Pair of .58 shorties

[Slow Hand]

Thea arrived the other day. It’s a busy week so I won’t be able to really look them over for a bit but I’m looking forward to shooting them. I’ve never had anything like one of these bad boys. A buddy loaned me a Minie mold so I’ll cast some of them up and see how they do!

 

[Dingleberry]

Very cool, what's recoil like? Like a 12ga?

 

[MrSmitty]

Very cool!! you'll have to do a Trapper Jim type review. Original? or repops?

 

[kennedy759]

what models are they?

 

[Slow Hand]

Very cool, what's recoil like? Like a 12ga?

Haven’t been able to shoot them yet. I have a 50/70 and a 50/45 and recoil isn’t bad with either.

 

[Slow Hand]

Very cool!! you'll have to do a Trapper Jim type review. Original? or repops?

Repro’s on both, the bottom one is a EuroArms copy of a Cook and Brother carbine. The other one appears to be a home made copy of an 1855 carbine. I was hopeful it was a original but now that it’s in hand and I’ve done a bit more research, it’s seems to be a one off custom ‘repro’

 

[Slow Hand]

Made some smoke today. Had some fun. Looking forward to getting them out again

 

[Slow Hand]

what models are they?

The top one seems to be a one off reproduction of an 1855 rifled carbine. They only made 1020 of them originally and this one does a pretty good job of looking like one of those. I’m not very familiar with Civil War era firearms, other than handguns, so I’m still trying to figure out what it was made from. The 1855’s all had the Maynard tape priming system, except the carbine and the lock was different on it, so I’m trying to do some looking and see what looks right.

The bottom one, with the sling, is a Cook and Brother Artillery carbine, made by euro arms in 1986, if I’m remembering right. The Cooks were British fellas who moved to the New Orleans area and made rifles similar to the British Enfields. After the union captured the port of NO, Cook and Bro moved to somewhere in Georgia; Atlanta maybe, and continued making long guns for the south.

 

[Slow Hand]

Very cool, what's recoil like? Like a 12ga?

Most of my shooting was from the bench, and my position was not the best, kind of hunched over so not great for absorbing recoil. I shot about 25 rounds through the two of them all together and it wasn’t bad at all standing up, it was much better. Black powder is odd on recoil, being more of a push than a shove but I’d say it was close to 20 ga shotgun. The minie was 530 gr over 50 and 65gr of FFg. The 50 gr load failed to onturate the skirt and bullets we’re hitting sideways at 25 yards! Groups were very big, even for my crappy shooting, so I kicked it up to 65 and they hit nose first and groups shrank to about 2” at 25 yards. Moved targets out to 50 and with the cook, it stayed about 2-3”. The 1855 turned in a roughly 1-1/2” group! The targets I had were not very good for that range and I had a hard time seeing the bullseye. I’ll get some better targets and give it another go soon!

 

[Kdf101]

What was a typical charge of powder for them back in the day?

 

[MrSmitty]

Nice !!! Pretty cool flame throwers there!!

 

[Slow Hand]

What was a typical charge of powder for them back in the day?

According to Paper Cartridges site, about 60-65.

Civil War Paper Minie Cartridges for .58 or .577

Minie Cartridges for .58-cal and .577-cal rifle-muskets. These were the most common cartridges used in the American Civil War, by far! My reproductions are faithfully constructed according to the specifications from the U.S. Army‘s 1856 Small Arms report and the 1861 Ordnance Manual. The 1855...

papercartridges.com

I had it in my head it was much more, but also wondered if carbines didn’t have a reduced charge like they did later on with the .45-70 Trapdoor. Looks like my ‘guess‘ of 65 was dead on!

 

[Slow Hand]

Took the fake carbine out for a quick trip last night. I received a Lee minie mold over the weekend and cast up some bullets Sunday night and dip lubed them. They have a very flat meplat and a much thinner skirt than the Lyman’s I had shot previously, so I was hoping they would obturate with a lighter powder charge.





So, I shot a five shot group at fifty yards with 65 gr of Scheutzen FFg. I didn’t think about it being overcast and darned near sunset (thanks DST!) and didn’t bring any clear glasses with me. First shot was with sunglasses and couldn’t see the target very well. Second shot was without glasses and got crap in my eyes, so the rest were shot with sunglasses! The group turned out very well, except for one high hit. That was the first round so I don’t know if it was from a clean, oiled bore or if it was just my crappy shooting. The other four turned in a pretty tight group though!



I had another target set up so I tried a quick three shot group with 80gr and 50gr of powder to see about elevation and obturation. 80 hit much closer to POA and 50 was only slightly lower than the 65gr loads. More testing will need to ensue. If somewhere around 50gr will group s well as the 65’s did last night, I’ll file the front sight to hit dead on at 50 and figure my holdover at 100 and call it good enough for fun plinking. I took a video of me shooti the 80gr load and got this cool screen grab from that. Lots of fire!