Military Heritage 1766 Charlieville round ball size

[Paulj]

Will a .69 diameter round ball in a paper patch fit in a Military Heritage 1766 Charleville musket or will it be too larger.
What do you all use?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Cruzatte]

I'm not too familiar with that model. All I know about the original M1766 Charleville is that they were supposedly 69 caliber. If the Military Heritage musket is a reasonable copy, you're going to need a much smaller ball if you intend to load military style paper cartridges.

 

[John Spartan]

Loading “historically” you will use .65 caliber ball (approx) with a paper cartridge.
If using a patch .675 ball is recommended. You may play a bit with patch thickness depending on your exact bore diameter and “how tight” a fit you want.

 

[SlidePicker]

Will a .69 diameter round ball in a paper patch fit in a Military Heritage 1766 Charleville musket or will it be too larger.
What do you all use?

Thanks in advance.

I have a nominally .69 caliber Indian made smoothbore fowler bought from Middlesex Village Trading Company. First thing I did was try a bare .69 caliber ball in the muzzle. No go. With a caliper inside the muzzle it measures .677", right at 15 bore. I don't use cartridges or patches, I wad like a shotgun. I found a cheap used mould for 1 ounce round jig heads, and those balls work perfectly bare. They should be .66 caliber for 1 ounce pure lead, but I haven't gotten around to measuring with calipers.

 

[nhmoose]

Only way to know is measure the bore and go from that

 

[Dusty_Traveler]

Getcha set of calipers--digital or dial-- to measure your bore first. Every bore is a little different. Then with that number and some quick maths, you can see what is possible and what is not so possible.

 

[FlinterNick]

From the few I’ve seen from Loyalist and Military Heritage, they usually take a .65 round ball, the bore’s of these are often undersized slightly around the lower end of .68.

 

[JohnMcbride]

I have a nominally .69 caliber Indian made smoothbore fowler bought from Middlesex Village Trading Company. First thing I did was try a bare .69 caliber ball in the muzzle. No go. With a caliper inside the muzzle it measures .677", right at 15 bore. I don't use cartridges or patches, I wad like a shotgun. I found a cheap used mould for 1 ounce round jig heads, and those balls work perfectly bare. They should be .66 caliber for 1 ounce pure lead, but I haven't gotten around to measuring with calipers.

Will a .69 diameter round ball in a paper patch fit in a Military Heritage 1766 Charleville musket or will it be too larger.
What do you all use?

Thanks in advance.

.650 ball in a paper cartridge. 100 grains of 3f in my 1766 char from military heritage. At 100 yards I can hit man sized targets with this load fairly often. Its not an accurate load, but it is historically correct which I'm concerned with.

 

[Jungle Dave]

A lot of the balls used in the Charlevilles during Napoleons Russia campaign were a little over .620....perhaps .625....we know this because of metal detectors. Same as the use of .69 balls in the Brown Bess. Fouling under extreme stressful military conditions.