A. Zoli Zouve Help Needed

[JoelH]

I recently bought a used Zoli 58 cal. Zouve repro rifle that is in very good condition. I took it out to the range with both .57 cal R\B's and some 58 mini's I had on hand. My trouble involves both patched ball and lubed mini's shot a foot high at 50 yards using 60 grains 2F Goex using the lowest rear sight (long range sights folded down). On a Kentucky barrel, I would file down the front sight with this problem, but the front sight on this piece isn't of the blade type. How do I go about fixing this? The range officer at my club is gonna want to tar and feather me for blasting the upper target frame to splinters! Thanks for any help here....Joel

 

[Robert Shively]

I shot a Zoli Zuoave for many years and won quite a few matches with it. They all seem to shoot pretty well and have deeper and better rifling than the current models. If you're shooting high, you don't want to file the front sight down. You want to raise it to get the point of aim lower. You can do this by filing the sight off to the base and solding on a higher hand made blade or you can file down the blade to the base, cut a dovetail into the base and tap in a higher hand made sight with dovetail base. The dovetail method allows you to adjust left and right. I'm not sure, but I don't think the NSSA rules allow this, but others may know better. My Zouave shoots about 9" high at 50 yards. Most military muskets of the day were set up with battle sights for a 200 yard shot. I just got used to shooting at the bottom of the paper. Some guys may say cut down on your powder charge, but my Zouave shot best at around 60-65 grains with a traditional new style minie. Good luck with it. I'm betting it will give you good groups and lots of good shooting once you get the kinks worked out.

 

[slowpokebr549]

I have an Armi Sport Zouave that I replaced the rear sight on for the same reason. I could deal with the high point of impact, but the four inches left was too much. I bought a complete replacement sight from Dixie to put on it when PC sights are required.

 

[arquebus]

I too have have a Zoli-made Zouave. You can file down the rear sight leaf to bring the point of impact down to where you need it.....but first settle on a load that shoots well & where on the target you want to hold (ie center-hold or 6 o'clock). I rarely shoot my Zouave at 50yds/m (pretty much all 100 yds/m), but I did file my middle sight leaf down to be just a little higher than the first. I travel quite a bit with my shooting & have found that different Ranges require different sight pictures, due to light, direction it's facing, yards/meters, etc. I've found that with my sights the way they are I can pretty much cover all my bases with one or the other leaf using either a center or 6 o'clock hold, depending on the circumstances.
By the way, did you know you can get some windage adjustment out of your rear sight by loosening the screw that holds the base to the barrel. The sight sits in a flat groove & will pivot on the screw. My Zouave's screw has a couple of dimples rather than a slot, but I filed a screwdriver down to two points to fit the holes. It has been very handy to have that windage some days.....few rifle-muskets have that capability.

 

[Semisane]

I recently acquired a nice .58 caliber Zouave rifle that is a real fun shooter.
The only problem is my old bifocal eyes can't see that danged military rear sight. Here's the gun.

And here's the factory sight. With it, the gun shoots about a foot above point of aim at 50 yards.

Here's the sight disassembled.

That disk is the screw holding the sight to the barrel. When I got it out it turned out to be metric - 4mm / 0.70 pitch.

So I went to the hardware store and bought three bolts (1/2" X 20 threads per inch), and a nut.

I also bought a 4mm X 0.70 machine screw, a small rubber "O" ring, and a nylon washer.

Then I cut the head off of the machine screw and put it in the barrel in place of the sight base screw.

I drilled a hole in one flat of the nut and tapped it with 4mm X 0.70 threads. Then ground it flat on both sides and rounded it except for the tapped flat.

Here's a picture of the process in three steps.

Then a buddy with a lathe drilled the bolts with 1/8", 3/16", and 1/4" holes, rounded and dished the heads, and shortened the shanks to the thickness of the modified nut.

I then put the "O" ring on the barrel stud, then the nylon washer, then screwed on the modified nut.

This in itself makes a pretty dandy low-light ghost ring sight.

Or, you can screw in any one of the apertures for finer sighting in good light.

Here's a picture with the 1/4" aperture in place.

As soon as I can get some Birchwood Casey cold blue solution, I'll turn the whole works blue and it will look a little better.

RESULTS??? Well, I shot with it last Sunday from a bench and put six shots in a 3" bull at 50 yards using the 3/16" aperture.

Windage was perfect, but it was shooting about eight inches above point of aim. I needed a taller front sight to bring the point of impact down.

So, back to the hardware store. Got a couple of 4 X 40 socket head screws and a brass nut. Rounded the nut, filed the factory front sight flat, and soldered the nut to the flat. Now I can screw in different lengths of screw shanks (or screws with the head on) and change front sight height at will. The threaded post is real sharp when looking through the aperture. Works great with my bi-focals on.

Now I'm thinking about drilling a hole through one of the socket heads and inserting about 1/4" of fiber optic filament.

GO AHEAD - LAUGH, but I do think I'm about ready to hunt with this sucker. It's about the best $5 aperture sight you'll ever find.

 

[JoelH]

Semisane, I'm impressed with your enginuity and always liked peep sights for recreational target shooting but found for hunting not the best option. Game on the move makes a peep site too hard to keep up with. A friend of mine made his Zouve rifle shoot at point of aim by simply drilling a peep hole through the second sight tab. Unfortunately for match shooting at my club, only open sights are allowed. Before I do anything at all to the sights on this rifle I will give it a lot of thought and time as well. I did do something to improve the repro's appearance in my opinion. It was like yours....a "blonde" stained gun. Here is a before and after photo of mine. :wink:

 

[jdstrang]

Semi:

That is the dangdest piece of sight engineering I think I ever did see! Absolutely practical, pretty good-looking, cheap - and it works! I salute you!

And you are right about that o-ring making a fine low-light sight. There was a good piece on peep sights in Gun Digest about 30-40 years ago. The guy pointed out that you don't have to shoot through a pinhole to attain very good accuracy at practical hunting distances, because your eye will center that front sight in the aperture for you. That's why the peeps on the rear leafs of my skirmish guns are drilled out to 1/8th inch. That's plenty good to put a minie in the black at 50 or 100, and still be able to pick up the target on low-light days.

 

[Semisane]

That is the dangdest piece of sight engineering I think I ever did see! Absolutely practical, pretty good-looking, cheap - and it works! I salute you!

Why thank you, PappaBear. Had another range session with it last Sunday. I like this sight so much I'm thinking about putting one on my TC New Englander. Trying to figure out how to make the rear sight windage adjustable.

 

[jeepwj992002]

WOW!!! That is some pretty neat ingenuity. :bow: :bow:

 

[CoyoteJoe]

I applaud your creativity sir, but that seems a long way around to the outhouse. I'd just discard the open rear sight, it's too close to the eye for an open sight and too far for a peep and you still have no adjustment except by switching front sights. I think it is much simpler and better to drill and tap the tang for a simple thumbscrew peep, like this:[url] http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e245/coyotejoe/t-c28-6.jpg[/url]
That places the peep back where it belongs and provides a much wider field of view through the 1/8" aperture. It also is a somewhat protected location next to the hammer and you can still use the front sight or replace it with a bead of your choosing. It has no windage adjustment but elevation is about 3MOA for a full turn up or down and if you get the aperture well centered you can make half turn adjustments.

 

[ronrryan]

In the old days when peep sights were common in the deer woods, most men I knew just removed the sight disk. Some went so far as to run a drill, as large as reasonable, right throught he threaded base. This gave the "ghost ring." Nothing faster, the eye automatically centers the front sight. Where the front sight is, there also is the bullet. I used them for years. Good smoke, Ron in FL

 

[pepperbelly]

I have no experience with that rifle, but is it possible that the sights are regulated for a 6 o'clock hold?

Jim

 

[CoyoteJoe]

The original sights were set up for military use with the minie ball and the standard 60 grain powder charge which only produces about 800 fps and a correspondingly curved trajectory. They had to shoot very high at 50 yards in order to stay on a man's torso out to 150 yards.
That is why I'd never hunt with a minie, the trajectory is just too poor. You have to be about seven inches high at 50 yards to zero at 100, and you'd still be more than a foot low at 125. The Zouave will generally do OK with a patched ball and heavier powder charge. With 120 grains of double F you'll get about 1400-1500 fps and at that speed you can zero three inches high at 50 yards and be only about three inches low at 100 yards and that is about the best one can do with a Zouave.

 

[Semisane]

I got a 5-shot average of 1613 fps out of mine with a .570 Hornady ball, Walmart pillow tick patches lubed with CVA Grease Patch, and 100 grains of Pyrodex FFG.

Sighted dead on at 75 yards, I'm an inch and a quarter high at 50, three inches low at 100, and eight and a half inches low at 125. That's a hunting load in my book.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Yep, sounds good enough to me!

 

[greencharger68]

I have the same rifle. if you are shooting high at 50 yrds than you need to add to the front sight or file down the rear sight. I replaced the rear sight and then filed it down to keep the orig. I measured the orig. height of the rear sight and drilled a hole in the 200 yard leaf to make a 100 yard peep,also found a perior correct snipper front sight that gives you a front cross hair that makes it easier to see. have made many other fixes and tried several ways to improve group size. now down near 3 inch @ 100 yrds.
did trigger job as well. found .570 round ball with .020 lubed patch worked best.
took a chance this year with it for deer season and got 8 point buck and 1 doe.
fist time Post Hope This Helps[url] http://greencharger68.tripod.com[/url]/

 

[Thunderchild]

I have a Euro Arms Zouave. I shoot .575 minies from a RCBS 500gr and Lee 460 gr Mold. I have to burry the tip of the front sight in the base of the rear V sight to be on target at 50 yards. I want to try a patched round ball. Right now I am getting a 2.5 inch group at 50 yards. Much room for improvement.