euroarms 1853 enfield

[free1954]

i wonder if you gentleman can answer a few questions i have about a euroarms 1853 enfield i recently purchased.
what grade of blackpowder should i use and how many grains?
what size of percussion cap?
is there somewhere i can buy pre lubed and sized minie balls?
the ramrod is threaded at the end, is there an adapter i can buy so i can use a brush on it?
thanks for looking.

[wbrown]

I use 3f in ALL of my muzzleloaders.
As for a load, 60 gr. of gunpowder was the arsenal load, I have used as little as 40 gr. with good results.
Musket size percussion caps.
As far as ammunition, Dixie gun works, The log cabin shop, Winchester sutlers, etc. sell minies.
You can buy sizers [.575"] from Dixie for around $8.00 . You will need to lube them yourself.
Use a mix of 50% canola oil and 50% beeswax.
Arrange the minies in a shallow pan, hollow base down. Heat the lube until melted [ watch carefully while melting, it can catch fire if overheated] stirring well while over the the heat.
Power melted lube into the minie ball pan. Let everythin set up hard. Use a butterknife or spatula to loosen the lube cake. It should come out in one or two chunks. Push the minies through the lube cake pushing from the nose end of the minie.

You will need to fiddle around with load/ball combo to see what shoots best out of your particular musket.
Most importantly, have fun with it.

Y.M.H.S.
Wendell

[munrod]

Regarding adapters the answer is yes, available from Dixie and various sutlers. Could be wrong but IIRC, the Euroarms Enfield ramrod has 10/32 threads. There are adapters to fit shotgun cleaning accessories

[free1954]

thanks for the replies

[free1954]

does anyone happen to know the weight in grains of the original civil war minie balls?

[Clyde]

does anyone happen to know the weight in grains of the original civil war minie balls?

I show 500 grains in some notes I have, but don't know the source. Doc White's M/L site shows 480.

I found an extract from 'The Rifled Musket' by Claude E. Fuller and it states:

"During the war the Ordnance Department secured by purchase and fabrication 470,851,079 of these cartridges of .577 and .58 calibers. The .58 caliber cartridges for the Springfield arms used a bullet with three grooves or cannelures with a cavity at the base consisting of a perfect cone. It was .5775 inches in diameter and weighed 500 grains, and was fired by 60 grains of musket powder; rifle powder was not considered suitable. Before placing in the cartridge the bullets were dipped in a hot composition consisting of one part beeswax and three parts tallow."

So - probably 500 grains, back in the day.

[free1954]

thank you clyde for the reply

[tacfoley2]

As an aside, the British War Office load for the P53 Enfield rifled musket consisted of a 535gr Minié-pattern bullet and a charge of two and one-half drams of fine rifle powder [FFg to you and me]. That is as near as dammit to 68gr.

tac

[nothernug]

"Fine rifle powder" would be nearer fffg powder. Generally, Fg was the coarsest, cannon powder for field artillery. FFg was next in line and used for muskets and shotguns. FFFg for smaller bore rifles and pistols. FFFFg is priming powder.

Now, for my observations. It takes longer to burn through coarser grains and in my .577 PH 1853 pattern Enfield, if I shot any heavier than 60grs in 2/fg I tended to have burning powder blow out the barrel. That makes for inconsistent and less accurate burn rates. Another problem was that the 2/fg left coarser fouling. With 3/fg I got better accuracy and cleaner (well, not so dirty) bores. May be why the Brits called for "Fine rifle powder."
Consider, they did not issue a "cleaner bullet as did the US army, (1 per every 10 rds.) and did not use a canelured bullet either but did not seem to have any particular problems with excessive fouling build up. However, in practice, the Enfield bullet was loaded with the lubed paper wrap.

However, just as an aside, I have read one particular case of a badly fouled bore. A Texas Confederate of the Texas Brigade wrote how in "Devil's Den" at Gettysburg his rifle had become so fouled he was finally reduced to beating his ramrod end against a rock face and in that rifle's final shot, the thing pulled out of his hands whacking a fellow behind him bringing the soldier a solid cursing out. He then picked up another musket and continued his work.

Finally, a loose rule of thumb of the day suggested that the powder charge be equal to the caliber of the barrel rounded to the nearest 10grs and that brings us back to 60grs for the .58/.577 musket.

[Southron, Sr.,]

I worked for Euroarms of America back in 1977 when we came out with the Euroarms Enfield.

Go to:

www.n-ssa.org/

Then when the 404 message comes up, click on the website icon.

When you get to the N-SSA website go to the "Bulletin Board," and then "Civil War Small Arms."

Ask your questions there-they will be answered by some very knowledgeable people when it comes to shooting Enfields.

Here are a couple of hints:

1. Make sure your Tang Screw is TIGHT. A Tight Tang Screw is best for accuracy.

2. Cast or use Minie Balls made out of PURE LEAD. Size them to 2 Thousands of an inch UNDER your bore diameter.

3. A mixture of 70% beeswax and 30% Bore Butter makes an excellent lube.

4. Avoid using Crisco in your lube mixture. I used Crisco in my lube up until about 1988 and experienced one or two "Cook Offs" per year. I quit using Crisco and have not had a Cook Off since!

5. Avoid using parafin as part of your lube mixture. The parafin fouling mixes with black powder fouling and creates a terrible fouling in your bore.

6. Always leave your hammer down on the fired cap and then start your reloading process. (The fired cap keeps fresh oxygen out of your breech, that could keep an ember burning.] During the reloading process, always keep the muzzle pointed AWAY from your body. Use ONLY two fingers on the ramrod while loading.

7. Throw away the steel nipple and get an Aampco Nipple from The House of Muskets. Aampco nipples are 1000% BETTER than steel nipples and don't erode nearly as fast.

8. I prefer 3Fg Schutzen Black Powder. Your best accuracy will be between 40 & 55 Grains-depending on your gun. You have to experiment to find your best load combination.

9. Have a gunsmith remove your factory front sight and replace it with a HIGH dovetailed front sight. That way you can tap the sight in the dovetail back and forth to take care of windage and then file the front sight down to make the elevation "Dead On" at 50 yards with the ladder in the "Full Down" position. Then you can handle longer ranges simply by moving the ladder up on the rear sight steps.

10. Weigh all of your Minie Balls, keep all the ones that are Plus/Minus 2 Grains as your "Match Bullets" all the others are "Practice Bullets," except for the ones that are grossly underweight. That lack of weight means that they have air voids in them and they shouldn't be shot.

IF YOU LIVE EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER, THERE IS PROBABLY A N-SSA TEAM NOT ALL THAT FAR FROM YOU. CHECK OUT THE N-SSA'S WEBSITE AND CONTACT THEIR RECRUITING OFFICER! Shoot your Enfield in Fun, Fun, Fun team competition!!!!

[TP]

"Fine rifle powder" would be nearer fffg powder. Generally, Fg was the coarsest, cannon powder for field artillery. FFg was next in line and used for muskets and shotguns. FFFg for smaller bore rifles and pistols. FFFFg is priming powder.

"Nug, I hate to correct you but Fg powder is used in hand held firearms, not in canon. Canon grade powder is a great deal courser than Fg, Fg would be too fast burning to use in full sized artillery in any other capacity than as priming powder. Fg is commonly recommended for large bore shotguns (6ga - through 12 guage) and many also use it in large caliber military muskets - .75 and .69 cal. FFg is equivalent to the powder used in the .58 caliber rifle musket "in the day" when they were standard military issue. It is also commonly used in the .75 cal. Brown Bess and .69 cal Springfield muskets today. It can be used in smaller calibers as well. FFFg is best used in small caliber rifles, say less than .45 and pistols and revolvers.

[free1954]

thanks to all for the interesting and informative replies.