.410 Enfield

[Mikesm44]

I had wonderful fun just shooting blank rounds. But really it will just sit as a collectable until I can can talk someone into making me some shells.

Yeah. I have a few firearms now that I cannot find/ there is no longer ammunition for and so I am going to start reloading. This one though is one that really drives me to want to reload.

[smellie]

No trouble to straightening out .303 empties, friend. You can do it all at once with Unique or Red Dot and cornmeal or you can do it the easy way, in stages.

DO remember to put an O-ring (or a cheap pony-tail tie, $1 for 500 at your local Dollar Store) around the base of the casing on its first firing: minimizes STRETCH, works wonders with full rifle loads, too, makes your .303 brass last just as long as .30-06.

I annealed (torch to the front half of the casing, dump into cold water) a small lot of brass, dried them in the oven at low temp, primed them up and expanded the case-mouths first with an 8mm expander, then a 9mm expander, then finally flared the mouths with a taper punch until they just would fit into the chamber. Followed that up with 8 grains of Unique and one of those little soft-plastic .410 wads with a single 000 Buck ball. Looked awful but they blew out very nicely with no loss of brass. Some of them did not blow out all the way but a second firing took care of that. I was using Canadian-made WW2 brass by Defence Industries. Likely you would find it easier to do with modern American brass.

For a serious COMBAT loading (yeah, right! With a MUSKET?) I find that 8 grains of Unique with TWO of the 000 Buck tends to plant the balls reasonably close together at about 85 yards with my Musket. Think a double-tap with a light load in a 9mm: I have no desire to stand in front of it. It breaks clays nicely.

You can also do a SHOT load for the Musket, in which case you can take small birds, Prairie Chicken and you can really drive the other guys at the Trap Club NUTS when you try a round with them. Try half an ounce of Number 5 for Chicken (Grouse), 7-1/2 for Trap. You can seal the front of the case with a cardboard wad and a bit of hard lawyer's wax. Isinglass would work better, but I don't know if you can still get it in a world terrified of "chemicals". I know we can't get it here any longer.

We can't all be fortunate enough to have our own Prison, but we CAN all have fun with a Musket. Personally, I'm looking forward to trying mine out with a Lee .395" round ball. Janice (twosteam) has been getting some decent accuracy with her 1850 smoothbore Musket (London commercial percussion based on a Bess barrel) and I can't let her outshoot me forever!

MUSKETS are pure FUN.

And the Lee-Enfield Musket was the LAST true Musket to be adopted for military Service. It is the END of a 600-year tradition.

Enjoy!

[Mikesm44]

No trouble to straightening out .303 empties, friend. You can do it all at once with Unique or Red Dot and cornmeal or you can do it the easy way, in stages.

DO remember to put an O-ring (or a cheap pony-tail tie, $1 for 500 at your local Dollar Store) around the base of the casing on its first firing: minimizes STRETCH, works wonders with full rifle loads, too, makes your .303 brass last just as long as .30-06.

I annealed (torch to the front half of the casing, dump into cold water) a small lot of brass, dried them in the oven at low temp, primed them up and expanded the case-mouths first with an 8mm expander, then a 9mm expander, then finally flared the mouths with a taper punch until they just would fit into the chamber. Followed that up with 8 grains of Unique and one of those little soft-plastic .410 wads with a single 000 Buck ball. Looked awful but they blew out very nicely with no loss of brass. Some of them did not blow out all the way but a second firing took care of that. I was using Canadian-made WW2 brass by Defence Industries. Likely you would find it easier to do with modern American brass.

For a serious COMBAT loading (yeah, right! With a MUSKET?) I find that 8 grains of Unique with TWO of the 000 Buck tends to plant the balls reasonably close together at about 85 yards with my Musket. Think a double-tap with a light load in a 9mm: I have no desire to stand in front of it. It breaks clays nicely.

You can also do a SHOT load for the Musket, in which case you can take small birds, Prairie Chicken and you can really drive the other guys at the Trap Club NUTS when you try a round with them. Try half an ounce of Number 5 for Chicken (Grouse), 7-1/2 for Trap. You can seal the front of the case with a cardboard wad and a bit of hard lawyer's wax. Isinglass would work better, but I don't know if you can still get it in a world terrified of "chemicals". I know we can't get it here any longer.

We can't all be fortunate enough to have our own Prison, but we CAN all have fun with a Musket. Personally, I'm looking forward to trying mine out with a Lee .395" round ball. Janice (twosteam) has been getting some decent accuracy with her 1850 smoothbore Musket (London commercial percussion based on a Bess barrel) and I can't let her outshoot me forever!

MUSKETS are pure FUN.

And the Lee-Enfield Musket was the LAST true Musket to be adopted for military Service. It is the END of a 600-year tradition.

Enjoy!

You made my day with that info. All I want is to break some clays with it.

[Ridolpho]

Mike: Once I felt was getting too good with my 12 gauge on upland game and bought a full choked .410 pump to "restore the challenge". It did more than that! Couldn't hit anything at normal ranges. Fired a few rounds at the side of an old granery to look at the pattern and could see why- about the size of a small plate. I would imagine the .410 musket barrel would be effectively full choked as well. From what I've seen with my pump, I would guess that the main use in prisons was as a non-lethal crowd control tool with light shot and the somewhat more deadly buckshot loads held in reserve. Anyone know what sort of original loads the Indians actually used?

Ridolpho

[Beerhunter]

As I said earlier, the .410 had three live rounds: .409in round ball, a buckshot (18 balls) round and a blank. (There were also inert Drill and Dummy rounds.) The ball round would make choking a no no.

There is no evidence that they were used in prisons but were rather issued to police and militia for the reasons I noted earlier.

[Ridolpho]

Sorry Beerhunter- had read your earlier post then had a (common) mental lapse. That "buckshot" loading must have been with the very finest buckshot to have that many pellets in a round.

Ridolpho

[Mikesm44]

Well, it turns out this one has been altered. It seems to take .410 2.5" shells. My friend had some and I put them in for size. I am not sure if I'm disappointed or glad. I guess if it works well that might help me lean in one direction.

[browningautorifle]

I read all this about alteration in order to take .410 ammo...this is the first I've heard of it. I thought they'd take .410 without any change. I'm sure no one here altered any... Maybe not 3" but 2 3/4 right out of the grease...?

[Brian Dick]

Many of the RFI .410 SMLE's imported by Springfield Sporters in the late 80's, early 90's were reamed to 3". I think some were also sold as original with the 2.5" chamber if memory serves.

[jona]

Springfield sporters offered .410s in both original chambering(2.22inch) and 3 inch. The muskets in 3 inch were $10.00 more.