Loading a burnside case

[lewis]

I'm wanting to shoot my old burnside but not sure how to load case I have 54 cal balls and bullets but the mouth of my case measures .558 and the balls are loose. Should I patch them and is this the norm.

 

[Jobe Holiday]

You can't patch a ball that is loaded and fired from the breech!
J.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

I'm wanting to shoot my old burnside but not sure how to load case I have 54 cal balls and bullets but the mouth of my case measures .558 and the balls are loose. Should I patch them and is this the norm.

Be very careful.
I'm sure you'll get some good advice.

Welcome to the forums.

 

[Booner]

you tube to the rescue...-->

But I'm not sure I would follow his advise.
Why don't you go over to the North-South Skirmish Association site. (N-SSA) I'm sure you would get reliable information there

 

[Jobe Holiday]

Thanks to Booner for finding something on shooting a Burnside, but like he says, you might not want to do as is shown in the video. I hate to criticize anyone who goes to the effort to present what he wants to be an informative video to the world, but the lack of intrinsic knowledge baffles me. Spermaceti is Sperm Whale Oil, not Whale Sperm! Putting a greased patch between the powder and ball does nothing more than contaminate the powder charge with grease. This will cause erratic groups at best. How could he not know what the sight settings are? They are marked on the sight leaf "1, 3, 5" for 100, 300, and 500 yards! When he fired at the range he had the sight leaf standing vertically which gave him a sight setting of 300 yards at a minimum. No wonder he couldn't hit the paper at 50 feet!

Personally I have found the Burnside a bit difficult to shoot because of the gain twist rifling, which is rather unforgiving in finding the right bullet and powder charge combination to shoot accurately. A round ball will perform very well out to 50 yards, but becomes a bit unstable at 100 yards. Just my experience. Also if you are using light charges that do not fill tha cartridge case just use Cream of Wheat as a filler, no lubed cards or cloth patches.

Like Booner said, go to www.n-ssa.org where they have a public bulletin board, several pages of which are about shooting ACW arms. There is a search function to locate topics about the Burnside Carbine which I'm sure you will find most informative. The organization is some 65 years old and the ACW arms shooting knowledge they share is overwhelming!
J.

 

[lewis]

Thanks for info. But still don't know for sure what diameter bullet or ball I should load case with. My bullet seems to fit bbl snug but loose in case. Wouldn't a 56 cal ball or bullet be to tight for bbl. once again thanks alot