Euroarms Enfield Musket

[Dalton]

O.K. A few months back I ordered a Euroarms 2-Band Enfield musket. I received it a couple weeks back but couldn't make it to the range until today.

When I got to the range this morning I set up a target at 25yds. just to make sure the gun was on paper. The first shot was promising. Hit about 4 inches high of the bullseye at 12 o'clock. I ran a cleaning patch through the gun and took aim for my second shot. Bang... As I looked through the scope I could see nothing on paper. I had to walk down to the target just to make sure but there was nothing there. I loaded up another round after cleaning the gun again and the third shot hit the bottom of the target about 15" down at 6 o'clock.

I don't get it. I tried several more shots and couldn't even keep it on a 2'X4' target at 25yds. Anybody got any ideas as to what could cause this? Here are some details about what I'm using. I am thinking that the minie balls are too small for the bore, but when I put the calipers on them they measure out at .577 and that's what was recomended by Euroarms.

Bullet - Lee cast improved Minie .577"
Lube - 50% Beeswax, 25% Anhydrous Lanolin, 25% Olive Oil (Pan Lubed)
Powder - Goex FFg
Charge - 60gr.
Caps - CCI Musket

I cleaned between every shot using a 5:1 mixture of de-mineralized water and Ballistol.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

David

 

[rkeltner]

pull your barrel and make sure you don't have a warped stock. odd angled pressure from the stock can cause wandering impact points as the barrel heats up from each consecutive shot.

 

[jdstrang]

First suspect for me is your lead: is it squeezeably soft? Can you easily deform the base by squeezing it twixt thumb and forefinger? :hmm:

 

[Trot]

Either hard lead or minie too small. You need to measure the bore and use a minie no more than .002 under bore size. There is a lot of variation in these repro rifle musket bores.

 

[Dalton]

That's a good point. I thought I had pure lead, but it's possible I have something a little harder. I'll check that first thing when I get home from work.

Thanks,

David

 

[Bob Gular]

Try shooting some patched roundballs. If they are accurate it will pretty much put the blame on the minies and not the rifle. I shoot an Armi Enfield musketoon that shoots some minies well and some not so well, but a .562 RB with .015 patching groups very well.

 

[Zonie]

I've come to think of minnies as a whole different sort of bullet when comparing them to round balls or some of the solid conicals.

Although I'm sure there are many of you folks who can repeatedly shoot the chin hairs off of a fruit fly at 100 yards, I've had some very mixed results with them.

First off, there are so many different factors that can affect the accuracy.
The skirts can be to thick or to thin.
If they are too thick, they won't expand to grip the rifling properly.
If they are too thin, they can be damaged or "blown out" by a moderately heavy powder charge.
They can be too hard to expand well.
They can be too long to stabilize.
They all create recoil that is about like a 3 inch magnum 20 guage shotgun making a persons shoulder sore after 20-30 shots.

Add all of this to the old wisdom that says, "Each gun will have some loads it really likes and some loads that will never work well." and you can see that the man (or woman) that wants to shoot minnies in a rifled musket has their work cut out for them.

All I can really suggest is to try what the other folks have suggested.
Keep trying different powder loads, different lubes and if that fails, try a different shaped ir weight minie' ball. Maybe the one your using is one that your gun doesn't like no matter what.

I have several books that show the results of the many accuracy tests that were made with the Springfield Rifled Musket and some of them are quite impressive.
I have no proof but I suspect that the guns and Minie' balls used in these tests were the pick of the litter so to speak. Even today, when new designs are submitted to the Military for testing they are the best available rather than what could be expected from a production run of hardware.

When all is said and done, remember, these bullets were designed for shooting people, not targets.
They were made to replace the loose roundball that had formerly been used by the military with a more accurate long range bullet capable of stopping a man or horse and they worked very well at that job but I think in the real world, they aren't the most accurate thing that was ever invented.
They are fun to shoot and they create a truly impressive hole in anything they hit but being a fine target shooter is asking a lot from them.

 

[faw3]

Try testing with PRB, I had the same deal and it was the ammo and powder, took 15 shots 5 at a time to get a real good grp out of those things, but neat enough to keep. Fred :hatsoff:

 

[ord sgt]

I use a load of 44 grs FFFg and a .575 Rapine moulded minie. It works very well in my Parker-Hale Enfield 3 band and my P-H carbine. Broke many hanging clay birds at 50 yards and 6 inch ceramic tiles at 100 yards from the off-hand position with both. Try different powder charges and it may surprise you.

 

[CARBABY]

Pervious info all good. Lead too hard, Minie design questionable, Bore size to minie Size, stock warped. Like previously mentioned, try the Round ball and patch. Also Check tightness of Rings to barrel. I’ve seen barrel-band problems with Zouve’s and the problems resolved by placing card board stock between band and barrel, (shim) to take-out the "looseness." The card board some times was thick as a Poker CARD, an another musket would need one as thick as that grey card board stock that is on the back Of a 8 ½ x 11 writing paper tablet. Oh the other thing I was checking out muskets of The 1853 Enfield reproduction variety and they are marketing some that are NOT rifled. Did you get a rifled one???