Avice on shooting patched balls in PH P61 Enfield Carbine?

Canuck Bob

Canuck Bob

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Please understand this carbine will most likely be on a Pritchett cartridge diet or some minie bullet as soon as I can make it happen However I just bought it and will be shooting .570 swaged balls due to availability and expedience for some time. Also I've no experience with BP shooting really. I have or sourced CCI musket caps, swaged balls, Goex FFFG, and sturdy used blue jean's patches. I am just making do with this initial process but still want to try and develop a load work up that is target accurate to 100 meters.

Advice on loading, process, lube, countering fouling, and understanding the implications of progressive depth rifling are most welcome.

Bob
 
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I had good results with RB in my P53 Enfield, but never tried a carbine. Don't forget that if a patch is for instance .010 it will actually be .020 around the ball. Lube doesn't have to be fancy for patches, crisco is fine. Some people use saliva. These CCI musket caps will have trouble igniting Pyrodex as the power has been greatly reduced from the older ones. As BP is expensive and harder to find use a duplex load. 10-15gr is plenty behind Pyrodex RS. It will fire instantly even with the musket caps and save you a bunch of $. The denim might be a bit thick but you'll notice if it is. Fouling is going to happen, lube or no lube. Triple 7 is said to be cleaner but more expensive than other Pyrodex. Buy a fiberglass range rod and save the metal ramrod, you will need different tips for cleaning etc. Bring plenty of cleaning patches, you'll need them after 3 shots or so. Windex on a patch is a good cleaner. Sorry I have no experience with progressive rifling but the loading sequence would be the same. If you don't already know Track of the Wolf is the place to buy any BP items you need. They ship to Canada and are very fair for shipping cost. Hope this helps. Enjoy.
 
Thank you all. the first shooting will be with the Hornady balls, CCI Musket caps, 50 gr 3F Goex by volume, and most likely some cotton sheet rags in the shop. The reports of PRB shooting is a mixed bag. Most simply didn't bother but those folks seem to predominate from re-enactor sites. A few folks like wr.s... reported good results after some load development.

Initial lube will be a mix of Ballistol and windshield washer fluid. Shooting is outdoors and winter arrived early this year! An accomplished group of shooters in BC like WWF for their lube, $4 a gallon works too! Many reports claim .577 or .578 as PH bore size and 5 thou grooves at the muzzle. The PH rifles used hammer forged barrels so chances are my rifle will be the same. The grooves are reported at 13 thou at the breech. There have been only a few reports of RB shot patch evaluation but all have stated normal patches without cutting.

The darn fixed sights are irritating me. it seems so unnatural to have a rifle that a guy can't at least tap something for windage and use a wedge for elevation. Plus there are lots of reports of shooting high out of the box. The potential is high for accuracy however. There are regular competitions in Britian of 6-8 hundred yards with issue sights I understand. I need a 6X scoped 223 to hit paper at 300 meters
 
The carbine arrived and was as nice as could be suspected. I'm very satisfied indeed, thanks Marty7.62. The gun weighs 7 pounds 13 ounces unloaded of course and balances nicely in front of the trigger guard where the hand wraps well here, between the rear sight. The gun shows no real evidence of being fired, all the tell tale areas are not marked up and the bore is very nice with no crown wear or damage. It came with the nipple protector but alas the sergeant's tool was long gone. Anyone got one collecting dust?

The stock drop is a touch too straight for best fit but using the sights as issued is no problem. The LOP is 14" and my preferred length. As soon as my fall yard cleanup is finished its off to the range. One note, I found only CCI musket caps and they were hard to find. A few tins were bought for the shelf. Tonight is the strip and inspect/oil the rifle. That is when they feel like mine.
 
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