Thought I'd share a load we've developed for use when working with kids, but it's great fun on it's own. It's a variation on a Enfield pistol bullet sized up to .495. I had Steve Brooks cut the mold, and it's a work of art, and set the mold up with an adjustable base plug. The adjustable plug was so I could tinker with the weight to find the best for a range of guns. When we're working with Scouts, not every kid can should a musket but to give them the same experience but with a traditional sorta 50cal Hawken, this is the ticket.
Here's the bullet loaded in a tube. The mold drops at .495. To make a cartridge, pour powder in the yellow tube. Plug tube with bullet nose first up to the large ring. Bullets are then dip lubed on the base up to the yellow tube. Easy peasy.
So how do they shoot? Well in practice, they load just like a normal minie. It eliminates all the wet patch/dry patch and fouling issues just as Minie designed. Here's a target I shot during testing. Rifle was my "sewerpipe on a stick" CVA with a very rough bore. (hey, it leaves round ball patches looking like dirty shredded lint). Test was 15 shots fired with no wiping or bore maintenance and then I fired 6 shots offhand at 50yd for group. I've found that 40g 3f Scheutzen is perfect for this load. I'd say while this isn't a target grade load, it's more than sufficient for gallery type shooting.
Here's the bullet loaded in a tube. The mold drops at .495. To make a cartridge, pour powder in the yellow tube. Plug tube with bullet nose first up to the large ring. Bullets are then dip lubed on the base up to the yellow tube. Easy peasy.
So how do they shoot? Well in practice, they load just like a normal minie. It eliminates all the wet patch/dry patch and fouling issues just as Minie designed. Here's a target I shot during testing. Rifle was my "sewerpipe on a stick" CVA with a very rough bore. (hey, it leaves round ball patches looking like dirty shredded lint). Test was 15 shots fired with no wiping or bore maintenance and then I fired 6 shots offhand at 50yd for group. I've found that 40g 3f Scheutzen is perfect for this load. I'd say while this isn't a target grade load, it's more than sufficient for gallery type shooting.
