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Antonio Zoli & Co. .58 "Buffalo Hunter" Musket

5K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  Cranbrook 
#1 ·
I scored this very lightly used .58 cal. Antonio Zoli & Co. "Buffalo Hunter" musket today for $200.00 OTD.

26" barrel, checkered beech stock, brown fiberglass ram-rod. Other than a couple of storage dings it's like new.

Most are marked Navy Arms on the lock but this one is a Hy-Score marked musket.....I haven't seen a Hy-Score ML in 40 years.

Basically it's a 1863 Zouave .58 musket that was cut-down and had a under barrel lug/brass ferrules added. This one has Marble's front and rear sights....The rear one is a buckhorn.

The XXX date code puts it as being made in 1974.

I hunted for years with a full sized Zoli Zouave that I put a set of Williams rifle sights on and killed a lot of deer with it but at the time (no scopes could be used back then) sorta lusted after one of the Buffalo Hunters but I had to go and be poor someplace else. ;)

BTW....As you can see in the pics they turned the trigger guard around so the stud for a regular Zouave sling swivel is facing the rear. A lot of them were done like that for some reason. I turned it around the correct way when I detailed stripped it so I can use a nipple protector.
 

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#3 ·
Had one of those back in the day. I seem to remember that the factory nipple was oversize and would allow enough gas to escape to put the hammer back to half cock. There was an article in an old gun digest, I think, of Val Forgett of Navy Arms fame, hunting in Africa with the buffalo hunter-even shot a pachyderm!
 
#4 ·
Back in the early 1970s I had a Zoli copy of the Remington 1863 in .58. .575 Minnie balls would keyhole. .5755 Minnie balls shot fine for me, but they would not fit in my cousin's .58 H&R Huntsman. .575 Minnie worked fine for him.
As Thgomizer said, it originally came with an oversize musket nipple that would allow back pressure to move the hammer back to half cock. I switched to a #11 nipple and never had anymore problems. I liked the sling swivels which allowed the use of a sling. The lock did not have any import marks on it. I think that it was imported by Navy Arms because the fellow who helped me buy it was a friend of Val Forgett. Killed deer with the rifle.
I developed vision problems which made iron sights difficult to use, so I traded up to a Thompson Center Renegade in .50 because I could easily put a scope on the Renegade. Never went back. Still have the Renegade and use it.
Thanks for sharing with us.
 
#5 ·
LOL...It has the bored-out nipple but I ordered two normal stainless replacements.

Back in the day it was a "hack" to bore a musket nipple out to get more fire to the charge, then they started making them that way.

The bad thing was the blow-back which is not good on a lock. I also wonder how many peeps tried to duplicate Val's "Africa" loading and got blowback that broke their lock?

I never had any problem with a bored nipple as long as the charge was kept at around 70 grs.....I just wanted stainless.
 
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