Ammo Interchangeble 58mm bullets for 57mm

[Gibbon]

I have just finished Wiley Swords book on Spring Hill,Franklin and Nashville and at Franklin he states that union troops had fired so many rounds from their Springfield's and the guns became fouled that they resorted to using Enfield ammo. He also said that some officers insisted that they keep a reserve of Enfield ammo for this purpose. Could this be done and was it a common thing?

 

[johan_steele]

.58 cal and .577 are very similar. .58 cal and 57mm… are not.

For all practical purposes a .577 cal bullet will work in a .58 cal barrel all day long. Accuracy will suffer somewhat but at the ranges they were dealing with it was not an issue.

 

[Joe Whitworth]

I have just finished Wiley Swords book on Spring Hill,Franklin and Nashville and at Franklin he states that union troops had fired so many rounds from their Springfield's and the guns became fouled that they resorted to using Enfield ammo. He also said that some officers insisted that they keep a reserve of Enfield ammo for this purpose. Could this be done and was it a common thing?

From what I understand the Union had sufficient ammo production that English ammo wasn't imported. I'm guessing any English ammo would have to have come from captured supplies. While the Enfield did indeed have a .577 bore the bullets themselves were quite undersize, .568 and later down to .550, hence the reputation for easy loading and excellent accuracy. The secret being the undersize Enfield bullets remained in their paper patching unlike the fat American .58 Minie at .5774 and later dropped to .574 for ease of loading that had to be removed from the paper cartridge and rammed bare down the bore. This per "The English Cartridge" by Brett Gibbons. YMMV

 

[Don Dixon]

Mr. Sword got it wrong. The following had occurred prior to the Battle of Franklin in November 1864. The Federal Army had experienced problems with its cartridges for Springfield and Enfield rifle muskets. The diameter of the original design of the Federal Burton [Minié] bullet for the Model 1855 Springfield rifle and rifle musket was .5775 inches [14.67mm]. Cartridges using these bullets could generally be used in a clean Enfield rifle musket given the acceptable variation in bore diameter. As the Enfield's bore fouled, however, the bullets from the Federal cartridges might not fit down the bore. Maintaining two sets of cartridges for Springfield and Enfield rifle muskets was a logistical burden, so by January 1862 the Federal Ordnance Office redesigned the .58 caliber cartridge to use a .574 inch [14.58 mm] diameter bullet. It was assumed that this cartridge would work in Springfields, Enfields, and Muster 1854 Austrian arms bored out to .577 or .58 caliber and re-rifled. With the change to the new bullet the Ordnance Office, not surprisingly, began to receive complaints regarding the accuracy of the new cartridge in Springfield rifle muskets. Experimentation indicated that the .574 inch bullets were too small for the Springfields and that the "force of the powder" was partially lost through blow-by around the bullet. As a result, the powder charge for cartridges using the .574-inch bullet was raised from 60 to 65 grains [3.89 to 4.21 grams] of musket powder in April 1864 with the expectation that the larger powder charge would better expand the bullet in the bore.

Regards,
Don Dixon