I'm thinking smoothbore is the way to go....

I shoot muzzleloaders for fun , usually at 50 yards , maybe 100 so I'm not looking for match grade accuracy...

I took my Zoli Buffalo Hunter .58 out today (its a "sporter" version of the Zoli Zouave rifle in case someone hasn't heard of these) and was doing ok with round ball paper cartridges , got about 10 accurate shots in. I decided to try the Minie balls I got from Dixie gun works , without cleaning after those 10 round balls, and the 2nd one jammed halfway down the pipe......

Running out of time I decided to just pour some rem oil down the bore and let it sit overnight. I'll either find a way to pound it down and shoot it out next week , or try to use my Silent Ball discharger but I fear the bullet may be stuck in too firm even for that.

I'm wondering if having a rifled bore is worth the aggravation just for the plinking I do, I love shooting the front stuffers but this is the second time I've had an issue like this.

I watch the videos of YouTube guys shooting stuff like Charleville or 1842 repros , just stuffing those cartridges down one after the other and shooting with "good enough for fun" accuracy.

I'll have to think about picking up a smoothbore percussion musket at some point, looks like way more fun.

Smoothies are worth it, and plinking with paper cartridges can be lots of fun. However it’s a good idea to swab your bore now and then as your shooting. Humidity and temp and your powder can all make a glob that can interfere with loading.
In the old days smooth bore musket men could have a fire fight and exchange only a few shots. Ten or twenty shots might be all that’s fired in a battle.
So I would say yes get a smoothie, but swab often. Even just a spit damp cleaning patch will do. I often just stick a patch in my mouth and chew like a piece of gum for a few seconds, then swab and one dry. Only take a few seconds.

Stantheman said:

I decided to try the Minie balls I got from Dixie gun works...

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There's your problem - stop using Minie balls.... :wink: :grin:

I got over-confident and didn't swab the bore :slap: this rifle is kind of a range beater that I picked up to get back into muzzleloading after 20 years of doing other stuff....I guess now I'm gonna learn how to get a stuck bullet out

Last time I went out I was cleaning almost too often with my T/C Renegade.....

Hopefully my bullet discharger will save the day here.

That said I am about to pay off the layaway on two Parker Hale Musketoons, but I wanted these more for "reasons" than as frequent shooters, one to shoot and one to keep as a back up I guess....... I think these will only see Pritchett cartridges and occasional shooting.

The next time you get a ball or bullet that gets stuck when your ramming it down the bore, dump a teaspoon full of water down the bore and let it sit for a while.

Usually, the water will soften up the fouling to the point that ramming the ball/bullet the rest of the way down the bore will be easy.

Oil doesn't work nearly as well as water but if you let it sit long enough the fouling should soften up enough so you can ram the load down to the powder.

I never swab but do use lubricant regular while shooting.
If I had been you switching to a minie as you did I would of swabbed.
Oh and you should of tipped olive oil down the barrel :thumbsup:

B.

Rem Oil is what I had immediately on hand, I had to get to work so options were limited.

Option 2 maybe ram it down completely after the oil has had time to work, maybe tonight dump some t/c no. 13 BP solvent down the bore to soften it up......get to the range next week and feed some powder under the nipple and try to "bloop" it out......

Now I know why it takes dedication to be an avid muzzleloader....

t/c no. 13 BP solvent

QUICKLY!

Pour that down the sink. It will give you more problems than you need

I wouldn't pour t/c no. 13 BP solvent down my toilet, let alone down my gun barrel.

Rusty toilets look like they belong in a filling station.

:haha: Thats why I suggested SINK. I reeeeal perticulah bout where I sits n "thinks"

A Smoothbore will " stick" worse than a rifle especially with patched ball or paper cartridge.
Wadding .... they do better as far as locking up. With wadding you can always pull the over ball wad and if you are living right the ball will simply roll out it you pop the butt like a ketchup bottle.

PRB stuck hard in a smooth bore.....
That joker is there.

Love my flintlock rifle. Much more accurate than my flintlock smoothbore.

But my smoothbore is more fun. Just in my opinion.

I shoot paper cartridges and can do 6" at 60 yards offhand. When my eyes were better I could count on 2" at 50 offhand with my rifle(s).

I could count on a shot a year at deer with the rifle. But with deer, grouse and rabbits with the smoothbore - dozens or hundreds of shots. Ball for deer or shot for birds & bunnies.

Though just a walk with the 7 lb. fowler tucked under an arm is a day well spent whether a shot gets fired or not.

Zonie said:

I wouldn't pour t/c no. 13 BP solvent down my toilet, let alone down my gun barrel.

Rusty toilets look like they belong in a filling station.

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When I did a rust test of lubes eons ago TC13 was the ONLY product that rusted before the bare "control" test plate or the tap water plate.

Toss out the Rem oil too.......

Stantheman said:

...get to the range next week and feed some powder under the nipple and try to "bloop" it out...

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If the bullet isn't seated and you try to bloop it out, you could ring the barrels (the bullet functions as a short-started ball or obstruction).

Pour a little water in the barrel, wait 10-15 minutes and pull the bullet with a screw.

Thanks for the replies, I'll try to pour some water in there tomorrow, having a bullet stuck in there is mildly bugging me but not the end of the world. Hopefully theres no damage to the bore after all is said and done.....

Boiling water inside and outside may work too.

B.

Those guys just stuffing those cartridges down one after the other and shooting with "good enough for fun" accuracy are using undersize balls. 69 caliber balls in a 75 caliber gun or 62 caliber balls in a 69 caliber gun. Not very accurate, but you could load them fast even when the barrel was very dirty. Military back then was all about rate of fire and not much concerned with accuracy.

That's pretty much exactly what I'm looking for

I love the history , the authentic techniques like paper cartridges , the smoke, the boom.....shooting groups you can cover with a quarter , I have other tools for that lol

I have two Parker Hale Musketoons I'm about to get off layaway and those should be fun rifles to play around with conicals in, maybe try my hand at the beeswax-crisco hot lube this fall.

BTW anyone want to buy a Zouave Buffalo Hunter with a minie stuck in the bore lol

billraby said:

Those guys just stuffing those cartridges down one after the other and shooting with "good enough for fun" accuracy are using undersize balls.

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Good enough for whitetail out to 60 yards as well. A quantum leap over my 25 yard self-imposed limit for bowhunting.

When I sit on a stump where I can see no more than 40 yards in any direction a 60 yard 5" group is good enough for who it's for. :thumbsup: