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Ultra-Hi Brown Bess

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Boatncamp

western edge of the Catskills
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Just received an old Ultra-Hi Brown Bess in the mail yesterday. I believe that it is .75 caliber although I can seem to find my calipers at the moment. I am looking for input from those that have been shooting this gun for awhile. What size ball do you recommend, 2f or 3f black powder and just how much powder has worked well.

Any other recommendations / things that you have found useful would be appreciated as well. I find it much easier to learn from other mistakes than to wait to learn from my own.

Woody
 
Just received an old Ultra-Hi Brown Bess in the mail yesterday. I believe that it is .75 caliber although I can seem to find my calipers at the moment. I am looking for input from those that have been shooting this gun for awhile. What size ball do you recommend, 2f or 3f black powder and just how much powder has worked well.

Any other recommendations / things that you have found useful would be appreciated as well. I find it much easier to learn from other mistakes than to wait to learn from my own.

Woody
I have shot one Woody but not for long enough to comment on loads. I do recommend 2f for the main charge & priming. DO NOT load the military way by priming the pan first if you are using cartridges. Prime last from your powder horn.
Keith.
 
Woody,

The first thing you MUST do is get an accurate measurement of the bore size. This can be done with a precision set of dial calipers or perhaps a really good set of digital calipers. If you don't have the means or training, get someone with a machinist/gunsmith background to measure it for you. It REALLY is that important for accurate shooting.

For example, my old Pedersoli Brown Bess Carbine's bore ran .753 inch. The largest ball size then available was a mold that gave a .735 inch ball, leaving .018 inch "Windage" as they called it in the 18th century or what we would call open space in the bore once the ball was inside. I used that ball and a standard ticking material greased patch. I also had to use a big short starter to get the ball started down the bore, but as the patch material crushed down from that, the steel rammer seated the patched ball nicely. The powder I used was FFg Dupont or what is now Goex powder and 70 grains was my accuracy load.

In those days, the mid to late 1970's, the target that required the most accuracy and skill we normally shot at was a double bladed ax sunk into a chunk of log. Two clay pigeons were hung on each side of the exposed axe blade. We shot that offhand at 20 to 25 yards. The idea was you aimed at the middle of the axe blade and the ball would split in two in the blade and BOTH "halves" of the ball had to shatter the clay pigeons on both sides of the axe blade. The load I mentioned above would do that every time, as long as I did not screw up the shot. Using that load and firing offhand, I would hit a one gallon plastic milk jug at 100 yards at least 8 times out of 10. One time for one match, they put a 4 inch long steel buffalo silhouette on the ground at 73 yards and we had to fire at that Offhand as well. Wish I could tell you I hit it, but I missed, though my ball put a divot in the ground only 3-4 inches from the small silhouette. (No one practices for firing offhand at 73 yards that I know.)

Now in recent months, Spence 10 has reported even better accuracy because he uses a shot card over the powder, then a greased wad and finally the patched round ball. Wish I had heard of that back when I was competing with my Bess, as I had the wads and cards to shoot shot in some matches.

Now, PLEASE don't emulate what I did UNTIL you get the bore size accurately measured in your Bess. Some ran larger than that, but some ran MUCH SMALLER than .750 inch and especially ones like you have.

Le Loop is correct you DO NOT load the pan before the cartridge or separate powder/card/cushion wad/PRB. They did that in War because they had to and they accepted some horrible accidents by loading the pan first. That is something we don't need to be "authentic" about.

I prefer leather flint wraps around my flints, but one thing I learned in reenacting was each musket may prefer one thickness of lead and one length of flint to spark consistently and the best. So in my unit's muskets, I wound up trying different length flints with different thicknesses of leather. Some folks use lead wraps and a few had good luck with them in their Besses, however I never did and most Besses I worked on for our guys like leather flint wraps. It didn't matter if the Bess was made in Italy or Japan.

Finally, the Bess has a HEAVY standard Military Trigger Pull that is difficult to shoot for the best accuracy. On most Besses, I advise you find a qualified person to do a trigger job on it for the best accuracy.

Gus
 
I have a miruko bess by Lyman from the 1970s; the lock is excellent based on the 1756 Brown Bess. Its a lighter version of a Second Model Brown Bess; The Barrel is made lighter at .70 caliber.; the taper thins down to the muzzle at about .820. The stock is American Walnut or possibly an Asian Walnut; one problem with this pattern is the pins used for the barrel are very fragile, I needed to replace them with harder thicker pins and the lock mortise area splintered a few times from recoil; when they made these muskets they took out too much wood in the mortise area, I've also had to seal up the barrel channel due to splits down the rammer channel that went through the breech. I've been considering restocking it, the stock loses wood with each visit to the range after about 20 shots.

I'm in the market for a coach harness Brown Bess if anyone knows.
 
I've been shooting a Pedersoli Bess Carbine for many years, and have posted this info on a couple of threads lately, but I have found, with my Bess, she shoots best with a heavy powder charge, and small-ball, thick patch combo. My bore is .75" and I shoot a .690" ball with a denim patch...that has proved most accurate, in my musket. With a "chewed" ball, I use a .023+" patch. In both cases a wad under the ball and patch. I can get more shots before wiping with Swiss 2fg, but goex 1Fg, or fg seems to work as well and these days I save my Swiss powder for my rifle as it is so pricey. (but worth it) I love my Bess, and she has put two wild turkeys, and many a grouse on the table.
 
Woody, congrats on your Bess. If it is indeed a Miroku, you'll probably find it nicely reliable. When I had one, I made up the military cartridges from the pattern in "Sketch Book 76," and found the FFg powder worked fine as both prime and main. Heed the advice about priming AFTER you have loaded though.
 
Love paper cartridges...amazing how fast you can reload with them. Not as accurate as patched ball, but fine for when you are attacked by zombies or wolves at around 25-30 yards or so. :) If I was actually being attacked in such a manner, I might consider priming the pan first. :) Otherwise....no.
 
Would be kind of ironic though...to blow one's own head off while trying to defend one's self.
 
Just received an old Ultra-Hi Brown Bess in the mail yesterday. I believe that it is .75 caliber although I can seem to find my calipers at the moment. I am looking for input from those that have been shooting this gun for awhile. What size ball do you recommend, 2f or 3f black powder and just how much powder has worked well.

Any other recommendations / things that you have found useful would be appreciated as well. I find it much easier to learn from other mistakes than to wait to learn from my own.

Woody


Hi Woody,

The Ultra-Hi Bess was a Japanese origin Bess made by Miroku. They were normally .75 caliber, but it's always good to check as a few of the first were made with .69 caliber barrels. The reason was to save on manufacturing costs, Miroku made barrels for both their Charleville French musket and their Bess in the same caliber. Miroku corrected this fault when they discovered that the calibers were a big deal to the buyers.

The Miroku Bess was poo poo'd when it came out, but has shown over time to be an excellent, working musket.

Normally the steel on the Bess was kept "armory britght" which means rust and stains were removed by the soldiers through polishing, but they didn't get a bright shine on the guns, and definately didn't anything so polished that it looked like a chromed bumper. The brass pieces too would be polished. So..., if you intend on removing the rust, let the forum know as there are several good methods.

Further, the Jap Bess often had the slots for the barrel pins going through to the ramrod channel. This is important to know as moisture can get into the underside of your barrel through these slots. A lot of guys, when there is enough excess metal on the barrel tennons, file the tennons down a bit then seal up the slots from the ramrod channel. You should have the bore of the barrel inspected for pitting, and of course have the rust removed from within, and this inspection needs to be done prior to shooting. Otherwise you should have no worries with your musket.

LD
 
Try and find a can of 1F, this is working better for me than three Fin my smoothbores. I had one years and tears ago. It was ok.
Nit Wit
 
I hade an old flint lock marked ULTRA HI and it is marked as made in KOREA. don't think much of it used as a sweeteners in a deal.
 
I've found that 1fg works good in my bess, and that's what I use for both ball and shot loads now. I used 2fg for a while, (Swiss) and the minimum of fouling was nice, but the $$$price of Swiss is...well you know. But 1fg really seems to be what the large bore likes. I save the Swiss for my rifle. For such a large bore, I've always thought that 3fg was kind of on the hot side, except for very light loads....and my musket prefers loads on the heavy side, for best accuracy.
 
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