1863 US Springfield rifle

[butlersrangers]

MAC702 - The .58 Caliber "Minie Ball" projectile for your Model 1863 Springfield Rifled-Musket should be cast out of pure Lead. The grooves of bullet are filled with a Beeswax and Beef Tallow lubricant mixture.

Before 'live firing', a couple of percussion caps should be 'snapped' (fired) on your empty rifle. This is done with the barrel muzzle pointed at the ground. This burns up any oil in the nipple and barrel.
Grass blades on the ground will be moved and indicate the passage to the barrel is clear. Leave the Hammer 'down' on the nipple.

The Civil War muzzle-loading rifles were loaded with the butt-plate on the ground and Muzzle pointing nearly vertical. (Don't put your body parts over the muzzle)!
A paper cartridge containing approximately 70 grains of 2"F" Black Powder was torn open with the teeth and the charge was poured down the barrel, exposing as little of the hand as possible.

The Minie-Ball base was inserted into the bore and given a quick push with the fingertips.
The Minie-Ball was made slightly undersized, so that the ramrod could easily push it down the barrel and seat it onto the powder charge.
Once the bullet was in place, the rammer was sharply 'sprung' or bounced on the bullet. This action flared the base or 'skirt' of the Minie-Ball, locking the bullet into the rifling.

Firing the rifled musket creates high-pressure gases, that further expand the soft Lead Minie Ball, allowing the Conical bullet to be spiraled by the rifling as it travels through the bore.

If you Google Search "North-South Skirmish Association" and go to their web site, you should find lots of good information. Those guys have been doing this stuff, since the 1950s!

Some old Lyman Reloading Handbooks have chapters on shooting muzzle-loaders.

[MAC702]

For just general plinking, is a black powder substitute out of the question for these old-timers?

[Torpedo]

Butlersrangers information is all good.
I would add that I have tried the Tallow / Beeswax mix for bullet lube.
(Amish country here, tallow and lard are still available at the Country Market)
It works, but somebody gave me a free sample of SPG bullet lube and once I tried it, I'm never going back.
I suspect that if SPG was available "back in the day" they would have preferred it as well.
As for BP substitutes, I cannot comment, as I have never tried them.
To me, the sound, smoke, smell and feel of the BP is an essential part of the experience.

[oldfoneguy]

My favorite big bore BP substitute is Hodgdon 777 FF. I use it in muzzle loaders and 45-70 rounds. It is more powerful than standard black powder so loads need to be trimmed down by 10% (please go to the Hodgdon website and download their charge chart before using).
Practical math shows a charge of 59.5gr as a 10% reduction for a 70gr charge. However with BP measured by volume and not weight a half grain is not practical so the suggestion is to up the charge by the half grain and use 60gr.
The beauty of 777 is the cleanup. Simple wet patches are all that's required instead of the boiling water ritual. Cleaning time is cut in half and you don't have to do the windex at the range thing to prevent corrosion on the way home as 777 doesn't contain sulfur. However a wet swabbing between shots or at least every other shot makes loading much easier. The smoke and smell are slightly different but I consider it a worthwhile tradeoff.

[Torpedo]

The original poster was looking for some specific information and since I just put ten rounds through my 1855 Springfield this morning here goes.
I've been using 460 grain, .58 cal Minie balls from October Country in Idaho, lubed with SPG.
These are over 55 grains of Goex ffg.
I'm having zero trouble hitting a man silhouette offhand at 100 yards.
I even hit the 1' X 1' gong three times off the bench rest, also at 100 yards.
A good morning all in all, now for an afternoon of cleaning followed by a couple of cold ones.
Ahhh summertime!

[Torpedo]

I've been using CCI four wing musket caps, #0301.
These are labeled as "For reenactment use" but they work just fine, I have never had one fail.

[MAC702]

Update! We shot it today and had a great time.

We had wing musket caps, but they took a lot of force to seat all the way on the nipple. But they worked just fine.

Test load was 70 gr FFg behind a .58 patched round ball. No issues. After that, we were using 100 gr behind a Minie ball, and that stayed nearly minute-of-man at 300 yards. We probably put a couple dozen rounds through it this morning. What a great piece of history on the wall in The Armory.

A couple of the guys are experienced with black powder and muzzle-loaders, and so we had a black powder day at the range. The 1863 Springfield rifle was just as accurate at 50 yds on paper as their "modern" Hawkens repros.