So not secret I shoot lots of minies. Here's a little tour of my shop of muzzleloading horrors.
L t R- my 50cal project minie, 580213, Rapine "Trashcan", RCBS Hogdon, and Moose International minie. These are the bullets I'm working with most. Notably absent, anything by Lee. The target is one I shot with my 1863 Sharps doing some load development.
My 50cal minie casts at .497. I did quite a bit of testing today. Test regimen consisted of 3 different guns- a TC "Hawken" caplock of mid 80's vintage, an Investarms "Hawken" flintlock, and a ratty CVA "Sharpshooter" with a sewer pipe for a bore. Each gun was shot 15 times with the 50cal minie to insure it would be a torture test with no wiping between shots. Yeah, I got quite a bit of trigger time today. The purpose of this bullet is to have a generic minie that would shoot acceptably well in the average 50cal muzzleloader typically found in a youth summer camp. In our work with kids, we think this will have quite a positive effect on a muzzleloading program. So here's the test target, remember these groups are shots 16-20 for each gun with no wiping. Ironically, the gun with the worst bore shot the best group. Hampering all groups is the horrible front bead that covers more than 8min of a target making precision aiming a very iffy thing.
And a picture of them loaded N-SSA style. With this type of loading, the kids will not be milling around a loading table with open powder, caps, ball and patches. No parts of the body will be required to be over the muzzle to load, and most importantly, the kids can shoot tons more than with a patch round ball. I can hear you PRB guys already, but the facts on the ground are, kids want to shoot. Pounding a ball into a pipe with a short starter is a non starter after the first couple shots. Give them a choice between tedious PRB loading and a minie and I can tell you exactly how that will go.
Of the "Trashcan", here's what it can do out of my 1862 Colt Contract with 44g 3f Old E. I'll revisit that bullet with Swiss next week.-
The RCBS Hogdon gets a nod in both my Parker Hales, both the two band and the musketoon.
And this is from my testing today with 3f Swiss and the Moose International in my 2 band Parker Hale. Group is inside the circled area, five shots. The other holes are from a group my dad shot with his musket. My point of aim was 6 oclock on the orange circle below. I had left the sights set for 100yds from our last Skirmish. So I'm thinking I'm really going to like Swiss.
L t R- my 50cal project minie, 580213, Rapine "Trashcan", RCBS Hogdon, and Moose International minie. These are the bullets I'm working with most. Notably absent, anything by Lee. The target is one I shot with my 1863 Sharps doing some load development.
My 50cal minie casts at .497. I did quite a bit of testing today. Test regimen consisted of 3 different guns- a TC "Hawken" caplock of mid 80's vintage, an Investarms "Hawken" flintlock, and a ratty CVA "Sharpshooter" with a sewer pipe for a bore. Each gun was shot 15 times with the 50cal minie to insure it would be a torture test with no wiping between shots. Yeah, I got quite a bit of trigger time today. The purpose of this bullet is to have a generic minie that would shoot acceptably well in the average 50cal muzzleloader typically found in a youth summer camp. In our work with kids, we think this will have quite a positive effect on a muzzleloading program. So here's the test target, remember these groups are shots 16-20 for each gun with no wiping. Ironically, the gun with the worst bore shot the best group. Hampering all groups is the horrible front bead that covers more than 8min of a target making precision aiming a very iffy thing.
And a picture of them loaded N-SSA style. With this type of loading, the kids will not be milling around a loading table with open powder, caps, ball and patches. No parts of the body will be required to be over the muzzle to load, and most importantly, the kids can shoot tons more than with a patch round ball. I can hear you PRB guys already, but the facts on the ground are, kids want to shoot. Pounding a ball into a pipe with a short starter is a non starter after the first couple shots. Give them a choice between tedious PRB loading and a minie and I can tell you exactly how that will go.
Of the "Trashcan", here's what it can do out of my 1862 Colt Contract with 44g 3f Old E. I'll revisit that bullet with Swiss next week.-
The RCBS Hogdon gets a nod in both my Parker Hales, both the two band and the musketoon.
And this is from my testing today with 3f Swiss and the Moose International in my 2 band Parker Hale. Group is inside the circled area, five shots. The other holes are from a group my dad shot with his musket. My point of aim was 6 oclock on the orange circle below. I had left the sights set for 100yds from our last Skirmish. So I'm thinking I'm really going to like Swiss.
