Projectile question

[Miss Kitty]

If I start shooting patched balls do I need to stay with them or can I switch to conical bullets at a later date? It would be nice to have the option of shooting both. Or will that affect my muskets rifeling? At the moment I am shooting .577 minie balls out of my Richmond musket.

 

[Zonie]

One of the great things about muzzleloading is you can shoot just about whatever fits nicely into the barrel.

How well it will shoot can't be determined by any method except for trying the new bullet out.

The Richmond (rifled) musket was designed to shoot Minie' balls so that kind of bullet would work.
Other .58 caliber bullets may work better or worse.

The thing to remember with any unpatched elongated bullet is that they must be lubed in the grease grooves or they will "lead" your barrel.
They also must be just a small bit smaller than the bore size. Usually about .002-.003 works best. If they are smaller than that they will give very poor accuracy.

Also, the Minie' ball style with its hollow base must have a uniform thickness and not be too thin.

The nearest thing I can compare a .58 cal Minie' to as far as recoil is a 20 guage shotgun.
With the hard steel or brass butt plate shooting 20-30 of these things can really tenderize my shoulder. I much prefer shooting the lighter roundballs in my rifled muskets.

 

[jethro224]

The only thing even touching the barrel while shooting patched ball is the lubed patch. There is no way it could effect the rifling in your musket. :thumbsup:

 

[Tom Compton]

But any lead left in the rifling from bullets can have an adverse effect on PRB accuracy.

 

[Miss Kitty]

Thanks for the insite guys. Ive also noticed patched round balls are a bit cheaper to shoot.
Another thing I've noticed is this black powder thing is very addictive.

 

[cowpoke1955]

You are right on both points. Round balls are cheaper to shoot and black powder is very addictive. If you are casting, you will get more round balls per pound of lead than any conical of the same caliber. Round balls will also have less recoil. Just have to try some and see how your musket likes them. Good luck and I wish you the best :thumbsup:

 

[nkbj]

If you're hunting...in a 58 minie gun, the increased rate of tissue displacement (cubic inches per second)achievable at close range with a stoutly loaded patched round ball is just amazing. You'd be hard pressed to find anything to stand up to a minie anyway, but the round ball can let you have an "express" rifle if desired.

 

[gordy]

Miss Kitty , It's too late , once you realize that black powdere is addictive , your hooked. :thumbsup:

 

[LeMat1856]

.
. may 15 / 21:10


hello again,

pretty soon it'll be "..my richmond rifle and my new xxx..." just wait, you'll see... :thumbsup:

i'm shooting both: .575" conicals and .570" prb. there are a few more steps loading and configuring prb, but that's part of the fun of learning how 'they' did it way back then.

you'll need to figure your best patch thickness and material and lube plus a source for the rounds (make or buy).. i use hornady swaged by the box of 50 ($9.95).

have fun,

~d~ :hatsoff:

fyi: there's a really good entry level softback publication you might look into getting - "lyman's blackpowder handbook" - that will greatly expand your knowledge of the finer points of bp and ballistics.. a good used copy is only about $5-$10.