In the context of .58 cal. Civil War era muskets, which are rifled and designed to shoot minie balls, how bad does a bore have to be to 1) shoot so terribly (inaccurate, tumbling) that anything but point blank shooting is a waste of time, and 2) it can actually be unsafe to shoot.
Hypothetical specimen: original 1853 Enfield with a bore that's seen horriffic rusting episodes and is so pitted that it somewhat resembles a sewer pipe, however, rifling can still just barely be made out. Who has experience trying to shoot similar examples, using minie balls and 60 gns. FFg?
It's unclear to me whether the rifling that can be seen is enough to impart spin on a minie ball. If so, I imagine it would fly generally straight. But it is entirely possible that the rifling is just too faint to do anything, and the minie ball could come out with no spin at all. In such a case, would the heavier-in-the-front minie ball fly point first (though maybe wobbly), or would it immediately tumble?
Apart from accuracy issues, would a badly pitted bore in an original 1853 Enfield possibly create such friction upon the minie ball so as to drive pressures up to dangerous, barrel-bursting levels, when using 60 grns. of FFg?
It's easy to speculate and offer conjecture, but what I'm really looking for is some first hand experience in shooting such sad-bored muskets.
Thanks.
Hypothetical specimen: original 1853 Enfield with a bore that's seen horriffic rusting episodes and is so pitted that it somewhat resembles a sewer pipe, however, rifling can still just barely be made out. Who has experience trying to shoot similar examples, using minie balls and 60 gns. FFg?
It's unclear to me whether the rifling that can be seen is enough to impart spin on a minie ball. If so, I imagine it would fly generally straight. But it is entirely possible that the rifling is just too faint to do anything, and the minie ball could come out with no spin at all. In such a case, would the heavier-in-the-front minie ball fly point first (though maybe wobbly), or would it immediately tumble?
Apart from accuracy issues, would a badly pitted bore in an original 1853 Enfield possibly create such friction upon the minie ball so as to drive pressures up to dangerous, barrel-bursting levels, when using 60 grns. of FFg?
It's easy to speculate and offer conjecture, but what I'm really looking for is some first hand experience in shooting such sad-bored muskets.
Thanks.