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mimie balls in smoothbore

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Never shot a .58 minie in a smoothbore, but I did shoot a .69 caliber minie in my old NA "Charleville" smoothbore flintlock pistol that is supposed to be a copy of the French Pistol that North and Cheney later copied for the U.S. Model 1799 Pistol.

Yep, it tumbled and even with a light powder charge, the recoil sure would get your attention. Only did it once to see what it was like.... :haha:

Gus
 
That's interesting to hear.

In the past, several people have said the heavy weight in the nose and the thin skirt at the rear would have a "shuttle cock" effect on the bullet causing it to fly nose forward even when it was fired out of a rifled musket with a 72:1 twist, as some of the original rifled muskets had.

If this "shuttle cock" effect did prevent the bullet from tumbling, I would think it would do the same when the Minie' was fired out of a smoothbore.

Your experience proves that it does not.
 
Tossed many .69 Minies out of my Potsdam with fairly good accuracy. Only tumbling I ever got was loading them backwards at a stake-busting contest. Wow...they took out big hunks of 2X6s! :wink: :haha:
 
With my one and only .69 minie I shot out of the Charleville pistol, I did not paper wrap it and it was a very loose fit. So I tamped it a bit to ensure it would not slide forward as the angle to the target was just a little downwards. I did not want the minie to slide down the bore as I aiming. That may or may not have made a difference on accuracy, I don't know.

Surprisingly with a patched round ball, that pistol shot fairly well at 25 yards, though the trigger pull was a bear.

Gus
 
Having had disappointing accuracy with my Lyman 12 gauge "foster slug" mould in modern shotguns, I tried the left-overs in my Pedersoli 1816 musket. The slugs measure .685 as they drop from the mould and weigh one ounce when cast of pure lead. The were a smooth slide fit in my clean .69 caliber musket. Accuracy was as good or better than patched round balls out to 75 yards. The Foster slug has true "shuttlecock" aerodynamics, basically a thin-wall lead "thimble" with most of its weight in the nose end. Concerns about possible leading (which never occurred) and the fact that they are a real PITA to cast compared to round balls ended the experiment.

On my list of things to do when cooler weather returns is to cast up a new batch and see if putting a dab of 50/50 bee's wax/lard lube in the base of this slug would allow for many shots without having to wipe the bore as it does when applied to Minie' bullets in my rifled muskets.
 
curator said:
Accuracy was as good or better than patched round balls out to 75 yards. The Foster slug has true "shuttlecock" aerodynamics, basically a thin-wall lead "thimble" with most of its weight in the nose end.

I haven't tried it, but in considering it I could find no reason for them to be any less accurate from a muzzleloading smoothbore than a modern shotgun, once you got the load details sorted. Your results appear to confirm it. No reason for them to be more accurate or less accurate.

I haven't stepped up to the plate though, more out of regard for the specifics of my own 12 gauge SxS. It's just too light for pushing velocities above my 1 oz shot load (about 1k fps), and with a slug my mind has always turned toward the 1200fps realm.

With your encouragement I think I'll have to try it while holding down the velocity. I'm using the SxS in serious bear country, and it would be comforting to keep the second barrel loaded with a slug or RB. Gotta try both to be sure.
 
huh, I'll be

I was thinking not to long ago about using them modern slugs with the shuttlecock design in a BP smoothbore and here I am reading about it on the forum.
neat

So the answer to my unasked question is, yes...it will work.

what gauges are readily available at the reloading store?
 
All I can add is that someone pointed out that the Lyman 20g slug fits a .58 smooth bore perfect and works well...

I salvaged some rifled slugs from rusty ammo and they worked well in my double. The target was 40yards.


B.
 
Cynthialee said:
any slugs available that would fit a .56 barrel?
or something close enough I could paper patch them and make them work?

28 gauge is .55" and once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away they actually made such. Been at least the 70's since I've seen them but might we worth trying to track a few down. Then again they may be worth their weight in gold. Quien sabe! :wink: :haha:
 
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