Enfield Pattern 53 Army Sport

[brownbess67]

Hi (sorry my english), few weeks ago I bought from Track of the Wolf, an Enfield 53 .577" from Army Sport. I shot it with greased paper cartridges (british pattern), and fitted well while charging,but the bullet leave the barrel leaving the paper behind and it didnt take the grooves. Any ideas to charge ? I heard about greased patches with cross shape.Thanks !!

 

[Zonie]

Welcome to the Forum land pattern.

You didn't say if the bullet you were using was a solid base bullet or a hollow base like a Minie'

A solid bullet, even if made out of soft pure lead will not expand a great deal as it is fired.
The expansion may not be enough to cause it to engage the rifling.

The bottom of a hollow based slug like the Minie' will expand due to the high gas pressure behind it as well as its acceleration. This usually results in the lead engaging the rifling.

The bore on guns made by Army Sport vary in size so the first thing you should do is to measure your barrels bore.

I haven't shot paper patched rounds from a Rifled Musket but I have shot Minie' bullets.

Even with their ability to expand when shot, the best accuracy can only be obtained with a unpatched Minie' bullet is when the size of the slug is about .002 inch (.051mm) smaller than the bore size. Grater clearance usually ends up with rather poor accuracy.

 

[Heelerau]

Go to" British Militaria Forums", and search for "Resurected Pritchett Shooting, you will find out a heap about 1853 Enfield Paper Cartridges.

Cheers

heelerau

 

[brownbess67]

Thank you very much Zonie !
the ball is a minie hollow base of course, from a Lyman mold 577611, 530 grains. I use to enlarge the hollow while casting,with a special plug made to fit the Lyman mold,and need to resize the bullet if a want to use paper cartridge. Even with this lighter minie, 'cause our black powder is weaker than yours, I need to charge no less than 100 grains in the cartridge. Thanks again, is a pleasure to chat with experienced people.

 

[brownbess67]

Thanks for the info.Heelerau ! Im seeing right now, very interesting work. Thanks again !! :thumbsup:

 

[59sharps]

bullet needs to be .001 to .002 under bore dia. soft lead. forget about putting the paper down the bore. 2 reasons 1) you do not want a wad under your minnie. 2) if paper is left in the barrel it may still be smoldering when you put the next powder charge in it could cook off and tht is not fun!
a good target load should be between 39 - 48 grn of 3fffg.
for additional info you may want to check w the guys on the North-South Skirmish Assoc. Site.

 

[brownbess67]

More info, thanks a lot 59sharps ! thats help me, maybe is better to use the naked bullet and forget the paper cartridges. Thanks ! :thumbsup:

 

[Jason Lewis]

the enfield pattern cartridge is a paper patched bullet, no paper is left in the barrel. you will never have a problem with a paper patched bullet.

 

[brownbess67]

Thanks medic302 !, so I need to work more on sorts of papers to make the cartridge, strong and thick enough to take the grooves and support the charge, but at the same time I need to tear it...

 

[Jason Lewis]

well, the pritchetts that i'm experimenting with are .568" and .563" in dia. the cartridge outer wrapper I've been using is .002" 100% cotton rag, for the .568 bullet and .003" vellum for the .563 bullet. so far, both seem to tear just fine at the muzzle. they are lubed with an 20/80mix of beeswax and tallow by weight.

 

[brownbess67]

Sorry my ignorance Medic, but the "cotton rag" is the name of a sort of paper there ?, or is it just rag of cotton ? Thanks !!

 

[Jason Lewis]

it's what the paper is made of, it's otherwise called onion skin. google the paper mill store, that's where I get mine from.

 

[Rokon]

A successful alternative to the hollow base Minnie is Lee's .58 caliber R.E.A.L. solid. The secret to the bullet is that its 4 driving bands increase in size from the base to the point. In .58 caliber they measure .577, .582, .587 and .592. It's a very accurate bullet in a rifled musket.