Educate me!

[FredB]

You have what is generally accepted as the best of all Enfields for target shooting. The going rate for one of these in good condition is well over £1000. The loads depend on what range you want to shoot it at. My muzzle loading activities are limited to 50 and 100m. I have the Lyman mould for the round nosed Minie bullet, but |I find that the Lee "modern minie"---a much cheaper mould---works better at these distances. I use 54grn of a medium black powder--currently FO triangle and the bullets are used as cast (not sized) and dipped in molten "Wonderlube".
Good shooting.
Fred

[huntervixen]

Cheers Fred, many thanks for the info, does anyone make .577 jags that fit Parker hale rods do you know? FAC variation going in for Black Powder along with another .303 next week.

All good fun, I was a little peeved that Dickenson's want £20 to look up firearm info, a bit steep!

[FredB]

.577" is 25 gauge. What you want is a Parker Hale shotgun rod and jag for 24 gauge. You also want a loading rod---this makes life much easier than using the rifles ram rod. A piece of half inch dowel with a .562 (9/16") bit glued on one end and a large wooden ball on the other is a common solution. I use an aluminium shotgun rod with a turned brass end screwed to it to fit the bullet. I used to be able to borrow Parker Hale taps and dies from a local company who were PH sub-contractors, but alas those days are gone.
Your percussion nipple is threaded 5/16" Whitworth. It is a good idea to turn up a plug, fitted with a leather washer. After shooting, remove nipple and fit plug. Pour windscreen washer fluid (the worlds best black powder solvent) into the barrel and agitate with cleaning rod and patch. Pour out black liquid. Start with wet patch and progress to dry, finishing with patches soaked in WD40 or similar. I use a product called "Pocket Rocket" which is much cheaper than WD40. The first oily patch will come out black with carbon, the second one will come out clean.
It is also a good idea to make up a nipple shield from sheet brass. This is fitted under the nipple and contains the flash from the top hat cap, keeping the surrounding wood clean and un-burned.

Fred

[huntervixen]

Cheers Fred, all excellent advice for a dyed in wool breech loader like me, I am already finding it irritating I can't access the breech to clean it! She's into the workshop for thorough TLC on Saturday.

[dromia]

I like and use the Proshot Black Powder cleaning rods along with a appropriate sized jag, they have a .58 calibre jag that is excellent.

For mess free cleaning especially with old dirty barrels see here: http://www.full-bore.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=22520

I agree with Fred that Pocket Rocket is a far more economical water displacing liquid that WD40.

[huntervixen]

Cheers Adam, nice to try yet another facet of shooting!

[dromia]

Be aware that once you start doing veracious shooting with black powder and lead you will see that the jacketed/smokeless modus operandi is just a vogue and that black powder proclivity is a modus vivendi.

[huntervixen]

Well, here she is guys after last weekend in the workshop, bore deep cleaned, stock lightly refurbished and re-oiled,and barrel, trigger guard and bands re-blued.

If it had any original finish left I would have left it, but as it was rusty, I though sod it, this old lady will be heading back to the range, so I cleaned back all the rust, very carefully checked the integrity of the barrel once it was bright iron again and then re blued it.

One very small patch of original colour remained under the barrel, so keeping this area protected during rubdown, I re-blued with Birchwood Casey Deep blue until it matched the original finish, very pleased with the result.

Next step is to have her safety checked by a gunsmith before she goes on my FAC.

Shes, now looking almost as good as when Dickson and Son sold her in the 1860's!

Another of Britain's finest back from the dead and onto the range.

[dromia]

I'm sure she will shoot as good as she looks.

[huntervixen]

Cheers Adam, looking forward to irritating everyone at Severnside with clouds of white smoke!