Does anyone shoot minie balls with a felt wad over the powder? I load my C&B revolver with powder, then a lubed felt wad, a blob of bore butter over the wad UNDER the ball, then the ball (nothing in front of the ball) - loading is not messy, cleanup is a breeze, and even with Pyrodex I don't get a cruddy buildup in the barrel. The bore butter under the ball just seems to shoot clean.
I'm thinking that with a minie load for this gun, that I could just use powder followed by a groove lubed minie ball as per typical loading practice, but have been reading the pros/cons of lubing the base cavity of the minie as well. I understand the purpose of the minie base skirt is to "flare" into the rifling, but that set me to thinking that the felt wad which seems to work so well in the revolver might help here with distributing lube down the barrel basically just ahead of the expanding gases - so powder, lubed 58 cal felt wad, lubed base & lubed grooves minie ball using bore butter again. The thought of ramming a glob of bore butter in the base of the minie directly down into the powder just doesn't sit right with me.
I have seen 58 cal felt wads out there, so some people must practice it. Anyone here doing it?
Also can anyone help with my earlier question about the sight usage at 100-200 yard ranges? Does it stay laying flat on the barrel, or do you flip it up into the vertical position?