WANTED .69 caliber minie ball mold

[Mark_Smith11]

I just bought an armi sport 1842 rifled musket. I'm going to have the barrel fixed by Bob Hoyt to shoot the minie balls. If you have a mold, I'm very interested. Thank you

 

[hawkeye2]

"I'm going to have the barrel fixed by Bob Hoyt to shoot the minie balls" ???

The barrel should not need any work. The Armi Sport 42 was designed to shoot minies right out of the box. Before you invest in a mold you should measure your bore size.

 

[Mark_Smith11]

"I'm going to have the barrel fixed by Bob Hoyt to shoot the minie balls" ???

The barrel should not need any work. The Armi Sport 42 was designed to shoot minies right out of the box. Before you invest in a mold you should measure your bore size.

I'm going to have him do the progressive depth rifling. The recommendations in the book it came with are only for .69 round ball

 

[hawkeye2]

I'm going to have him do the progressive depth rifling. The recommendations in the book it came with are only for .69 round ball

There are a lot of folks in the N-SSA shooting minies out of unaltered Armi Sports with no problems. Ignore the book as I've never seen one with much useful info in it. Progressive depth rifling is not necessary to shoot minies accurately. If you are going off the YouTube post of that guy up in Gettysburg who claims that only progressive depth rifling will shoot a minie accurately try to forget you ever saw it. BTW the minies he showed in that video had skirts so thick that it would take nitroglycerine to expand the skirts. I've been shooting minies for just short of 40 years and have only shot with progressive depth rifling for a brief time while I used an original Springfield 61, it just isn't necessary. I don't know of any skirmishers using it except for those with Whitacre barrels or originals.

Save your money, measure your bore and buy a mold that will cast a minie no more than .002" (max, .001" is best) under bore size or find a mold that's slightly over and buy a sizer (preferred method). You just might be amazed how well it shoots.

 

[barracudadave67]

Hawkeye Is telling you like it is. His advice will save you money, and time. I shot muskets for years, that's the way you get your accuracy.
And by the way, use only pure soft lead for the minnies. Any alloy leads, and the skirts don't expand properly.

Dave

 

[Mark_Smith11]

There are a lot of folks in the N-SSA shooting minies out of unaltered Armi Sports with no problems. Ignore the book as I've never seen one with much useful info in it. Progressive depth rifling is not necessary to shoot minies accurately. If you are going off the YouTube post of that guy up in Gettysburg who claims that only progressive depth rifling will shoot a minie accurately try to forget you ever saw it. BTW the minies he showed in that video had skirts so thick that it would take nitroglycerine to expand the skirts. I've been shooting minies for just short of 40 years and have only shot with progressive depth rifling for a brief time while I used an original Springfield 61, it just isn't necessary. I don't know of any skirmishers using it except for those with Whitacre barrels or originals.

Save your money, measure your bore and buy a mold that will cast a minie no more than .002" (max, .001" is best) under bore size or find a mold that's slightly over and buy a sizer (preferred method). You just might be amazed how well it shoots.

Thank you, sir. That is the exact video I saw that made me decide to have it sent off. I have not done it yet but I will save my money on your recommendation. Thank you very much for the tips!

 

[Mark_Smith11]

Hawkeye Is telling you like it is. His advice will save you money, and time. I shot muskets for years, that's the way you get your accuracy.
And by the way, use only pure soft lead for the minnies. Any alloy leads, and the skirts don't expand properly.

Dave

Thank you, sir. I appreciate it!

 

[hawkeye2]

You are quite welcome Mark and if you have any other questions don't hesitate. Do post and let us know how things work out for you.

 

[Mark_Smith11]

You are quite welcome Mark and if you have any other questions don't hesitate. Do post and let us know how things work out for you.

Where do you recommend getting a mold made after I get everything checked out? I'm new to this aspect. All the other molds I have are for round ball and my old cartridge guns that have been bought off the shelf. This is my first rifled musket

 

[hawkeye2]

https://moosemoulds.wixsite.com/mm2013

gun shows, eBay, for sale ads here, various sutlers & reloading supplies dealers.

 

[PathfinderNC]

Possibly one of the most beneficial and positive outcomes in a thread that I have seen on here in a good long while.
Well done, gents.

 

[barracudadave67]

Moose Molds Makes excellent molds, you cant go wrong.
Sometimes He is hard to get a hold of, but keep trying, it will pay off.

Dave

 

[longtoothpard]

Moose Molds Makes excellent molds, you cant go wrong.
Sometimes He is hard to get a hold of, but keep trying, it will pay off.

Dave

Moose Molds are the best. I used to be NSSA and bought one of his molds at Nationals if memory serves me correctly.

 

[Dusty_Traveler]

If you don't have access to a set of pin gauges, I suggest taking the gun by your local machine shop and ask them to gauge the bore. Very important for selecting the correct mould and sizer when shooting minies.

 

[#blackpowderbill]

My God why spend money on a rifle until you learn it's quirky nature.
SMH

 

[Mark_Smith11]

Thank you sir, there is a machine shop in town so I'll take it there. I appreciate your tip

 

[Mark_Smith11]

My God why spend money on a rifle until you learn it's quirky nature.
SMH

You're the first one that's been snarky on this thread which has been very helpful. Congrats.

 

[nkbj]

Yo Mark.
Just some things for you to ponder on.

If you send it off to Mister Hoyt you have the opportunity to specify the exact bore and groove dimensions as well as the rate of twist.

You'll need to size those minies.
As an example, this is where I got my .695" sizer, my Armisport bore being .696".
https://www.ssfirearms.com/proddetail.asp?prod=SA45069
So, whatever sizer diameters you can get may influence the dicision making processes.

If you want to stick with minies there's some great examples on relic websites of various designs for nominally .69 caliber bullets. Me myself I'm rather intrigued by some of the photos and want to experiment some more.

Years ago I was thinking about getting Mister Hoyt to cut three supplementary grooves in my .69 because those three big wide lands interacted with patched round ball about like a poorly machined smooth bore. And, as he noted, minies really don't care how many grooves you have. I decided against it but mention it because you can have rifling that will shoot well with both round ball and hollow bases.

About the high price and lack of choices in available .69 caliber minie molds, there's a possible reasonable alternative in having a cheaply obtained used .58 caliber minie mold altered, the first question being of course where do you get a base plug for it. Years ago I was able to find machining at a reasonable price. Currently I'm threatening to find someone local (wish me luck!) to turn a #575213 into a short lead badminton birdie.

 

[1861 Springfield]

My God why spend money on a rifle until you learn it's quirky nature.
SMH

my God...you are a little late to the game to voice a senseless comment or did you not read everyones comments -smh

 

[#blackpowderbill]

my God...you are a little late to the game to voice a senseless comment or did you not read everyones comments -smh

You're the first one that's been snarky on this thread which has been very helpful. Congrats.

Nothing snarky about my comment.
Your welcome.