New Austral-Briton

[Stutzer51]

G'Day from Australia where I shoot my Parker-Hale .577" Enfield anytime I can, but currently living on Bisley Rifle Range in England where I shoot an original (and nearly identical) .577" Enfield 2-band rifle. Just getting into what they call here "mid-range" shooting at 300-600 yards using .550" Pritchett projectiles, ceramic plugs and Woolwich-style paper cartridges, very fancy. Look forward to learning from the experts.

 

[kelljp]

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[nit wit]

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Nit Wit

 

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[Songwriter]

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[dracer]

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[TFoley]

G'Day from Australia where I shoot my Parker-Hale .577" Enfield anytime I can, but currently living on Bisley Rifle Range in England where I shoot an original (and nearly identical) .577" Enfield 2-band rifle. Just getting into what they call here "mid-range" shooting at 300-600 yards using .550" Pritchett projectiles, ceramic plugs and Woolwich-style paper cartridges, very fancy. Look forward to learning from the experts.

Welcome, Mr Livin'-the-dream! Please tell me about your Pritchett cartridges - I have an original Pritchett volunteer two-band rifle, and have yet to find out what makes it shoot better than a lawn spray.

 

[LSLibelo]

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[VA Hawken]

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[Stumpkiller]

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[Stutzer51]

Welcome, Mr Livin'-the-dream! Please tell me about your Pritchett cartridges - I have an original Pritchett volunteer two-band rifle, and have yet to find out what makes it shoot better than a lawn spray.

In my limited experience, the paper cartridge is critical to .577" Enfield performance - it took the top British experts seven years to perfect it in the 1850's so it pays to do it their way. The final Pattern 1860 version "loaded effortlessly, fired accurately, and could sustain a rate of fire almost indefinitely" ("The English Cartridge" by Brett Gibbons, Amazon, page 188).
I roll the P1860 cartridges on a former made from an 8" piece of half-inch oak dowel hollowed at one end with a countersink drill to take the nose of the bullet. I use stiff card (200 GSM) for the powder cylinder and regular graph paper (70 GSM) from a school exercise book for the inner and outer wrappers, the printed lines help to line up the wrappers for rolling. The wrapper dimensions are given on page 236 of Brett's book and there are lots of YouTube videos on how to do it. The critical aspects (in BOLD) seem to be:

• Use .550" smooth sided PRITCHETT PROJECTILES cast from PURE SOFT LEAD so they expand properly to fill the .577" rifling. I started out using any old scrap lead available and, yes, the rifle shot like a lawn spray. Pritchett moulds are available from US makers or contact Glenn Mcquire at LEM Moulds in the UK at [email protected]
• Place hard CONICAL PLUGS into the hollow cavity of the projectiles to act as a piston to expand them properly on firing. Plug moulds are hard to come by but a pee-sized ball of epoxy putty pressed into the waxed cavity and allowed to harden overnight works well.
• Dip the projectile end of the formed paper cartridge briefly in melted BEESWAX softened with 10% paraffin oil, aka liquid paraffin from the pharmacy. This coating cleans the barrel each time you load - it is the key to sustaining a "rate of fire almost indefinitely".
• Start out with the FULL GOVERNMENT CHARGE of 69 grains of course Fg powder or similar. This rams the plug into the hollow base of the projectile and give good expansion.
• Sight in at 300 YARDS USING THE LADDER SIGHT set at that distance, adjusting the powder charge until the rifle shoots to your point of aim. You should now be good at the 400, 500 and 600 yard settings too. Modern powders are not as powerful as they were in the 1860s - my Parker Hale P1858 need 80 grains to shoot to the sights!
• Shoot at the MILITARY-SIZE TARGETS correct for 1860 which represented files of French infantry columns (this is a British Army rifle!). Out to 300 yards the target was 4ft wide x 6 ft tall with a 2 ft bull, 400-600 yards it doubled in width to 8 ft with a 3ft bull. Britain's citizen-soldiers, "Rifle Volunteers", fired 90 rounds per year by the 1959 Regulations* and were expected to score 75% hits out to 300 yards ("Third Class" rifleman) and 60% hits out to 600 yards to qualify as a Second Class rifleman. The First Class guys could get 35% hits on a 6ft target 12 ft wide with a 3ft bull!

Good luck with your mighty Pritchett, he is a fine fellow when used as Horse Guards intended!

* Regulations for Conducting the Musketry Instruction of the Army 1859. Adjutant-Generals Office, Horse Guards, London 1859. Reprint. 103 pages of Victorian English!