3 band parker hale with 3 groove 1:48 twsit

[Steveoko922]

Alrifht guys, so i found myself the proud ower of a Todd Watts defarbed, PH 3 band enfield. True to what the previous owner said its the 1:48 verstion they made a few of.

Anyone here own and shoot one? Im having a hard time find a good load for it. My usual 50-55g of 3 isnt cutting it and accuracy is inconsistent. Getting random flyers into oblivion. I dont mess around with Nssa loads, full power.

 

[bisleyjohn]

Alrifht guys, so i found myself the proud ower of a Todd Watts defarbed, PH 3 band enfield. True to what the previous owner said its the 1:48 verstion they made a few of.

Anyone here own and shoot one? Im having a hard time find a good load for it. My usual 50-55g of 3 isnt cutting it and accuracy is inconsistent. Getting random flyers into oblivion. I dont mess around with Nssa loads, full power.

May I suggest you start here?

https://www.mlagb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Managing-the-Enfield.pdf
(If you haven't already?

 

[ResearchPress]

The URL within the linked PDF is out of date. Following is a link to the full article by the late Bill Curtis on Mangaging the Enfield.

David

 

[dave951]

I dont mess around with Nssa loads, full power.

Regardless of what you think regarding N-SSA loads, the basics don't change

 

[Steveoko922]

Salty

 

[Stantheman86]

I can almost guarantee it will drive tacks with a .570 ball, .010 patch and 80gr of 2f

Because both of my 1:48 P-H Birmingham produced Musketoons cut ragged holes at 100 with this load

 

[Steveoko922]

I may have to try that. I occasionally shoot 2-300yds for kicks but i mainly hunt with my enfields. I could load a roundball to start and if i need to reload, a minie.

I can almost guarantee it will drive tacks with a .570 ball, .010 patch and 80gr of 2f

Because both of my 1:48 P-H Birmingham produced Musketoons cut ragged holes at 100 with this load

 

[Stantheman86]

I may have to try that. I occasionally shoot 2-300yds for kicks but i mainly hunt with my enfields. I could load a roundball to start and if i need to reload, a minie.

I usually really try to stay Historically Correct but Enfield Rifle-Muskets were used all over the world, by both military and civilians , I tell myself.....I'm sure at some point between 1853 and 1900ish thousands of patched balls were stuffed down Enfield pipes.

It's not a fluke , both my Musketoons are spooky accurate with round balls and shoot mediocre with the "correct " Pritchett bullet, go figure.

However, my P-H 3-bander is very accurate with Minies. I've never used round balls in it.

 

[Dude]

BisleyJohn posted an article about the evolution of the Enfield bullet. After much trial and tribulation it came down to a .550 slug with an embedded plug in the base which aided the obturation. According to the article, the undersize bullet was just as accurate as the larger and didn't even need to be rammed. What's interesting is that until that article I've never even heard of that bullet, or a mold to make them.

 

[Stantheman86]

BisleyJohn posted an article about the evolution of the Enfield bullet. After much trial and tribulation it came down to a .550 slug with an embedded plug in the base which aided the obturation. According to the article, the undersize bullet was just as accurate as the larger and didn't even need to be rammed. What's interesting is that until that article I've never even heard of that bullet, or a mold to make them.

Papercartridges. Com sells complete Pritchett cartridges, both sizes. I've been shooting the "updated" .550 ones for 3 years now, I haven't tried the "early " Crimean era cartridges yet.

Brett, the guy who makes them is Deployed so you can't get them right now but they are a blast to shoot. They're expensive so I'll occasionally buy a big order of 100 of them and save them for when I'm really in the mood to shoot a lot.

50 rounds down the pipe. The last goes down as easy as the first. I have a video of me shooting them.

I make my own 1863 Pattern paper cartridges when I really feel like it, you have to set aside an entire night to lube and size 50 Minies then roll them into cartridges and put powder in so you have to really be motivated. Once you get good it's easy.

Going to the range with a cartridge box full of cartridges really takes the enjoyment of shooting these to the next level vs messing with loose powder and Minies, but I usually just mess with the loose stuff because I get lazy

People at the range will be fascinated by this because 95% of people think muzzleloading is using powder measures and patched balls, then they see a guy biting open cartridges and cranking out 3 rounds a minute , ringing steel gongs and next you know like 10 people are just watching you shoot

 

[Roundball 54]

Alrifht guys, so i found myself the proud ower of a Todd Watts defarbed, PH 3 band enfield. True to what the previous owner said its the 1:48 verstion they made a few of.

Anyone here own and shoot one? Im having a hard time find a good load for it. My usual 50-55g of 3 isnt cutting it and accuracy is inconsistent. Getting random flyers into oblivion. I dont mess around with Nssa loads, full power.

Sounds like you may be using minies that are too much under your boar dia. I have found that about two thousands under boar dia . is about as much as you can go without loosing accuracy.

 

[TreeMan]

I’ve never found a mini for my PH musketoon, Zouave, or Euroarms two band enfield that shoots well with what I consider adequate deer hunting powder charges of at least 80gr of 2F. With the right mini and low powder charges they shoot very good. For hunting I use round-balls. They are extremely accurate and pack a punch.

 

[Stantheman86]

Mines were designed to be loaded quickly and extend the range of volley fire, point accuracy wasn't as important. .575 is pretty much the Gospel for Minie sizing because they will work in any .58 rifle. If you tweak the size and use Minies that just fit down the bore you get better accuracy but you'll lose the ability to fire 50 of them without cleaning like they were originally intended. Hitting a man sized target somewhere at 200 yards most of the time was good enough.

You really can't go above 60 grains without killing accuracy unless maybe you use one of the Lyman thick skirt minies.

Round Balls are like a quick and dirty accuracy fix because the patch will adjust to the bore size vs playing with Minie sizes.

 

[Steveoko922]

After dissasembling and comparing both of my unbedded Parker Hales made in '75 , ive come to the conclution that the bedding job is AS BAD, IF NOT WORSE THAN ITALIAN REPROS. Italian anything is bad enough but they realIy dropped the ball. I smoked the barrels to see how they fit and compared that to a third late 70s Parker Hale p53 i own came to me glass bedded ( and quite accurate might i say).

There is a raised ridge that is really the problem, so i will bed them both....not a problem as i never plan on participating in shooting events, i have a whole national forest to plink in .