.58 caliber

[A. F Medic]

Mine are undersize and with bore luib, they go down with a gentle tap with the wood ball starter. As you know, Enfields have progressive rifling and they are tighter at the muzzle.

Thanks to everybody who chimed in here and I learned a lot. Now I need to understand what the battle sight setting is. 200 yards, then 300, then 400 yards?..
Flip up sight? I understand that the Brits had to shoot at a bull's eye and hit it 7 times out of 20. This was up 1,250 yards.

Not bad for a 500+ gr minie ball with 68 grains of BP

[Patrick Chadwick]

Mine are undersize and with bore luib, they go down with a gentle tap with the wood ball starter.

OK for the first shot. The trouble is, competition rules "in the spirit of the original" usually forbid cleaning between shots. So what went down with a tap for the first shot will become noticeably tougher with succeeding shots. As a pragmatic method, try sizing the bullets so that when you load the "clean bore" shot, the bullet almost slides down by itself, requiring no more than thumb pressure. Make no mistake, after that first shot, with no subsequent cleaning, minié bullets are "crud-riding". Which is why one must use pure lead to ensure proper expansion of a bullet that is necessarily undersized for a clean bore.

You'll know that you have the right sizing/lubing combination when you can fire 15 shots without cleaning!

[jmoore]

A real .58 minie bullet will require hearty whacks with a hammer to start it down the bore, thus distorting the nose of the bullet and missing the whole point of the minie design. Not a good idea.

Actually my 1860 dated Tower likes the Hornady Great Plains bullets better than anything. Has a slightly smaller base but steps up at the front band, so it requires driving into the bore. I use a short starter and give it a good smack or three! Then push the projectile home. A little nose distortion doesn't hurt a thing.

So, yes, the tight fit isn't good for close quarter combat. But the accuracy is very much better.

Was hunting with it today, in actual fact.

[A. F Medic]

If any body has an Enfield, are they cheek placement sensitive like drawing a bow ? Mine is a tack driver at 50 yards and at 100, the bullet drops two feet! I have tried everything I know except filing down the fron sight little by little. Could be how I position the rifle on my cheek hold?
This BP season, I am going to limit myself to 50 yards on a deer and pray!

On the underside of the barrrel, it says to use 2 and 1/2 drams of powder. About 70 grains right?

[gsimmons]

The issue sights start at 200 yards, so if you want a six o'clock or centre hold you'll need to put a tall front sight on, which are readily available so you don't have to make one.

[Patrick Chadwick]

.....you'll need to put a tall front sight on, which are readily available so you don't have to make one.

Are you thinking of Lee Enfields? The thread is about Enfield muzzle-loading percussion rifles, on which the front sight is fixed.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Mine is a tack driver at 50 yards and at 100, the bullet drops two feet!

It does indeed sound as if the bullet is crawling out of the muzzle. 70 grains of powder should be adequate.

Cheek hold will hardly affect the drop.

Which target are you using at 50 yards? At 100 yards? And which hold? If you use 6 o'clock at 50 on the typical ISSF pistol target (8" black) then, when you move the target out to 100, the reduction in apparent size of the target means you are, in effect, raising the line of sight and thus the POA by about 2", thus compensating a little for the trajectory. Yes, there still is a sizeable drop, but 2 feet seems excessive.

How is the grouping? If it is good at 50 yards and bad at 100, with the large drop as well, then it would be a good idea if you could chronograph the muzzle velocity.

PS: I just dug out the sighting targets for my 2-band Enfield. It seems that I have used, at various times, 48 grains of Swiss No. 2 = FFFg (?) (marginal for base expansion) through 67 gns No. 3 = FFg (good) to 75 gns No. 3 (good, but just a touch hard for my shoulder).

Finally, I do hope you are using pure lead bullets - no alloy whatsoever, otherwise the obturation will be poor and the muzzle velocity lower than with pure lead.

[Patrick Chadwick]

it says to use 2 and 1/2 drams of powder. About 70 grains right?

Near enough to be on target.

[A. F Medic]

Are you thinking of Lee Enfields? The thread is about Enfield muzzle-loading percussion rifles, on which the front sight is fixed.

Yes. I am talking about the BP Enfield. The man that owned it before me. Was a reenactor. Next day he had a heart attack and died! Left me with no knowledge of how he handled it or shot it.

Contacted a man who makes bullets for a living and he suggested about 8 lead types to try including the Parker Hale type. (Bulletman-Lodgewood.com. Now out of business) I still have most of them except the PH.

Mine is a 2 band Enfield with the rear sight marked on the outside in steps, 1,2,3,4, (yards?) The flip up with a slider is marked 5 through 9.
If I move the slider to the outside 2, the bullets go over the target bank at 100 yards!

After seeing the great help being offered here, I am going to have to take everybodys information back to the firing range and start over. I do not make my own bullets so I may need some help in finding some PH bullets

[Patrick Chadwick]

The backsight is marked in 100 yard steps. As you have discovered, the howitzer-like trajectory of a military percussion rifle mean that those steps are severe.
You will have to get used to the idea of "fine-sighting", as practised in the 19th century, i.e. adjusting the position of the blade in the backsight V to achieve the proper POI. I once described this in some detail with sketches, so now it is time for a touch of creative laziness: go here for the full story

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread....ing#post180004

It takes practice, but is truly "in the spirit of the original" !