the ease of loading and the manageable recoil of the Springfield with the 460 grain bullet over a Hawken or Kentucky style muzzleloader.

[Seabee1960]

[Seabee1960]

After a week of research this is what I found:
Size die at Dixie Gun works that you put in a vise and this:
http://www.lodgewood.com/Lubrisizer-...Die-_c_96.html

I ordered one because I have the Lyman Lube size press already. I am a machinist and Engineer by profession so I will have to design my own. I will post the drawing in a couple of days and see if there is any interest. The two piece Pedersoli shown in the You Tube video doesn’t seem to be available here in the good old US of A.

[Seabee1960]

1R,

After a week of research this is what I found:
Size die at Dixie Gun works that you put in a vise and this:
http://www.lodgewood.com/Lubrisizer-...Die-_c_96.html

I ordered one because I have the Lyman Lube size press already. I am a machinist and Engineer by profession so I will have to design my own. I will post the drawing in a couple of days and see if there is any interest. The two piece Pedersoli shown in the You Tube video doesn’t seem to be available here in the good old US of A.

My concept will have a hollow plunger with the lube inside so you can size and lube in one push. I wonder if we could sell any of these?
It seems that all the Enfiled replicas have a hard time with the standard Lyman Minie.

Monte,

[RCB1917]

Pedersoli told me to deal with this company re accessories, web page URL; http://www.flintlocksetc.com/contact_us.htm

Email; flintetc@berkshire.rr.com

I have not yet contacted them myself re a .58 sizer.

[Seabee1960]

I am thinking a guy could build this for about $ 75 if there was any interest. Lube and size in one push with one small hand tool. If the Pedersoli people wanted to sell their tools they would make them more available. I went to the web page for the preferred American vendor and it looks like they want to sell a catalog as much as they want to sell products.

[Nobade]

Check this out:
http://www.meachamrifles.com/page.php?id=73

Made in America and much easier to deal with than Pedersoli! Pretty neat device.

-Nobade

[RCB1917]

I'm always up for new devices and good ideas re meachamrifles link. However looking at the guy running the Pedersoli sizer and luber in the youtube video really seem like simple range friendly devices. (I do have an Ammomaster press and could mount the push thru mecham in that).

I agree with Seabee its a mystery to me why Pedersoli selects one outfit to handle their stuff, but they don't have an easy way to order on line? In this internet day and age that's odd.

[fouronesix]

I'm still trying to figure out why the need to lubricate the Minié during the sizing operation. Some variation on the basic push-through design like the Lee, Lodgewood or Pedersoli are so simple, work great and are inexpensive. Anytime the lubricator is added it GREATLY increases the difficulty and expense of design plus makes for more fiddling around each time a different lube is needed or wanted.

[Seabee1960]

The elegance of this design is that if you don’t want lube you just pull the lube plunger out and push the Minie through the sizing die. The idea was that you could replace the sizing dies as needed from .570 to .695 for about $20 per steel size die.
The Pedersoli lube tool is separate and only lubes the scrape groves. Since lube becomes liquid and liquid isn’t compressible I can’t see any advantage to lubing the groves and diminishing their “scraping” capability. I like lube in the hollow space. I find these aids in expanding the Minie base skirt and deposits a layer of lubricant on the full length of the barrel, where you need it. It seems to me that one operation for both lube and size is pretty efficient and less messy than smearing the soft bullet lube with your fingers.
I don’t know what the Pedersoli tools cost but since there are two of them in the set I think this design would be less expensive by ½. But we can only guess at the Pedersoli price because you can’t get an answer from them and I have never seen one outside of the YouTube video.
I went to Lodgewood and bought a .576 size die for the standard Lyman 450 Lube size press but these aren’t exactly cheap and I have used one to size cast bootils for about 25 years now and can tell you that changing the lube out of one of these is no picnic.
I am going to scrounge some aluminum bar stock ends and build one on my old South Bend 10A. If it works I will build a dozen more and offer them for test to our community.

[RCB1917]

Yup, your project sounds interesting for sure. The info I just got re sizer; "USA515-58 $85.00 and shipping/handling $10.95"

[Seabee1960]

Nobade,

I dont think they make this in .58 Cal.

[Nobade]

They don't, but it could be used as a model to make your own scaled up version.

-Nobade

[BrassMagnet]

I think I might have found a musket! I'm waiting on a PM back!

PM'ed back at BrassMagnet's "I'll take it!" speed!

I did find one!

[varsity07840]

George will make you any size die you want, which by the way is rather important. You need to know your bore size(actual, not advertised) in order to know you die size which should be no smaller than .002. http://oldfoxtraders.com/TnMolds/

Duane

[fouronesix]

I think I might have found a musket! I'm waiting on a PM back!

PM'ed back at BrassMagnet's "I'll take it!" speed!

I did find one!

Hope it's a good one especially if original. Just like real estate- location, location, location or in this case- bore condition, bore condition bore condition. When you get it you can set up at the extended ranges indicated by the rear sight registrations as recommended and lectured about by some on this thread and blast away...... hope you have a good spotter, visible impact zone and/or very large target backer

[BrassMagnet]

Hope it's a good one especially if original. Just like real estate- location, location, location or in this case- bore condition, bore condition bore condition. When you get it you can set up at the extended ranges indicated by the rear sight registrations as recommended and lectured about by some on this thread and blast away...... hope you have a good spotter, visible impact zone and/or very large target backer

This is the description and I am confident because I am buying it from drhall762:

Armi Sport 1861 Springfield .58 cal. unfired with sling and bayonet

Now I have two complaints.

1. When I requested a lead to one in this thread, no one told me about this one when it was listed

2. When I looked over his thread, I didn't see it until the second time it came around, or was it the fifth or sixth time?

Make that three complaints!

3. Cag40Navy hasn't had lessons on how to dipper pour these out of my moulds. He'll probably post a thread similar to "It's way too slow and Brass wants way too many!"