Enfield target

Brian James

Brian James

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After sourcing a nipple, I managed to shoot my new to me Hay Pattern Enfield Rifle (3 groove, 3 band, 1:48 twist, barrel is 36” and the bore is .577)

The target below is off a rest at 50m (Im a pistol for now).

What surprised me was I used two different Minie bullets and two different loads and it grouped relatively in the same place.

One load was 55 grains of Goex 3F and the other was 40 grains on Swiss 3F. Bullets were from borrowed Rapine and Lyman moulds.

Question- do people use filler in between the powder and minie?

Thanks

Brian
 

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The Brits didn't load bare Minies. Enfield cartridges incorporated a grooveless paper patched hollow base bullet. Tear the powder end of the cartridge, dump the powder, reverse the cartridge, start the lubricated paper patched bullet into the bore, tear off the excess paper, ram the bullet home.
But in answer to your question, filler isn't used between powder and Minie. Some muzzleloading target rifles use greased wads, etc, but with flat based bullets.
 
Brian: Is your rifle an actual ordnance "Hay Pattern." If so, it would be great to see photos. As per the above comments, there is no need for filler but, if you plan to do a lot of shooting with it, getting set up to build proper original-style paper cartridges is a must. With proper sized and lubed paper-wrapped bullets you can then experience what loading was like for the British soldier. The cartridges are pretty efficient. I shoot both fast and slow twist originals and always use something close to the original load of around 68 grns. I have a mold that can cast both deep cavity and shallow cavity bullets. The shallow type replicate the earliest government bullet (the "Pritchett") that had a very shallow base cavity and required no plug. I get about as good accuracy with the plugless type as with the plugged so opt for the easier plugless.

milsurpo
 
I have an NOE mould that drops a .565" bullet - but with a choice of base hollow depths, thanks to a set of shallow and deeper mould inserts.

I make paper cartridges using the templates form Fourth Armouries - excellent value, too.

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See Brett Gibbons on YouTube with his paper cartridges for the Enfield.

1758051290346.png

Eight shots at 50m, with 60gr of Swiss 2Fg.
 
I have one of the NOE Pritchett bullet moulds as well and like it.Unfortunately the guy who owns NOE is retiring so they will not be making them anymore

NOE also made a mould to cast plugs for the Pritchett bullet as well
 
milsurpo said:
Brian: Is your rifle an actual ordnance "Hay Pattern." If so, it would be great to see photos. As per the above comments, there is no need for filler but, if you plan to do a lot of shooting with it, getting set up to build proper original-style paper cartridges is a must. With proper sized and lubed paper-wrapped bullets you can then experience what loading was like for the British soldier. The cartridges are pretty efficient. I shoot both fast and slow twist originals and always use something close to the original load of around 68 grns. I have a mold that can cast both deep cavity and shallow cavity bullets. The shallow type replicate the earliest government bullet (the "Pritchett") that had a very shallow base cavity and required no plug. I get about as good accuracy with the plugless type as with the plugged so opt for the easier plugless.

milsurpo
Click to expand...
I believe it’s a volunteer rifle that follows the Hays Pattern. I’ll take photos and share them.
 
Brian: Thanks for posting the photos—looks like a great rifle made to an interesting pattern. For any that aren't familiar, "Hay" was a senior officer who had been in charge of the Hythe School of Musketry for some time and who was actively involved in development of many types, including P51 and P53 rifles. His "Hay Pattern" version embodied all of the features he thought would improve the standard infantry version of the P53 but came along just before the end of Enfield production. I believe some actually were purchased by New Zealand and later got transformed to Sniders.

The paper cartridges certainly make shooting these a lot of fun. For my main range Enfield I've found that standard cheap printer paper works as good as anything but you can find quite a range of paper thicknesses if you want a tighter or looser fit. Lube is very important. Historically the British ended up using pure beeswax on the paper wrap of the .55" "Government bullet." With larger bullets more like the earlier ones (.568") used with the Enfield it is probably better to go with a mixture of beeswax and olive oil/shortening/etc. Its fun to fire a string of 20 rounds and find bullet #20 loading as easily as #1. That's what the minie rifle was all about.

milsurpo
 
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