Minie for Zouave of "Armi Sport" ?

[Bartek]

Hello :hatsoff:

I have just bought a Zouave rifle of "Armi Sport". Used, cal..58. The barrel has 3 grooves rifling and the 1/65 twist (1660 mm).

The "slow" (1 in 65) twist suggests to use PRB, but somewhere i have read the 3-grooves twist by military rifles just like by my Zouave was designed especially for conicals.

So, i'm thinking to use .577 or .575 Minie. But i can be wrong off course :haha:
Has anyone any experience with that kind of Zouaves. I suppouse it's a popular rifle in US too.

thanks for any tip :hatsoff:

 

[nkbj]

Need to figure out the bore diameter. The three groove configuration makes doing so a pain in the patoot but it can be done. The easiest way I figured out was to get a good clean imprint of the rifling off an oversized ball or minie and then turn that gently in the jaws of a dial caliper set. There's other ways of doing it but that's the easiest I've found and just as exact if done carefully.
That said, I prefer a minie diameter to just barely go down a clean and lubed barrel. That's not how gubmint contractors did it in the 1860's. And it's not how I'd do it if I was going east. But I'd want to eliminate variables so that's how I'd do it today. And I'd get the mold center pin turned a teentsy bit smaller so I could take advantage of that close fit.

 

[ResearchPress]

The "slow" (1 in 65) twist suggests to use PRB,..........

Some contemporary military rifles had even slower twist rifling but were designed for the Minie bullet; e.g. the three groove Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle had 1 in 78 twist rifling.

David

 

[paulvallandigham]

You need to get the bore diameter to the thousandth of an inch( or mm). The way to do that without removing the breechplug, is to find a long piece of brass rod that will fit down the barrel( 1/2" will do in a .58 caliber. So will a 9/16" rod. Leave it short enough inside the barrel that it can move at least 6 inches.

Now, after greasing the bore liberally, put the brass rod in the barrel, and then take an oversized BALL- say, .600" and hammer it into the muzzle of the barrel. It will elongate, if the lead is soft. Use another rod to push( hammer) the ball down the bore a bit, until you feel it going easily into the bore.

Now, turn the barrel upside down over some rags, or something soft to catch the ball, and shake the barrel up and down so that the brass rod pushes the ball back out of the barrel. Watch the muzzle for this to happen, and be prepared to catch the brass rod so it doesn't smack the ball on the floor and ruin the new dimensions. [ Please don't ask me how I learned this lesson! Thank you.] You do that by holding one hand near and around the muzzle so you can feel the ball coming out of the barrel, and stop the rod from falling out behind it.

That slug now has both the grooves and lands recorded on its sides( it will be oval, not round any more).

Take that ball to a machine shop where they can use their equipment to measure the land to land,(Bore) and the groove to groove diameters for you.

Now, you can order a proper sized ball for the gun, or Minie Ball, and, in the case of a Minie ball, or mold for one, you can then order the properly sized SIZING DIE to reduce the cast size of the Minie ball down to the needed size for best accuracy in your gun. Usually, this will be .001" to .002" SMALLER in diameter than your Land to land diameter.

The suggestion to reduce the diameter of the Base plug for the minie Ball mold to give you a Minie ball with a thicker " skirt" at the bottom is a good one, because you can use heavier powder charges behind such a Minie ball without the problem of the powder gases burning, or melting, or breaking off the skirt as the bullet leaves the muzzle.

 

[Tom-ADC]

I have a Zoli Zouve and shoot these 58 caliber, Minie, Springfield .575", Lyman 575-213, 510 grain, pure lead, hollow base, from Track of the Wolf.
very happy with them.

 

[nkbj]

By the way, my Armisport Zouave does have a real .580" bore. But, I don't think that means others do. I am not speaking badly of Armisport (I think they are great!) but suspect that the bores do have variation from one rifle to another.

When trying out .575" sized minies I may as well have been loading them backwards. With that rifling pattern it's too big for Lee REAL's as well. Been happy with shooting round ball in it ever since. Working on a drop-in replacement rear peep sight that will provide zero at 70 yards.

 

[ozark57]

I have a Lyman Zuoave that I shoot lee minies in. You have to use pure soft lead so the base will expand and engage the rifling. Standard load is 63gr. of ffg. You can take it up to 80gr. without a problem, but if you load too hot it will blow the base off the bullet.
The Zuoave was Remingtons rifled musket design for the American civil war.

 

[59sharps]

Bores seem to be all over the place from .577 to 584. simplest way to slug the bore find an over size minne start the driving bands in leave enought of the minnie sticking out so you can get pliers on it. turn the minnie 1/4 turn and remove it. do it w/ 3 minnies then mic them. thats your dia you need a minne .001 - .002 under that dia.
Ball accuracy sells minnies, good place to start.
good acc. target load somewhere between 35 - 48 grn 3fffg.