.54 Mississippi Rifle curiosity

I was thinking , since I would like a .54 "Mississippi" Rifle , about how these were actually used in service.

They were designed for a patched round ball,in the original .54 iteration.

Now, my question is, I don't see soldiers in combat using patched round balls and ball starters , and pouring powder down the pipe from a flask.....they must have used some kind of paper cartridge?

Or did they? I read that units that received these , vs the various smoothbore muskets in the 1840's, were considered "elite" and the 1841 Mississippi was used by Sharpshooters.....so maybe they did use patched RB's?

People who say they must have used a .54 Minie are in my opinion mistaken, they are confused by the later .58 conversions.

I have always like the 1841 rifle myself. they were originally in 54 caliber and as far as I know designed to use PRB. They were later modified to .58 caliber.

The missipppi rifle sold by Dixie made by Pedersoli shows a shallow grooved 1/72" twist barrel for RB. I would have thought a ball barrel would have had deeper grooves. But it also mentions you can use a Minnie ball.

the 54 caliber Pedersoli rifle is shown to have a 1/48 twist and be used with PRB or a Minnie ball. I would prefer the 54 caliber myself. But thats just me. Nice looking rifles anyway.

Actually if you scroll down in the article you will find photographs of .54 caliber ammunition for the '41 Mississippi using "conical ball" or "elongated bullet" ammo. Mississippi Rifle Ammo Discussion :wink:

You may find the rest of the discussion useful too.

LD

The 1841 Mississippi rifle originally fired a patched round ball. I was interested in their wartime use, myself. I found that they actually had a factory made paper cartridge with a cloth patch sewn around the .530 ball at the top. The cartridge was removed from the cartridge box, the paper torn open at the end and the charge poured down the muzzle. The pre-patched ball was then placed on the muzzle and pushed home with the ramrod. The nipple was capped and then the rifle was ready to fire. I wonder still about the effectiveness of the pre-patched ball. I wonder if the patch would fall away after firing as with a normally patched ball, if not, I would think that accuracy would be affected. I have a book at home (I'm at work) with a photograph of one of these factory .54 paper cartridges. Later on, during the Civil War, many 1841's were arsenal rebored to .58 caliber largely for logistical reasons. I would love to have a repro .54 Mississippi rifle. I kick myself for not getting one back in the early 2000's when they were selling for $350.00. Now they are 4 times that reatail!

The M1841 Rifle (later nicknamed the "Mississippi Rifle) was the FIRST U.S. Armory produced Arm manufactured on the Interchangeable Parts System and quickly followed by the M1842 Musket - made under the same system.)

It may interest you that the M1841 was the model pattern for most Southron Military Contracts with Military Contractors at the beginning of the UnCivil War, for a little over one year or so. Some of those were also manufactured to use .54 cal PRB and later some made for the .58 cal. Minie' Bullet. Some of those made to use .54 cal. PRB's were also re-bored and re-rifled for the .58 cal. Minie' Bullet.

Gus

I would think trying to use a ball with a patch sewn around it would be difficult to use in combat unless the patch was thin, like a .005 with a .530 ball. I do not envy the soldier who's on shot #7 or so trying to force a thickly patched round ball down a bore.

I'm also an admirer of the 1841, which saw a lot of service in both military and civilian hands across the West and on the Oregon Trail. It had a lot of nicknames, including "Yeager" and "Yauger."

Stantheman said:

I would think trying to use a ball with a patch sewn around it would be difficult to use in combat unless the patch was thin, like a .005 with a .530 ball. I do not envy the soldier who's on shot #7 or so trying to force a thickly patched round ball down a bore.

Click to expand...

I wonder if the idea of the ball with sewn patch didn't come from the British Baker Rifle that had the same system decades before? If so, there were only a few stitches that held the patch and the stitches broke when the ball was fired and fell away outside the muzzle.

I don't know if they also issued a second smaller diameter ball, as was done with the Baker Rifle decades before, to be used when the fouling built up in the barrel in combat.

Worst case scenario, they could have broken the few threads holding the patch and loaded bare ball when the bore got too fouled. Only effective at shorter ranges, but it would have kept them in the action.

Gus

I own a fine one, a Euroarms I ordered from Jarnigans and it had to be special ordered for me to get it in .54. This was at least 15 years ago. The stock is walnut and the fit and finish are top drawer.

From my research I learned that these rifles got their name from Jefferson Davis' "Mississippians" who used them in the war with Mexico. Later at the start of The War Between The States many, but far from all of them, were converted to .58 for minie ball firing. Mine has a twist of 1-66" with .006" rifling. And it will shoot tiny groups all day long.

Have you ever tried conicals in it or are the tiny groups from conical use?

LD

Yes a .54 Mississippi is at the top of my "next firearm" list.....

Plus you can get .530 round balls at pretty much any store that sells guns and ammo. I'm just looking for something different

The finest accuracy comes from prb in my rifle. I did try some "Maxi Hunters" and got good accuracy at 60 yards; but the prb won with tiny group size. If I had only conicals available and no round ball but still wanted to go after deer, I wouldn't think twice.