1853 Enfield

[maillemaker]

I recommend this inexpensive book for lots of information about Civil War era muskets, including the Enfield:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Civil-War-Musket-Accuracy-Lock/dp/0974220124

It has many chapters on the Enfield and all its variants, including descriptions of the various proof and other markings.

Steve

 

[Oyvind]

One of my first muzzle-loading firearms was an Armi Sport Springfield rifle musket. While the quality and workmanship of the Pedersoli and Parker-Hale is superior to that of Armi Sport, I got the Armi Sport musket to shoot reasonably well. With the RCBS/Hodgdon minié bullet it managed to put five shots in 2" at 100m.

This however, required a lot of work that included:

• lock tuning
• bedding (I used a bedding compound made of fine sawdust and wood glue)
• shaving wood from under the barrel bands to make them sit looser
• enlarging of the bullet mould to correct diameter (the groove diameter was .581")
• making a new rear sight

When the above was done I tested a lot of loads and ended up with the above mentioned bullet lubricated with T/C Bore Butter in front of 58 grains of Wano PP. This was before Swiss powder was available to me.