Wish me luck, Fellas, Snider shoot tomorrow!!

T

tacfoley

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UK, Ontario and Oregon
Well, just mine, that is. I was gifted this beautiful MkII Snider Short Rifle by a friend about five years ago, but for one reason or another [I live in UK] was unable to shoot it until now. It is one of nine off the rack at the Quebec Garrison Artillery Battery, and devoid of any DC diamonds. I mixed up some of Rob's recipe lube, using locally-'grown' beeswax [we live out in a very rural village, where there are a number of apiaries] and shortening - we'll see how it goes with a hundred brand-new cases from Bertram and NDFS. Luckily for me, I had enough Minié bullets to spare to load up for fire-forming to this Snider, and at some time I'll need to do the same for my other one, a Militia three-bander bought from a fine gentleman on this very forum. Another fellow Snider shooter here has one of X-Ring Services' flat-base moulds, and after donating him a couple of hundred pounds of lead, he'll be making me more bullets than the ten he gave me to try out.

I'm betting that I won't get through more than about fifty tomorrow, though. My face is still a mite delicate from cancer surgery three years ago, but I'll do the best I can. If I can get a fellow shooter to make a little video of the event I'll let you know. It will be up on Youtube.

This is me shooting it before it became mine the following year...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-iZCWavNyk
 
All have been safely annealed, never fear. I started shooting Sniders back in the middle-70s, when only Kynoch brass was available, now as rare as very rare things. They lasted me for around twenty years or so. All my 'new'cases really ARE brand new from the box, and needed seeing to before even thinking of loading them to fire-form
 
lit went much as expected, given that I was shooting bullets that were too small - all I had - a load with no development - taken from Rob of britishmuzzleloaders - undersized cases, and more importantly, no great expectations. The experience was leavened, however, by great enthusiasm.

Here is the very first shot -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbGCxG1v7_4

Incredibly, it was a ten, about halfway into the inner. I was flabbergasted, and taking it as a good omen, I got the RCO to call cold, I fetched the target back and got him to sign it, and it is now looking at me from the wall beside me. However, after that it all went to rat***t, although the others were all, somehow, inside an 8" circle at 50m. It was, after all, not just for fun, but for the purpose of setting up the cases to shoot in THIS Snider.

Some of you here may recall that I acquired another one, a three-band long rifle, bought from a fine gentleman in Ontario, with a good back story to it. It belonged to the 44th Battalion of Infantry, a militia unit in and around Welland and Lincoln counties, and may well have seen action in the last American 'invasion' into Canada during the Fenian Incursions. Funny enough, all my reformed cases are a perfect fit. There is, it seems, about 20 thou difference in the chamber between them, the Short Rifle having the shorter chamber. This variation, Rob notes in his video, is quite normal, and is the reason for fire-forming for each rifle separately. Here in UK, only one snider is on my FAC, noted as a 'Snider'.

Anyhow, my pal, willing recipient of a couple of hundred pounds of spare lead, will be donating me a large number of bullets cast from Martyn Robinson's excellent .600" mould, and I'll be addressing their loading later this week.
 
Here in UK each one of us is responsible for policing our own brass - none is left on the ground - ever. The range is inspected by the RCO after the session is over and signed up as 'clear, clean and tidy' in the range day book. With a total lack of any kind of centrefire rifle or carbine, let alone cartridge-firing handgun, there is usually no brass except the odd .22 empty to be found. My centre-fire handgun is a revolver, and my empty cases go home with me.
 
Arent Snider cases hard to get, though? I know the Martini Henry guys have to make their ammo themselves and guard their brass with their llives so they can reload it again…
 
Oh that's right - it's the Martini Henry guys that have to be careful about recovering their brass, isn't it? I dunno which is cooler - the Martini or the Snider?
 
Dirk72 said:
Oh that's right - it's the Martini Henry guys that have to be careful about recovering their brass, isn't it? I dunno which is cooler - the Martini or the Snider?
Click to expand...

They are both pretty cool, but in my experience the Martini may be a bit more expensive to initially set up but it is a stronger and more accurate rifle.
As far as brass goes One doesn't want to randomly toss Snider brass either! LOL
Cat
 
I have about a hundred NDFS cases and forty Bertram of the original necked style. All have needed to be fire-formed to suit this rifle. The example I bought a few years back from a gentleman on this forum takes all the cases without a hitch, but for some reason, almost 75% of the NDFS cases were about 0.75mm too long...

Anyhow, while I know that for most of you here any Snider is a ho-hum, but it's not like that for everybody, remembering that I live in the UK, including the three guys who each had a shot with it this morning. 70gr of Swiss 2Fg and 535gr bullet in a Short Rifle makes for an interesting shooting experience if you're not used to it - especially as all three were wearing T's

I made a little video of it - note the lack of DC in diamonds anywhere on the woodwork. My guess is that it was acquired prior to 1867, and then overlooked....any better ideas?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUs-LK8QM3Y
 
tacfoley said:
I have about a hundred NDFS cases and forty Bertram of the original necked style. All have needed to be fire-formed to suit this rifle. The example I bought a few years back from a gentleman on this forum takes all the cases without a hitch, but for some reason, almost 75% of the NDFS cases were about 0.75mm too long...

Anyhow, while I know that for most of you here any Snider is a ho-hum, but it's not like that for everybody, remembering that I live in the UK, including the three guys who each had a shot with it this morning. 70gr of Swiss 2Fg and 535gr bullet in a Short Rifle makes for an interesting shooting experience if you're not used to it - especially as all three were wearing T's

I made a little video of it - note the lack of DC in diamonds anywhere on the woodwork. My guess is that it was acquired prior to 1867, and then overlooked....any better ideas?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUs-LK8QM3Y
Click to expand...

That is a nice example of a Snider for sure- how did it shoot?
Cat
 
At the moment, pretty badly, and for a number of reasons.

1. I was fireforming the cases using a pretty hefty load - Rob shoots his with 62.5gr of 2Fg, this was, cough, somewhat heavier because of the very loose-fitting bullet.

2. The very loose-fitting bullet, in reality a few spare Miniés from my Musketoon, practically caroomed down the barrel. The barrel is .598" and the bullets were .585" - not even the thinnest skirt Minié is going to do well with a difference like that. However, that's all I had to hand.

So the result was pretty much predictable - crap grouping to say the least, but even so...there was nothing outside the five-ring of a 25m standard pistol target at 50m. John, the previous owner - as seen in my earlier video from about five years back when it was his - used a flat-base bullet like the real Snider bullet that he also used in a .600 double rifle. However, he loaded up the Snider with 55gr of Triple 7 - something I would never dream of doing.

As I may have mentioned, I'll be getting some correct bullets from a buddy in return for a few hundred pounds of lead. Interestingly, particularly for Mr Rombaugh who also shoots this kind of thing, Martyn Robinson's bullets are a fraction too big to go into both NDFS and Bertram cases. I reckon that's because they are made of thicker material than the very thin 24g shotgun shells used by most of you in Canada. If anybody here is familiar with Rob's excellent two-part video on the making of Snider ammunition, you'll see just how easy it is for him to simply push the bullet into the neck without using any effort - it's held there, as he notes, not by neck tension but simply by the gloop with which he anoints the bullet to lube it.

More to come, no doubt.
 
tacfoley said:
At the moment, pretty badly, and for a number of reasons.

1. I was fireforming the cases using a pretty hefty load - Rob shoots his with 62.5gr of 2Fg, this was, cough, somewhat heavier because of the very loose-fitting bullet.

2. The very loose-fitting bullet, in reality a few spare Miniés from my Musketoon, practically caroomed down the barrel. The barrel is .598" and the bullets were .585" - not even the thinnest skirt Minié is going to do well with a difference like that. However, that's all I had to hand.

So the result was pretty much predictable - crap grouping to say the least, but even so...there was nothing outside the five-ring of a 25m standard pistol target at 50m. John, the previous owner - as seen in my earlier video from about five years back when it was his - used a flat-base bullet like the real Snider bullet that he also used in a .600 double rifle. However, he loaded up the Snider with 55gr of Triple 7 - something I would never dream of doing.

As I may have mentioned, I'll be getting some correct bullets from a buddy in return for a few hundred pounds of lead. Interestingly, particularly for Mr Rombaugh who also shoots this kind of thing, Martyn Robinson's bullets are a fraction too big to go into both NDFS and Bertram cases. I reckon that's because they are made of thicker material than the very thin 24g shotgun shells used by most of you in Canada. If anybody here is familiar with Rob's excellent two-part video on the making of Snider ammunition, you'll see just how easy it is for him to simply push the bullet into the neck without using any effort - it's held there, as he notes, not by neck tension but simply by the gloop with which he anoints the bullet to lube it.

More to come, no doubt.
Click to expand...

This is the sight on my Snider, it is a long range Peddie.
nDuWvla.jpg

Pretty happy with it way it works at 200 meters :cool:
Cat
Nz2f3UA.jpg
 
tacfoley said:
That's a nice old Cavalry carbine there! What's your load?
Click to expand...

I had to recheck my load, because I changed it a bit, I used to use rolled oats but have since changed to corn meal as the filler.
70 grains FFG, .035 paper wad,40 grains of corn meal, .o35 paper wad, and a single grease groove bullet from a Lee mold seated too the top of the grease groove.
brass is 24 gauge Mag tech with a large pistol primer
Cat
 
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