Didn’t really know what I was doing but has fun getting my new .58’s dirty!

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

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Having no idea where they would hit or how they would shoot, I started out at 25 yards. Three shot groups with each of them. A 530gr Minie over 50 gr of FFg. Big holes at close range helped to see they were shooting like crap. Like 5” or so groups. After six shots I went out in the rain and looked and they were hitting sideways! The Cook Carbine has 3 1/2 drams stamped into the barrel; I believe that’s somewhere north of 90 gr! I didn’t really want to shoot that warm of a load, especially just for plinking but I bumped it up to 65 gr. Three shots with each turned in round holes and groups of about 2”. One hot left and the other right, but dead on for elevation. I moved targets to 50 yards and honestly had poor targets for open sights past pistol ranges. But the Cook shot about a 3” or so group and the 1855 somehow managed a group of about 1-1/2”! They were both off of the paper though, so about 8” low. That really surprised me!

I think I will order a Lee 58 cal minie mold and see how it does. The Lyman that Jared loaned me casts well, but it is heavy and has a very thick skirt. I was reading about some guys using as low as a 35 gr charge for 25 yards! I’ll definitely need a bullet with a thinner skirt for stuff like Ll take some time, playing with different poewder charges to figure out what each one likes and where they hit at various ranges.

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I need to get mine out but I thought for playing about that might be good enough...

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Sincerely,

Hobie

I have not. It was my first trip out with them. I might look to see about getting a box of properly sized round balls to try out. I will say, loading the Minies was very easy. They would have been a huge boon to a rifleman in battle!

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always thought it would be fun. My cousin's TC Hawken in 54 was a real hoot with the TC Maxiballs. BUT I'm pretty sure he always ran it close to max. It'd be interesting to see what that rifle would do with the 3 1/2 drams load. You'd not likely want to run a lot of them through it, but if you can control the flinch instinct I bet it'd tighten up your groups a bit.

The suggestion on patch round balls would be well worth looking into for a plinking load. A patched ball over 50 gr powder should be a fairly pleasant load to shoot.

Bill Bagwell was a huge fan of 58 caliber round balls for deer and hogs. He said they killed faster than any other projectile that he ever tried.

and deer. Doesn't take a big charge. Properly stabilized the .58 should be more better, right? Seriously though. I guess I should take a pic of my carbine but I don't know that I could get those great action shots.

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Sincerely,

Hobie

video ... then do a screen capture of the various moments ....

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

That’s exactly what I did. Set the camera up on the next bench and video. I tried some slow motion shots too, but the camera only slows it down so much. I wish it was about half the speed of what it was, and you could really see the flame! It’s fun pausing the video and rolling through real slow to see the flame and sparks develop an move around.

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I shot the rifled carbine again today. Shot it with a new Lee minie mold, around 475 gr. Tried it with 65gr agand it shot well. It has a thinner skirt, so I figured I’d try a lighter load of 50gr. Shot decent and still hit nose on. I did try a three shot group of 80 gr just to see how it did. I must have jerked as one shot of the three was way low! Recoil was a bit worse and I could feel the heat on my face! I did out a nice show on in the overcast, near sundown shooting conditions…

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We might need to chip in and get you a welding helmet!