60g of any brand of 2f will shoot 58 cal minies accurately , is it magic?

[TFoley]

The British Service load for THEIR Minié bullet was 2 1/2 drams of Fine Rifle Powder, probably what we would call 2Fg these days. That's as near 68.5gr as darnit.

The Musketoon load was often reduced to 60gr of the same thing, to save wasting powder.

 

[Dave Fox]

Brett at Papercartridges told me to use 1.5f in his Pritchett Cartridges as that was the closest powder to the 1850s-60s British "Musket Powder "

There is no way to figure out what exact powder was used in the US Pattern Minie cartridges because the US Ordnance Dept used several sources . I can't remember if DuPont was in the South or the North.

2f has always worked well for me, whether it's Goex, Wano, etc . If I'm motivated I'll roll up 50 paper cartridges the day before a range trip and use 60 grains of whatever 2f. I've even used 3f without any real difference.

The size of the Minie varied too. I believe the original US Ordnance Dept testing was with a .577 or .576 Minie but later .575 was settled on as a happy medium for easier loading in a fouled bore. There was the Burton Ball and some others too. There is no "standard ", ammunition was always changing or differed depending on the source. Remington cast Minies were different than another contractor, the South used countless different kinds of bullets.

DuPont was the main powder supplier for the Union, providing roughly half of all powder acquired. Georgia's Augusta Works was chief supplier for the Confederacy. During the war the Federal government purchased 8,834,551 pounds of rifle and musket powder, while producing none itself. The government purchased 46,409,514 .577 and .58 rifle-musket cartridges and produced in its own arsenals 424,441,565 such cartridges. A rather high standard of uniformity was achieved, especially with swaged minie balls. (Fuller, "The Rifled Musket", page 259).

 

[Stantheman86]

There is a mold for a Thick Skirt Minie so people can use heavy charges for Hunting but you're probably not doing accuracy any favors.

 

[nkbj]

And every barrel is a law unto itself.

This is my .69, a modification to Lyman's minie.

 

[toot]

Also, 60 grains FFFG also seems to he the cat's meow in my .45, .50, and .54 caliber PRB rifles. Gets about 1700fps in. 45, 1600fps in .50, and 1550fps in .54, with little kick and great accuracy. The deer die just as if they were shot with 100 grains of powder. 60 grains just seems to be a great load in all my muzzleloaders, from. 45 to .58.

60 GRS, of either 2fg. or 3fg, will do the trick.