I always thought a Civil War era reproduction muzzleloader would be a cool thing to own and shoot, but the only time I've actually fired anything like that was eight or nine years ago, blasting cow pies with a college buddy's P53 Enfield and CS Richmond. A .58 caliber Navy Arms / Zoli reproduction of an 1863 Remington Contract "Zouave" rifle came up for sale on the local gun boards the other day for $300; I impulse offered $250 and yesterday it became mine. She came to me a bit beat up, and needed some TLC when we got back home, but I think the rifle cleaned up rather well (I still need to pick up some brasso to polish the bands, butt plate, and trigger guard), but unfortunately the rifle did not come with a nipple. The patchbox had a cleaning jag and ball puller, but no spare nipple..

Now that I have the thing in my hot little hands, I'm at a bit of a loss. How do I shoot the danged thing? I mean, I get the *basics* of shooting it, and I've tried searching online, but there's a veritable tidal wave of information involved. My questions are as follows:

1. Nipple replacement: what size/type of nipple(s) do I need? The interwebz seems to indicate 5/16" x 24 is what's needed, but I wouldn't mind an ARF expert's opinion. Is there a particular length or construction that's preferable? I have both musket and #11 caps, though I presume the former would be ideal.

2. Powder load: again, online opinions seem to suggest that 60-70gr FFg charges are ideal for a Minie out of this rifle, so as to avoid blowing out the skirt on a Minie. I don't plan on shooting PRBs. I have both Goex FFg and Pyrodex RS (FFg "equivalent") in some quantity. Is there some reason I wouldn't want to use Pyrodex? It's certainly less filthy in my limited experience than black powder.

3. Projectiles: I picked up a handful of generic Minies from the range. I'm not impressed with their quality, and most of them seem to have voids at the tip. I'll shoot them, of course, but not with any particularly high hopes. Are there any ideal sizes/weights for Minies out of this type of rifle? I know that ideally I would mic it and hand cast my own Minies, but that's not an option at the moment.

4. Patching: If I plan on shooting Minies pretty much exclusively, do I need to patch them? If not, should I use a felt wad? What do you guys use?

5. Lubricant: I have a tube of T/C Bore Butter; will rubbing this into the grooves on a Minie work?

I appreciate the hive's wisdom on this matter.

Had one long ago.  Used a 30-06 case for a powder measure which gave 70 grains.  Only shot minnies.  Hit about 8 inches high and 2 inches left at 25 yards.  At that time never cleaned between shots so could get off only around 25 before it was too dirty to load.  In a clean bore, the bullet was loose enough that if pointed down, the bullet would move forward and need to be reseated .  Many people liked to put some form of better/adjustable sights on them or buy variations which had different sights other than the originals.  The rear sight leafs are supposedly for 100, 200, and 300 yards.  There are several varieties of minnies, the original style (OS) is the least accurate.  Cast them only with pure lead.  Any alloy will be oversized.

Track of the Wolf - Projectiles

You don't use a patch with the minie.  T/C bore butter should work fine.  Above is a link to apparent source for minie balls of a variety of size for .58 cal rifle (among others).  Dixie Gun Works and other various individual "sutlers" also sell them.  It can also shoot a patched round ball, like .570.

Start with 50gains of powder and work up to 60. Any heavier charge than that will blow out the skirt on the bullet and mess up accuracy.

Buy some different sized minie billets until you figure out which your rifle works best with.
.575, .577, etc. Wipe the bore between shots.
Once you figure out best bullet diameter then buy a mold to cast your own.

Your lube will work fine. Do NOT put anything behind a minie like a wad or patch.

Track of the Wolf or Dixie Gun Works will have a nipple. Give them a call.

Ok, thanks for the input everyone. I'll be picking up some of Track's "improved" .575 and .577 Minies, which are supposed to have thicker skirts to handle heavier loads.

Let us know how it shoots, they are cool historic replicas. I knew a guy who hunted with one in BP rifle season.

The standard civil war era power charge for a .58 caliber rifled musket was 60 grains of FFg and a 500 gr minie ball.  The load for the 1842 smooth bore musket was 110 gr of FFg with a .650", 412 gr round ball.  The 1842s that were converted to rifled muskets (the original design used a barrel that was thick enough for rifling to be cut later) used 70 grains of FFg with a .685", 730 gr Minie ball.  As an aside, the paper cartridge Sharps rifles and carbines (1859 and 1863 models) used a 475 gr ring tail bullet on top of 50 grains of FFg.

There's not much benefit in upping the charge in any civil war rifled musket as the gain in velocity is slight.  With 60 grains of FFg and a 500 gr minie you should expect about 850 fps.  That might sound slow, but you need to consider that a 500 gr lead slug packs a huge amount of momentum and 850 fps is enough to split a deer from sternum to tail.

Civil war muskets also had sights regulated for 100 yards, so they'll shoot about 6" high at more normal 50 yard muzzle loader hunting ranges. My Zoave shot true to the original 100 yard zero and I found that if I held near the bottom of the chest at 50 yards I was good to go.

You also need to consider that not all minie balls are the same.   The traditional "old fashioned" minie ball used a long skirt and Zouaves tend to shoot much more accurately with these than with the shorter skirt parker hale style minie ball.

Alloy hardness is also important.  The skirt seals the gas in the bore so it needs enough pressure to fully and quickly obturate the skirt into the bore to prevent gas cutting that otherwise harms accuracy.  A hard alloy that won't allow full and fast obturation is much more of an accuracy problem than a little too much powder.  If your minie balls are not pure lead, you may need to up the charge to get good accuracy.

The minie ball was designed to be fired in a dirty bore.  In effect, it offered the rapid loading advantages of the smooth bore musket with the accuracy of a rifle, and without the problems that start to appear in loading a rifle after the bore starts to build up fouling.  

Lube your minie ball with a good Black powder lube and you won't need to clean the bore nearly as often as you do with a muzzle loading rifle with round balls or maxi-balls.   I prefer SPG as it works much better than than some of the greases that do not contain beeswax, and it won't cause problems with a period correct paper cartridge (in effect a civil war speed loader).

With some practice you can fire a Zouave at a rate of 3 to 4 rounds per minute using civil war style paper cartridges.  I've put 8 rounds inside a B-27 target at 100 yards in just over 2 minutes.

I like the Zoave for hunting as it is well balanced, not overly heavy to carry and packs an incredible punch - much more devastating than a .54 with a maxi-ball.

Now there's the kind of advice one can benefit from, from somebody who does shoot these things a lot.  The question for me has always been, can you have accurate loads without casting your own minies?

Good question.

I used to cast a lot, but now with more money than time I now only cast the 480 gr bullets for my black powder .45-70 cartridges, the ring tail bullets for my .45 caliber Sharps Infantry rifle, and the minie balls for my .58 caliber rifled muskets.

That's because finding well cast bullets for any of the above is both difficult and, if you find them, prohibitively expensive.

When you're casting a 450-525 gr bullet, you discover that the alloy makes a significant difference in weight, so consistent alloy is needed not just for consistent hardness but also for consistent weight from lot to lot.  Then there is the need for consistent fill to ensure that a large diameter bullet has the center of mass on the same axis as the center of form to avoid excessive yaw and precession when it exits the bore.   I can cast better bullets than I can buy, so I cast mine own when it comes to these particular rifles.

I've shot CW rifles and rifle muskets competitively since the 1970's.  I started out with a Zoli-made "Zouave" like yours in the late 70's and it drove tacks. These come with a 1-72" twist barrel typically duplicating the original CW-period rifling twist rate on US-made rifles & rifle muskets.  Most folks find that a Lyman 575494 semi-wad-cutter minie gives stellar performance at 50 yards using between 35 and 45 grs 3F Goex.  Because its a "light" minie (only 315 grains), performance at 100 yards or more can be adversely affected by wind. Other bullets like the RCBS 580-416 also provides superior performance with great stability at 100 yards or more.

Some thoughts:

1. Use only pure lead when casting minieballs.  Most of the pre-cast minieballs you see on the market are shit.  Do yourself a favor and don't waste time
2. Try to keep the minie sized to 2 to 4 thousandths under bore size. I use a sizer die. You can get various sizers dies (and molds, etc)  from http://www.ssfirearms.com/
3. Use a home-made lube like crisco, beeswax (30/70),  Melt it and dip your bullets in and run through the sizer die.  You should also put bore butter, crisco
, white lithium grease, etc in the base cavity of the minie just before you go to shoot.  This will keep the fouling soft between shots
4. In my experience with these firearms, you need to work up a load: Start with 5 round groups in increments of 2.5 grs of powder, starting lowest to highest when looking for a group.  Unless you want to abuse your shoulder, suggest keeping loads under 55grs of 3F or 65 2F Goex.

5. These firearms were made to shoot minieballs.  Never saw the benefit of patched round balls with these firearms, personally.
6. And use real black powder. :-)
7. Clean up by plugging the cone (nipple) and pouring hot water down the bore, let it set for a few minutes and pour it out.  Then using a jag and patches, swab the bore.  Once clean and dry, oil the bore.
8. Always snap a few musket caps on the cone before you load the first round down the bore to clear breech area of any oil or moisture.

YMMV

From what I know or think I know, modern rifled musket replicas  do not have progressive or gain twist rifling like the originals did.   Apparently Parker-Hale once did then stopped.  I thought that the Colt 1861 replica musket did as well.   Does not having progressive twist rifling matter for accuracy?

Minie

Thanks for all the input! Your name is certainly appropriate.

Unfortunately, I'm not in a position now to cast my own balls. Hopefully this will change in the spring or summer, but at the moment I'm dependent upon what I can buy. I have some .575 and some .577 minies inbound from Track of the Wolf, which should come in tomorrow; hopefully I'll be able to try them out this weekend or next.

You advocate using home-made lube; can I ask why? I've got T/C Bore Butter, can that substitute? I can make some, but I'd rather not go through the hassle if I don't have to.

I'm with you on the PRBs. As I said in the OP, I intend to only use Minies. Ideally I'll come up with a load that dials in well at 100 yards or so, so that I can use it for target shooting and the occasional hunting trip.

Why do you say real black powder? I have a limited supply, which I was planning on reserving for my flinter since Pyrodex doesn't seem to work with it.

Good advice on the cleaning and snapping caps before shooting, I'll be sure to do that.

Again, I appreciate the advice. I'll update when I get to shoot.

ETA: While tooling around on Tracks, I found this sight for sale. Does anyone have experience with this type of front sight? I would have thought it would require a similar rear sight, but nothing like that seems available. Would this work with the regular (horrible) rear sight?

I'll second the black powder recommendation.

Pyrodex has a significantly higher ignition temperature than black powder - almost twice as high as black powder.  It's not as critical in a Zouave from an ignition standpoint as it is in some other rifles as the ignition path is short and with a musket cap, there is plenty of flash.  However, it you try to use Pyrodex in something like an 1859 Sharps, where the ignition path is long and takes two hard 90 degree turns, you'll find it won't be all that reliable.  It has similar reliability issues in a flint lock.  

However Pyrodex also produces really hard powder fouling and in a rifled musket that hard fouling may require some dry brushing every half dozen or so shots to enable you to easily load the next projectile.  It's also a bit harder to clean up at the end of the day.  

Pyrodex's fouling is also much more hygroscopoic that black powder and with any significant humidity it will start forming flash rust very quickly, and in my experience, it seems to be more corrosive than black powder.  

Pyroex itself also seems to be more hygroscopic in unburnt form so it's more prone to getting damp on a foggy morning, in the rain, etc - with predictably dismal results with a flint lock as well.  

In my experience Pyrodex doesn't store as well once the can has been opened.  Black powder ages very well where Pyrodex doesn't.  

Finally, Pyrodex actually generates slightly more pressure than black powder, while Triple 7 and Black Mag3 generates substantially more pressure, so use them with care in a traditional black powder firearm.  

I'll use it if it's all I've got, but I usually save up and get a 50 pound shipment with a mix of FFFg and FFg every couple years to keep me stocked in black powder to ensure I never have to resort to Pyrodex.

Original US rifle, rifle-muskets and rifled-muskets do not have gain twist rifling but have progressive depth rifling where the rifling is deeper at the breech then the muzzle.  Standard twist rate is 1-72" for the .58 caliber rifles and rifle-muskets and I believe the same twist rate for the .69 caliber rifled-muskets.  I believe the US M1841 Rifle has a faster twist rate as it was originally meant to shoot .54 caliber patched round balls.  Period nomenclature has rifles and rifle-muskets as newly made firearms designed for rifling. Rifled-muskets are smoothbore firearms returned to the armory or contractors to be rifled. Considerable numbers of armory stored smoothbores were converted in this way in the 1850's upon adoption of the minieball as a standardized projectile

I think you'll find you'll be very disappointed in the quality of the projectiles and you'll not get anywhere near the kind of accuracy that that firearm is capable of giving using a properly cast, sized and lubed projectile.  As to getting black powder, I see you're in Virginia. You can contact Back Creek Gun Shop in Winchester, VA and they can supply all of your black powder and musket or revolver cap needs. Another thing to mention is that the North-South Skirmish Association has its home range, Fort Shenendoah next door to Back Creek Gun Shop.  You would do yourself well to attend one of the National shoots (3rd weekend in May and 1st full weekend in October) where you'll find anything and everything you'll need to accurately shoot your "Zouave" (actually its a copy of the Remington M1863 Rifle.  Its well-known that the "Zouave" moniker is a modern term).  You can certainly use the bore butter as an interim solution, but strongly recommend if you plan to regularly shoot it, to move to a closer period equivalent.  And by all means fill the base cavity up with a soft lube as I mentioned previously.

That sight you show is a poor copy of the M1855 accessory front sight that resided in the patch box of the M1855 Harpers Ferry and Springfield rifles.   Really meant to be used with the adjustable long range rear sight that came on the early versions of that rifle model.  If you look at an original M1855 Rifle, the interior of the patch box its machined to accept that accessory front sight as well as a spare cone (nipple....to you neophytes).

What kept me out of black powder rifle shooting was that shooting and reloading are all the hobby I can do.  Casting lead is a bridge too far.  Thus I knew I would always have a hard time finding quality, accurate projectiles for muskets and black powder cartridge rifles.

I have a Lyman Great Plains Rifle in .54 cal, it shoots great, I have projectiles that work well and that'll do it for me.  

I knew a guy who shot a Zoave and shot it reasonably accurately to 100 yd, and did not cast his own lead, so I'm pretty sure there can be some lead that will work, at least well enough for OP's rifle to hit a pie plate at 100 yd..

If you're looking for an authentic Civil War weapon (especially if you're thinking of doing reenacting), avoid the Zouave. These were made by Remington during the Civil War, but were never issued. They were put into storage and then sold as surplus some time later (That's why so many were found, a century later, in remarkably good condition.) There's speculation that the contract to make them was given to Remington as a sort of "consolation prize," when the government negotiated lower prices on the Remington revolvers.

Zouaves were some of the first reproductions made during and after the Civil War centennial, possibly because there were plenty of excellent-condition originals available for the Italians to copy. There's a lot of variation in quality among Zouaves made by the various Italian makers. Antonio Zoli reputedly made the best ones, but they are no longer available new. If you find a Zoli in excellent used condition, buy it. (But please don't take it to a reenactment, or you will be called a farb.)

Personally, for a first Civil War long gun, I would recommend a Springfield or Enfield 3-bander.