58 Cal,1853 Enfield HELP!

C

capt Ajax

New member
I use this gun to hunt with but the sights are off and it consistantly shoots low to the left about 6 inches at 50 yards. I am using Hornaday Great Plains bullets (waxed minies). It seems that there is no way of adjusting the sights on this gun. They are welded to the barrel. Does anyone have any ideas? Perhaps I am doing something wrong..........

Does anyone else use this rifle for hunting / Targets? If so what type of bullet / grainage are you using? Any advice would be much appreciated.
 
Not familer with your gun but I can tell you this... Look at the barrel muzzle first and see if there are any "dings" or "dents" right at the inside of the muzzle or I should say on the muzzle opening. One of the biggest reasons for inaccuracy in muzzle loaders is caused by the ball (bullet) hitting a small dented area on the muzzle as it leaves the barrel and that causes the projectile to wobble in the air.The dents or dings happen during the loading process from the starter rod or the loading ramrod. The cure is to have the muzzle chamfered by a good gun smith.
Next thing to do if the muzzle is alright is to take down the front site with a bastered file a little at a time until you hit right at the height you want at 50 yards. Next thing is to bend the front sight slightly to the left. this will cause you to move the barrel right to be on target.
6" at 50 yards is allot so I would lean more to the muzzle problems on this one. You may need a good magnifying glass to see any dings or dents. It takes very little to through off your accuracy.
I had this problem with a 50 cal. Hawken years ago and I couldn't hit anything with it. After the muzzle was chamfered I ws hitting 3" circles at 70 yards when I was shooting good :) Mike
 
I can't waiot to get home and check it out. I have considered having the sights removed and replaced, but I had rather not, if at all possible.
Thanks for the 411 I'll let you know how it comes out!

Russ
 
Nope :confused:

I looked it over really good and could not find any dings or dents. Here is what I am doing:

Weapon: .58 Cal 1853 Enfield "Army Sport" produced by Euroarms.
Target range: 50 yards,
Ammo: .58 cal pre lubed (waxed) Hornaday "Great Plains" Minies
Grainage: 90 grains of FFFg

I killed a deer with this weapon last year by aiming off center. It is difficult to aim off center on a live target :barf: I wonder if I am going to have to take the rifle to a gunsmith and have the sights moved or replaced?
 
Have you done any load development with the rifle?

I looked at a 3 Band Enfield on the Dixie Gunworks Site and they suggested 60gr. of 2F for one and 90gr of 2F for another. One reason you are shooting low could be the the load is hot, 90gr. of 3F should have faster velocities than the 2F load and faster velocities tend to have lower points of impact.

Another reason could be the weight of the Minie, a heavier bullet should raise the point of impact a bit.
 
Ajax, I have a 1858 Enfield Euroarms that was doing the exact same thing at 100 yards on my first shot. I fixed the problem by running a patch lubed with butter bore down the barrel a few times. Although, if every shot is doing that, sounds like you may have bigger problems. You may want to lower your charge, at 50 yards, 60 - 70 grains would be plenty powerful enough to kill a deer. I've read that Enfield recommmended 68 grains, although 60 was the standard back in the day.
 
From the Civil War boards, this is common and some guys find a bullet that works. Don't know what they use but I use a minie casted in a (RCBS made) Parker Hale mold for my Enfields (all are Parker Hale).
 
Sounds like your getting great advice as is par for the course on this site.Alot of good guy's aharing there info.
I do believe that I would try ffg as was suggested above. The fffg is really more for small bores , pistols and so on. Anything over .50 seems to work best with ffg. I would also try to work up some loads useing different balls and loads but I would give the bore a good swabing between shots and only shoot at about 15 yards until you get a load, ball combo worked up to dead center or even 2" high shots at that distance.
It sounds like work but to me that's the fun part. When you find that sweet load you will have a smile that will make you look like the cat that just swallowed the Canarie,Lol. Mike
 
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