Which minie?

[brewer12345]

I shot a new-to-me Zoli Zouave yesterday for the first time. It shot PRB quite well, but the bore is a little tight with my patch and ball combination so it takes a bit of effort to load it. The musket came with some minies, so I tried a few. The went into to the bore with just a little pressure and were easy to push down the bore, but stayed where they were put. Not quite sure how hard I need to seat them. I only had a few with me, but 50 grains shot well with flyers, 60 grains was all over the place, using OE 1.5F. Suspect I need a lighter charge.

I think they are sized correctly for the bore, so I will get the calipers out and measure them for future reference. These minies appear to be Lyman 575611s. I think I would like to fool with minies in this thing. What is the best mold/design to use? Looks like there are a lot of different ones out there, although of course everything is out of stock at the moment.

 

[dave951]

The critical thing is bore fit. Get that wrong and none will shoot well. My PH will shoot some darn small groups with 42gr 3f OE

 

[Eddie Southgate]

I been shooting Zoli barreled Zouave's since the 60's . I have always shot the 575213 either the standard or OS mold . I have a size die that does not change the as cast diameter but will make sure that the skirts are all as perfectly round as can be and also adds just a hint of the old Ideal BP lube to the grooves . I use 65 g of FFg in the rifle and 55g in the carbine . I use lithium based bearing grease in the cavity, not filled but a healthy smear . This has always worked for me . I still have stocks of Dupont powder that I reserve for match shooting and hunting and my normal powder is Gearhart & Owen from the first few years after Dupont sold out the black powder to them . Have shot the GOEX in them also and don't see a great lot of difference in G&O and the GOEX that I have that is from 10 years ago .

Both of mine do well also with PRB .

I push the minie to the powder then drop the steel ramrod three times , giving a little flip as it's dropped from about 12-18" above the seated minie . Not hard or it will deform the nose but lightly .