.45 minnie

[tuscan]

cant find anywhere how much bp behind .45 minnie ball. where to start? .45grains? i dont need hunting load, not alloved to hunt here with bp, just need target load. thanks.

 

[paulvallandigham]

45 grains( by volume) of FFg or FFFg powder sounds like the right place to begin. Work up and down in 5 grain increments. You won't find a lot of information here about using .45 minie balls simply because that caliber was not commonly made with that type of bullet in mind- in military firearms. The first minies were loaded in .75, .69,. and .66 caliber rifles and muskets. In the mid-19th century, the .58 caliber rifle became common, and we saw minie balls made by the millions to use in this caliber. You don't see .45 caliber military cartridges- after the MLing era began to end with the American Civil War( 1861-'65)-- in 1873. We had .44 caliber revolvers before the Civil war, but not any Military rifles in that caliber. There were civilian ML rifles, particularly made for sniping, in that caliber, but they used plain base cast bullets, or paper patched bullets back then.

You may find that using a thick Over Powder wad under that Minie ball to help seal gases away from the minie will provide the best accuracy. If the skirt at the back is thin, you would be advised to have someone turn down the plug that forms the hollow cavity in the base of the bullet, to make a thicker wall. Thicker walls can take bigger powder charges, and tend to give the best accuracy. Also, you want to size that Minie ball to within .001" or .002" of the bore( land to land) diameter of your rifle. Sizing dies, made to the exact dimension you need, can be obtained from several sources, which you can find from the North-South Skirmish Association. ( NSSA). :thumbsup:

 

[William O.]

cant find anywhere how much bp behind .45 minnie ball. where to start? .45grains? i dont need hunting load, not alloved to hunt here with bp, just need target load. thanks.

Is it a minnie ball or a lead conical?
Agree w/ Paul, 45 grains a good place to start.

 

[tuscan]

well, :hatsoff: to you all but, you all must be crazy shooting those maxies amd minnies.
tryed it today and im shocked! waaay too much hard for me. dont need that for punching paper at 50 yards.load was lee improved minnie ball, 45 grains 3f bp. normaly i shoot .440 prb with 25grs of bp and that feels like .22lr. these minnies are made for killing stuff. interresting expirience indeed.
(i know, i missspelled something :redface: )

 

[F.G. Ford]

Hello Tuscan,
Welcome to the Forum.
Spelling is just fine, especially compared to my Croatian spelling "0"
Look forward to more posts from you.
I have a .450 minie mold with a thin skirt, it would never shoot as well as my round ball.
I bought it years ago for curiosity, cast a few bullets with it and then retired it in favor of the round ball mold.
Old Ford

 

[oldude]

SPELLING??? OMG I thought this forum was about smoke poles and shooting :grin: The paper target or critter down range don't care about spelling.As for conicals or minnies they ain't for me a PRB works just fine.Sorry to hear that you can't hunt but dang glad to see your shooting and havin fun. Bent

 

[tuscan]

im really happy wiht PRBs, accurate, easy to load, easy on a gun and shoulder. just wanted to try somethig else. didnt need to,but...
i was thinking about my second BP gun to be a .58 zouave, now im :hmm: ... that kicks, doesnt it?
:surrender:

 

[David W.]

well, :hatsoff: to you all but, you all must be crazy shooting those maxies amd minnies.
tryed it today and im shocked! waaay too much hard for me. dont need that for punching paper at 50 yards.load was lee improved minnie ball, 45 grains 3f bp. normaly i shoot .440 prb with 25grs of bp and that feels like .22lr. these minnies are made for killing stuff. interresting expirience indeed.
(i know, i missspelled something :redface: )

Don't worry about the spelling. You should see the way some of us spell, and this is our language!

I use to shoot Minies too, but no longer. When I first started shootng black powder, I thought it was needed to have enough power to kill a deer. I was SO wrong about that. I have a double barrel .58 that I shot Minies and 120 Gr. FFg. and man, that really stomped and I had bruises on my shoulder afterwards. :surrender: A PRB is all that is needed for North American game. :thumbsup: As far as being crazy, many Americans may be just that!:youcrazy: :rotf:

 

[William O.]

well, :hatsoff: to you all but, you all must be crazy shooting those maxies amd minnies.
tryed it today and im shocked! waaay too much hard for me. dont need that for punching paper at 50 yards.load was lee improved minnie ball, 45 grains 3f bp. normaly i shoot .440 prb with 25grs of bp and that feels like .22lr. these minnies are made for killing stuff. interresting expirience indeed.
(i know, i missspelled something :redface: )

Yes, minnies or conicals tend to recoil a bit harder than round balls, and for punching paper it really isn't neccessary. Glad you joined the forum and look forward to hearing about your experiences.

 

[tg]

If you stay with an earlier style rifle with a wide buttplate and straight stock you can shoot stout loads with PRB with no ill effects and cut the cost of plinking and still be quite deadly on any game animal in N. America should you decide to hunt here with a .54 and above excluding the larger Bears.

 

[nkbj]

im really happy wiht PRBs, accurate, easy to load, easy on a gun and shoulder. just wanted to try somethig else. didnt need to,but...
i was thinking about my second BP gun to be a .58 zouave, now im :hmm: ... that kicks, doesnt it?
:surrender:

If you can make any sense of it, I loved the Zouave but hated shooting it. The rifle was made for hitting somewhere between the forehead and belt buckle and has a sighting system designed to accomplish only that.

 

[ken.clements]

im really happy wiht PRBs, accurate, easy to load, easy on a gun and shoulder. just wanted to try somethig else. didnt need to,but...
i was thinking about my second BP gun to be a .58 zouave, now im :hmm: ... that kicks, doesnt it?
:surrender:

If you can make any sense of it, I loved the Zouave but hated shooting it. The rifle was made for hitting somewhere between the forehead and belt buckle and has a sighting system designed to accomplish only that.

I love 'em and wouldn't give mine up (Zouave). I got a Muskatoon I'm gonna make a waterpipe from if I don't figure it out soon

 

[ken.clements]

If you want a Zouave or need Minie's for it let me know. I can send you Minie's (before you buy a bunch or a lot of moulds) in the mail (from Germany)and have been shooting a Zouave over a year.

 

[ohio ramrod]

Don't worry about your spelling. Most of us don't spell well, and English is our primary language! :surrender: