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Traded Into a Zouave Today

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Joined
Sep 25, 2006
Messages
365
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813
Location
PA
Today I took another trip up to Dixon's and wound up trading my Pedersoli Brown Bess carbine for a Euroarms Remington 1863 Contract Rifle, AKA Zouave. Although about 12,000 of these were made by Remington during the Civil War, it's unlikely that any of them saw service. They are called Zouaves nowadays because somewhere along the line someone thought they were made for Union Zouave units. Regardless of whether they were ever used in service, they are a relatively handy example of a rifle musket.

It goes perfectly with the Zouave flask I just picked up. :)

zouave-right.jpg


This one bears a date code of AP, which translates to 1986. The stock shows some dings but the metal is in great shape and the bore is excellent. It's a .58 caliber and was intended to shoot Minie balls on top of 60 grains of powder. Back in the 1970s my father had a Zoli Zouave and got best accuracy with patched round balls. From what I can find, the Euroarms Zouaves have a 1:66 twist so I suspect that it, too will shoot better with a PRB. In any case, I have a couple of suitable ball sizes and some Minies to try.

The front sight appears to be a taller replacement intended for competition use. It'll give me plenty of metal in case I need to file it down to raise the POI.

Something I thought was interesting is that it lists a maximum powder charge on the barrel, but it's in drams. 3-1/2 to be exact. That translates to 95.7 grains, probably more than I'll ever shoot.

zouave-rear-sight-2.jpg


The nipple unscrewed easily but the flash hole looks a bit enlarged. I put in an order with Track of the Wolf for 2 spares and few other odds and ends.

The ramrod is made from brass and has male threads on the end. Along with the gun I got a Treso adapter that allows me to use standard 10-32 accessories. Naturally, I found that I already had one when I got home; I'd bought it to use with the Bess I traded in today. Oh well, 2 is 1 and 1 is none.

The stock is one of the blandest pieces of wood I've seen on a gun. I may strip it, stain it darker, and finish it with BLO. I think it has some kind of polyurethane on it now.

Assuming it shoots well it's a definite candidate to use during PA's early muzzleloader antlerless deer season, which allows caplocks. (We have a flintlock-only season after Christmas.) A .562 or .570 patched round ball should be very effective on Pennsylvania whitetail.

Tomorrow I'll be shooting a woods walk and using my plains rifle, so I won't get to shoot this rifle until next week at the earliest.
 
Prriiiity!


If you decide that the blonde finish keeps you up at night, that can be remedied.

But that clearcoat is like a hard plastic. Ask me how I know.

Regular garden variety stripper will not put a dent in it.

But Sherwin Williams Aircraft Stripper will put a real hurt'in on it.
 
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With the taller front sight, it was probably set up for N-SSA skirmish competition. Out of the box issue sights shoot pretty high so we often raise the front sight. Many modern shooters don't understand how 19th century arms were set up. Issue sights were set up to aim center mass on an opposing soldier so a high shot will still give the other guy a very bad day. If you're trying to place a shot, that front post will have to be raised.

As for minies, check the diameter of your bore. Minies need to be .001 under the actual, measured size. Use real black powder, Scheutzen caps and a natural based lube and you'll probably find these critters shoot rather well.
 
Nice looking gun. I recall the Zouave being recommended to me when I was looking for a military type ML. And I ended up with that Colt Special Model 1861.

No love for the BB carbine?
 
Mine was a touch slow, too. But I was blaming it on priming it with 2F and having problems with the flint it came with.
Truth be told, now that I have the Indian Trade musket I was wondering it the Bess was expendable. But I need to shoot it more to determine that.
 
I had a Zouave many years ago but was never quite satisfied with it. About 20 years ago I special ordered a Euroarms .54 1841 that I love. I got a screaming deal on it and have killed deer with it using prb and it's astonishingly accurate with a walnut stock and beautiful fit & finish.
 
I have a Euroarms Zouave, they are well fitted and nice shooting rifles. Some, including mine , have front sights brazed on crooked which didn't make it easy to zero mine

Pedersoli bought all their machinery when they went under and continues to make the Zouave

I have 2 Euroarms military- type rifles and both are on par with if not a little better fitted and finished than my Pedersolis

I had always thought Euroarms used Italian Walnut for their stocks ?

That Euroarms probably drives tacks, given that it was setup for competition

As a side note, the 1863 Remington was issued during the war , but only to troops guarding DC and also some went to an "Invalid Company " I believe also guarding Washington. It's highly doubtful any fired shots in combat, but they did see service if for nothing else but Guard duty . Not many were issued, most went to Bannermans who gave them the "Zouave " name which has nothing to do with anything, Bannerman just wanted to give them a name that made them seem to have some neat connection to Zouaves, because I don't think he could use "Remington " in his ad copy.

And so , for over 100 years these are now called "Zouave Rifles" and nothing will change that. Probably 20x as many repros exist as originals at this point. I feel like a Zoli Zouave and the brass frame .44 Colt Navy repro should be on those Guns & Ammo lists of "All American guns" that everyone grew up owning or knows someone who did
 
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I still have a Zouave I purchased from Dixie Gun Works back in the early 70s'. Shot for a while in the NSSA and learned that for best accuracy the Minnie balls need to be sized to a uniform size depending on your actual bore dimensions. Once I started sizing my bullets, accuracy became outstanding. I also took the front site blade off of a 1903A3 and replaced the stock sight with that to bring the POA down where it needed to be. Have taken three deer with that gun and I still have it.
 
I still have a Zouave I purchased from Dixie Gun Works back in the early 70s'. Shot for a while in the NSSA and learned that for best accuracy the Minnie balls need to be sized to a uniform size depending on your actual bore dimensions. Once I started sizing my bullets, accuracy became outstanding. I also took the front site blade off of a 1903A3 and replaced the stock sight with that to bring the POA down where it needed to be. Have taken three deer with that gun and I still have it.
Do you have a photo of the front sight on the Zouave ? I'm looking a some options for a new front sight since mine was filed down.
 
I shot it today with .562 and .570 PRBs, and a few .575 Minies. Just some offhand shooting from about 35 yards. The first three shots were on top of 50 grains of Goex FFg but after those I bumped it up to 60 grains. For ignition I used Scheutzen musket caps.

The .562 load easily with a .020" patch while the .570s are a tight fit with the same, but once started seat easily on the powder. The .570s were noticeably easier to load with 0.018" pillow ticking patches.

I lubed the patches with Hoppe's No. Plus and the Minies with Bumblin Bear Grease that I smeared on with my fingers. I didn't need to wipe the bore until after I was done.

I'm used to shooting rifles with set triggers so the military trigger of the Zouave took some getting used to, but overall I'm really happy with the gun. Offhand accuracy was good but of course I'll both bench it and shoot it offhand at 50 yards to see what it's really capable of. But it's looking promising for use during the early antlerless deer season here in PA.
 

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