@CrimsonEmpire Yes. if the Minié ball isn't down all the way...the rifle might be more dangerous to the user than to his opponent (ie exploding in his face).
@wtsimpson7 You are correct. If the minie ball is not completly seated the gas from the exploding powder will not push it out it would move around till the pressure got to great and would either destroy the barrel or throw out the breach.
The only reason for hammering the minnie ball that hard is to assure poor accuracy. They're cast from pure, dead-soft lead & need to be handled with care if reasonable accuracy is expected. I shoot a lot of black powder & nothing bugs me more than some neophite pounding the hell out of the ball with his ramrod. FOOLS!
@r6mmbr Yeah I figured as much. I've watched so many demonstrations of firing these sorts of rifles and they push the ball down much gentler and easier. Haven't seen any of those guys' faces blow up.
It would be very difficult, although not impossible to cause a musket or rifle to explode by hammering the ball home, but I love to see people I'm competing with do it. It gives me a decided accuracy edge! ;) An undamaged ball is an accurate ball.
It would be interesting to see it's effects on a chunk of ballistic gelatin. Are there any (modern) .50 caliber Minies that are being made? I own a Kentucky Longrifle and would very much like to see it's effects on a 12 point buck ;)
If you want to cast your own (quite easy to do) Lee makes Minie molds if a variety of calibers, including 50. It likely won't shoot as accurately as a round ball though & certainly won't do a better job. A 50 cal roundball has a long history of success filling the larder.
@murpheysmuskets Hardee's 1855 teach's you to load a musket just like it is shown in the video. As does the 1861 hardee's manual. I have gone through both and know them left and right. The nice thing about scotts militia tactics is the muskets are smoothbore so you do not have to beat the round down to seat it.
@theswordsman09 Have you seen the nose of an ramrod? it is shaped to perfectly fit the round in it. Alot of the originals rounds were made using what is called cold casting. Alot of minie's now are hand cast which leaves a flat nose. It is nearly impossible to tap the minie round into the barrel in under 20 seconds. I have had to do what robert lee hodge did. The rounds were made to be extremely tight along the rifling. Given he was tapping a little to hard.
@theswordsman09 And i have realized that when you try to force the round down your ramrod bends. And at the time durin battle they did not care to exactly do what the manual says. They try to ram the round down as fast as they could. And alot of times it did not deform it much at all they were close enough and the rifling so tight the round still flew straight. I am not sayin this in any mean way i promise. I hate that about talkin on the computer some times.
@stewie13 its all good. I knew about the ramrod nose and how its supposed to prevent most deformation but still i don't think its going to help much if your battering the lead around the nose. minie balls were manufactured so they would slide down the barrel of the rifled musket, because they were undersized it shouldn't take that much pressure to seat a minie unless your sizing them above your barrel size, which you don't need to do.
@theswordsman09 All of my original minie's are in now way loose. They seat themselves some but then you have to force it down. My .58 rifled muskets are bored for .575 As were the originals. But i do love firing these beauties :).
@theswordsman09 Personally i reccomend And 1855 or an 1861 springfield if you want an rifled musket. Enfields are nice but springfields are slightly better :) Now the ballstics and accuracy are the same in both but a springfield looks so much nice :). Now if you want an musket i reccomend an 182 springfield.
@stewie13 There is one major difference between the two. The percussion vent on the Springfield has a 90 degree turn in it. That means that the spark has to be strong enough to get through the turn and still be large enough to ignite the gun powder. In the Enfield the vent is straight. The results in a lot fewer misfires. (the Enfield ramrod is also a lot more handy for cleaning then the Springfield ramrod)
@SamuelDMorgan Yes i know that :) But the vent is really not all that bad on a sprignfield. That is what i use when i reenact and the only problems with misfires i get is when the nipple get's clogged. I have had an enfield misfire more. And yea the rammer on the enfield is handier, i just do not like enfields. Sprignfields are a better choice i promise :)
@SamuelDMorgan Yea the springs for the bands do come in real nicely :) And yep they do look a whole lot nicer. And they are just as easy to clean as an enfield. Alot of people like enfields for the bluing but the soldier's alot of times would wear the buing off which would make it look just like an springfield except for some obvious differences.
@twistedyogert generally not, there slow moving and thats partly why there so deadly, but in the end it all depends on how much powder you have behing it. the civil war load is 60 grains of powder which propels it at about 900 fps but I have heard of some people doubling that load and getting it well over 1000 fps, I would not reccomend this though ecspecially with an antique rifle.
@twistedyogert Depends on how you load em'. If I was a Confederate sniper about to blast Yankee General Sedgwick from his horse at 800 yards, or blow out the guts of some crackhead scumbag tryin' to steal my truck, I am going to use a 530 grain minie loaded over a full charge of 80 grains of powder. Velocity in that case is 1200 fps, well over the speed of sound. To picture the entry and exit wounds, hear this out: Rifle holes goin' in, cannon holes comin' out.
farbs!
RottenAppleSeeds 6 days ago
@MrFlaujac French expertise in warfare usually comes from the losing. Trololololololololol.
asmrbear 3 weeks ago
@asmrbear
politics always politics ....
MrFlaujac 3 weeks ago
ok dude i think that minnie ball was packed down there tight enough.
MMSMikey 1 month ago
@leslyclaypoolio
yes a french
a french bored by*y the american ......
about the frennch white flag ( flag of youur king ) , about the other supid thing that that you and your media can imagine
MrFlaujac 1 month ago
Comment removed
MrFlaujac 1 month ago
Great piece of American History
Jamespot24 2 months ago
was all that ridiculous ramming really necessary?
CrimsonEmpire 2 months ago
@CrimsonEmpire Yes. if the Minié ball isn't down all the way...the rifle might be more dangerous to the user than to his opponent (ie exploding in his face).
wtsimpson7 2 months ago
@wtsimpson7 You are correct. If the minie ball is not completly seated the gas from the exploding powder will not push it out it would move around till the pressure got to great and would either destroy the barrel or throw out the breach.
stewie13 2 months ago
@CrimsonEmpire
The only reason for hammering the minnie ball that hard is to assure poor accuracy. They're cast from pure, dead-soft lead & need to be handled with care if reasonable accuracy is expected. I shoot a lot of black powder & nothing bugs me more than some neophite pounding the hell out of the ball with his ramrod. FOOLS!
r6mmbr 1 month ago
@r6mmbr Yeah I figured as much. I've watched so many demonstrations of firing these sorts of rifles and they push the ball down much gentler and easier. Haven't seen any of those guys' faces blow up.
CrimsonEmpire 1 month ago
@CrimsonEmpire
It would be very difficult, although not impossible to cause a musket or rifle to explode by hammering the ball home, but I love to see people I'm competing with do it. It gives me a decided accuracy edge! ;) An undamaged ball is an accurate ball.
Cheers!
r6mmbr 1 month ago
It would be interesting to see it's effects on a chunk of ballistic gelatin. Are there any (modern) .50 caliber Minies that are being made? I own a Kentucky Longrifle and would very much like to see it's effects on a 12 point buck ;)
NeoNSPETSNAZ 2 months ago
@NeoNSPETSNAZ google pennsylvania conical bullets by hornady.........
smartacus88 2 months ago
@NeoNSPETSNAZ
If you want to cast your own (quite easy to do) Lee makes Minie molds if a variety of calibers, including 50. It likely won't shoot as accurately as a round ball though & certainly won't do a better job. A 50 cal roundball has a long history of success filling the larder.
r6mmbr 1 month ago
@r6mmbr
Ah. We already shoot conical hollowpoints, and I was just wondering of the effects. I have seen molds sold in the past in Dixie Gun works. Thank you.
NeoNSPETSNAZ 1 month ago
WOW. I could site so many "Original" military manuals that say NEVER to load a rifle musket that way.
murpheysmuskets 4 months ago
@murpheysmuskets Hardee's 1855 teach's you to load a musket just like it is shown in the video. As does the 1861 hardee's manual. I have gone through both and know them left and right. The nice thing about scotts militia tactics is the muskets are smoothbore so you do not have to beat the round down to seat it.
stewie13 3 months ago
@stewie13 what he's doing is deforming the nose of the bullet which kills accuracy. your supposed to tap the minie ball down not sledgehammer it down
theswordsman09 2 months ago
@theswordsman09 Have you seen the nose of an ramrod? it is shaped to perfectly fit the round in it. Alot of the originals rounds were made using what is called cold casting. Alot of minie's now are hand cast which leaves a flat nose. It is nearly impossible to tap the minie round into the barrel in under 20 seconds. I have had to do what robert lee hodge did. The rounds were made to be extremely tight along the rifling. Given he was tapping a little to hard.
stewie13 2 months ago
@theswordsman09 And i have realized that when you try to force the round down your ramrod bends. And at the time durin battle they did not care to exactly do what the manual says. They try to ram the round down as fast as they could. And alot of times it did not deform it much at all they were close enough and the rifling so tight the round still flew straight. I am not sayin this in any mean way i promise. I hate that about talkin on the computer some times.
stewie13 2 months ago
@stewie13 its all good. I knew about the ramrod nose and how its supposed to prevent most deformation but still i don't think its going to help much if your battering the lead around the nose. minie balls were manufactured so they would slide down the barrel of the rifled musket, because they were undersized it shouldn't take that much pressure to seat a minie unless your sizing them above your barrel size, which you don't need to do.
theswordsman09 2 months ago
@theswordsman09 All of my original minie's are in now way loose. They seat themselves some but then you have to force it down. My .58 rifled muskets are bored for .575 As were the originals. But i do love firing these beauties :).
stewie13 2 months ago
@stewie13 lol i'm thinking about buying a p1853 enfield, i can't wait
theswordsman09 2 months ago
@theswordsman09 Personally i reccomend And 1855 or an 1861 springfield if you want an rifled musket. Enfields are nice but springfields are slightly better :) Now the ballstics and accuracy are the same in both but a springfield looks so much nice :). Now if you want an musket i reccomend an 182 springfield.
stewie13 2 months ago
@stewie13 There is one major difference between the two. The percussion vent on the Springfield has a 90 degree turn in it. That means that the spark has to be strong enough to get through the turn and still be large enough to ignite the gun powder. In the Enfield the vent is straight. The results in a lot fewer misfires. (the Enfield ramrod is also a lot more handy for cleaning then the Springfield ramrod)
SamuelDMorgan 2 months ago
@SamuelDMorgan Yes i know that :) But the vent is really not all that bad on a sprignfield. That is what i use when i reenact and the only problems with misfires i get is when the nipple get's clogged. I have had an enfield misfire more. And yea the rammer on the enfield is handier, i just do not like enfields. Sprignfields are a better choice i promise :)
stewie13 2 months ago
@stewie13 The Springfield IS a lot nicer looking than the Enfield. And the springs on the barrel bands are really handy.
SamuelDMorgan 2 months ago
@SamuelDMorgan Yea the springs for the bands do come in real nicely :) And yep they do look a whole lot nicer. And they are just as easy to clean as an enfield. Alot of people like enfields for the bluing but the soldier's alot of times would wear the buing off which would make it look just like an springfield except for some obvious differences.
stewie13 2 months ago
Are minnie balls super sonic?
twistedyogert 7 months ago
@twistedyogert generally not, there slow moving and thats partly why there so deadly, but in the end it all depends on how much powder you have behing it. the civil war load is 60 grains of powder which propels it at about 900 fps but I have heard of some people doubling that load and getting it well over 1000 fps, I would not reccomend this though ecspecially with an antique rifle.
MUSICALGUNNUT45 6 months ago
@twistedyogert Depends on how you load em'. If I was a Confederate sniper about to blast Yankee General Sedgwick from his horse at 800 yards, or blow out the guts of some crackhead scumbag tryin' to steal my truck, I am going to use a 530 grain minie loaded over a full charge of 80 grains of powder. Velocity in that case is 1200 fps, well over the speed of sound. To picture the entry and exit wounds, hear this out: Rifle holes goin' in, cannon holes comin' out.
Rachen30 3 months ago
@Rachen30 civil war snipers mainly used .45 cal whitworth rifles and they used conicals
theswordsman09 2 months ago