The M.1863 "Zouave" was one of the earliest rifled musket to come out back in the 60's. It's great popularity got a lot of us started back then. I'ts also the reason the 1-48" twist got a bad rap that many of us are still trying to correct. It's probable that Antonio Zoli was given an original and told "Make'm like this"...which they did, right down to the wide and shallow lands & grooves. This is the correct bore style for the Minie ball, the military load of the day. It proved a bit tough getting accuracy with patched balls till it finally dawned on us the .562" ball then available was rather small for he bore. When Lyman started making .570" ball molds and a good tight patch and keeping the powder charge below 90 grains, en voila! Instant good shooter! Those older Zoli's are good shooters with the right load prep. You got a good one! :thumbsup: The really ironic part of the whole things was that Remington's production of the rifle don't seem to have been issued out by ordnance seeing how many originals are virtually 'mint'. The second thing was that most true Zouave regiments had changed to regular dressed infantry by mid 1863 due to the inability of many regiments to replace the Zouave uniflrm. Most existing photos of actual Zouave soldiers show them with the M.1841 Mississippi rifle or the M.1855 Rifled musket, both of which had large, brass patch boxes that added some 'snazz' to the Zouave image!
