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Shooting Minie Balls?

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brewer12345

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Been watching the Ken Burns Civil War documentary as I turn the handle on my press and it jogged my memory. What does it take to shoot minie balls out of a T/C Hawken? I seem to recall that some guys have to size them and that you shouldn't push your powder charge up too much. Why would you need to size these things? Are they capable of good accuracy? Ballistics any better than, say, a lee REAL or a maxi ball? I might be interested in shooting them just for giggles, but if they would knock down a cow elk any better than the other conicals I use I am open to it.
 
Most minie balls have thin skirts, so a powder charge that expands the skirts into the rifling is all that is required. A larger charge will cause the skirt to blow out as the ball leaves the muzzle with a significant loss of accuracy. Minie balls should be 0.001" or 0.002" smaller in diameter than the land to land measurement of the bore for ease of loading. With the proper sized minie ball and correct powder charge they capable of good to excellent accuracy. The Maxi Ball and REAL bullets have a flat base allowing for relatively larger powder charges since they are larger than the land to land diameter of the barrel and prevent most blow by. They would knock down a cow elk, but it is arguable that is better than the conicals you use now.
 
Grenadier1758 said:
Most minie balls have thin skirts, so a powder charge that expands the skirts into the rifling is all that is required. A larger charge will cause the skirt to blow out as the ball leaves the muzzle with a significant loss of accuracy. Minie balls should be 0.001" or 0.002" smaller in diameter than the land to land measurement of the bore for ease of loading. With the proper sized minie ball and correct powder charge they capable of good to excellent accuracy. The Maxi Ball and REAL bullets have a flat base allowing for relatively larger powder charges since they are larger than the land to land diameter of the barrel and prevent most blow by. They would knock down a cow elk, but it is arguable that is better than the conicals you use now.
Click to expand...

Only the upper bearing band on a maxi ball is larger than the land to land diameter and must be engraved to the rifling upon loading.
 
Minies also require shallow rifling. Many of the TC and others have deeper rifling. We shoot minies almost exclusively in the North South Skirmish Association, and yes, in a gun set up for them, they can be astoundinly accurate. I have a Parker Hale that is a sub 2moa musket with minies.
 
The T/C barrels from T/C are button rifled with shallow grooves. The Maxi Ball was designed for the factory T/C shallow 1 turn in 48" twist barrels. Some of the after market barrels have deep rifling for optimal patched round ball performance.

I was talking about factory barrels.
 
My TC barrels are factory. Mostly I was wondering whether I have to do anything special to get them shoot if I decide to fool around with minies. What is a typical powder charge in 50 and 54 cal with a minie?
 
We shoot about 40-45g 3f in 58 caliber muskets. No need for large charges and as mentioned earlier, heavy charges can blow the skirts leading to poor accuracy.
 
Val Forgett did a lot of experimenting with a thick skirted .58 weighing in in the 600 grain range. He shot it on180 grains 3f and claimed four inch groups at 100 yards. He had a ‘Hawker Hurricane’ a TC style .58 big bore gun. It compared to a .458 magnum and put paid on elephants and Cape buffalo.
I don’t shoot minies but you might want to look in to the thick skirted versions.
 

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