Whates the best mold for 58 cal mini ball
- Thread starter TGC
- Start date
Most minis have a hollow base and therefore are only 1 cavity due to this design, sizing is not done on these either as both the RCBS and Lyman lube/sizer will not accept dies of these sizes, i don't believe my Stars will either. NEI may be able to supply 3 or 4 cavity molds for the .58 Maxi or .58 cal. round ball, by using a 6 cav. mold block.
stevejones
Regular
- Location
- Courtenay, BC
58 Minnie molds
Thats a tough question to say the least. My experience has taught me that muskets are very fussy with this. My 2 Parker Hale enfields, a musketoon and 3 bander, will not shoot anything other than the Lyman mold designed for PH muskets. The Musketoon shoots a patched round ball well though. My advice is to try to network among other black powder shooters and beg/borrow some minnies from them as buying one of each mold out there will be costly.
As for casting, I find it challenging enough to cast them one at a time never mind getting enough heat into a mold that casts that many minnies.
Minnies are meant to size themselves...Its true that the bore requires swabbing though. What I do is I place a large cleaning patch through the slot in the ramrod. I soak this with a cleaning solution so that every time the gun is loaded the patch wets the fouling in the barrel. Another thing is to place about 20 grains of cornmeal on top of the powder charge. The cornmeal buffs the fouling out when you shoot and I believe it seals around the Minnie and stops gasses from passing around it. Whatever actually occurs...the result is tighter groups.
Cheers. Steve.
Thats a tough question to say the least. My experience has taught me that muskets are very fussy with this. My 2 Parker Hale enfields, a musketoon and 3 bander, will not shoot anything other than the Lyman mold designed for PH muskets. The Musketoon shoots a patched round ball well though. My advice is to try to network among other black powder shooters and beg/borrow some minnies from them as buying one of each mold out there will be costly.
As for casting, I find it challenging enough to cast them one at a time never mind getting enough heat into a mold that casts that many minnies.
Minnies are meant to size themselves...Its true that the bore requires swabbing though. What I do is I place a large cleaning patch through the slot in the ramrod. I soak this with a cleaning solution so that every time the gun is loaded the patch wets the fouling in the barrel. Another thing is to place about 20 grains of cornmeal on top of the powder charge. The cornmeal buffs the fouling out when you shoot and I believe it seals around the Minnie and stops gasses from passing around it. Whatever actually occurs...the result is tighter groups.
Cheers. Steve.
I sometimes use cornmeal mixed with crisco and beeswax under the minie bullet. A few years back the fellow next to me mentioned that the smoke smelled like breakfast in hell. That pretty much summed it up.
