Took the Zouave to the Range Today

Today I took the Zouave to the range to benchrest it at 50 yards. I tried three different loads:

• 10 shots with the .58 service load of a Lyman 575213 Minie on top of 60 grains of FFg Goex BP.
• 3 shots with a .570 ball, .018 patch, and 80 grains of Goex FFFg BP.
• 7 or 8 shots with a .562 ball, .020 patch, and 70 grains of Goex FFFg BP.
• 1 more shot with the service load, offhand at a steel plate, which range nicely.

The Minies were lubed with Track of the Wolf's Mink Oil Tallow, while the patches for the balls were lubed with October Country Bumblin Bear Grease. I did not need to swab the bore between shots.

The Minies mostly shot into one big hole about 3" across and 2" or 3" above the point of aim.

I was underwhelmed with the performance of the round balls. The .570s which were very hard to seat in the muzzle grouped into 4" to 5" and at least 6" high. The .562s on 10 grains less of powder didn't shoot quite as high but the group was at least 6".

As it stands right now if I was to take the gun deer hunting, I'd load it with the service load. However, without a lot more practice with this gun and its stiff trigger, I'll probably use my California / Philadelphia .50 caliber half stock rifle during the early antlerless season. I need to do more load development with that gun as well, since so far I've been mostly shooting it with a relatively light 55 grains of FFFg powder. I want to see what it'll do with 80 grains.

After I finished shooting I tried a new to me way of cleaning. I took a piece of greased leather and placed it over the nipple then lowered the hammer. Then I filled the barrel with some water and let it soak for a few minutes before dumping it out. I repeated that a couple more times then wiped it with a couple dry patches, then a few with Mr. Flintlock on it. This got the bore clean quickly but was a bit of a mess because the leather seal over the nipple leaked. Unless I come up with a water tight cap, the next time I'll just use the flush nipple I bought for the gun, and maybe put a binder clip on the rubber tube.

While I didn't settle on a hunting load for the Zouave, experimenting is a big part of the fun of shooting these things.