Hello everyone. I am, of course, new to this forum and new to the sport of Black Powder rifles, and wish to learn everything I can about them. I've wanted a muzzle loader since I was little but never really did anything to learn about them till now when I bought my first rifle. Now I warn ya'll, I can be a little long winded and my spelling isn't the best. Those are the two things I get pestered about the most so I thought I'd get them right out their in the open.

I just purchased an 1853 3 band Enfield by Armi Sport from my dads boss. What a peice of work it was. He did reinacting for a time and then quit, the gun sat in storage uncleaned for about 2 years. After really looking it over I wonder if he ever cleaned it. It took me about 45 minutes to wash out the barrel. About 4 hours total cleaning time, I had it looked over and it is still useable (I feared that corrosion may have set in to the point where it wouldn't be safe to fire anymore, but she cleaned up quite nicely, and no pitting had yet occured)

I'm now getting ready to actually fire this thing. But I'm not sure where to go from here. The advice I have received from local gun stores is little. They all seem to say something different and listening it sounds like they are just kind of guessing.

So I come to ya'll hoping for some guidance. Here is what I know I need but am having trouble with figureing out what will work best.
.577 minnie, I've seen a lot and am not worried about pre greased. It seems I can get more for my money if I buy them dry and grease them myself. What brands are best if it matters at all. I have seen Dixie Gun Works makes some, are they worth buying?
Grease! What should I look for in a good bullet grease.
Caps. Again like the Bullets, does it matter what brand?
Cleaning solutions. What should I look for in a cleaning solution. They're all different but what will make a good one good and a bad one bad.
Guides for the cleaning and care. I've been searching somewhat unsucessfully for a good and easy to understang guide on the cleaning and care of a rifle.

Any other adivce is more than welcome. Thank you in advance for your help.

Phillips, If you think your long winded, Don't! I don't own a Black powder of the same caliber as yours, I prefer patched round ball. The best powder I have used is Pyrodex. It is more moister resistent than others I have tried. As far as caps, All work great! CCI's tend to Blow apart, but w/ no ill affects. For cleaning I use my rod w/ a cleaning jag, hot water and soap, rinse. Finish the bore w/ bore butter and bake it at 300 degree's for an hour or so. Buy extra nipples, a nipple wrench, W/ pick and you are good to go! Good luck & welcome. JP

Welcome to the forum Phillips_R.C.. Rules are simple, be nice and join in.

As far as being long winded, well you'll probably have to work to beat me. After several years writing for a newspaper I soon learned how to say anything that would take two words with twenty.

I'm not the resident blackpowder guy here, but I'm sure several of our members can help you out.

Welcome to the forum...some are long winded and otehrs digress from teh point quite often (tht last would be me). Think you'll enjoy your time here.

Are right...grease them yourself. In he cooler months, tend to good oldfashioned Crisco....Dixie's lube is pretty much tried and true, it will work just fine. In reallly hot weather, they all tend to get runny...feel free to mix some beeswax in to stiffen it up.

I'm still a water-cleaner....figure it's worked for the last few hundred years. Does take a bit of work, but if i'm in that much of a hurry, i'd not have gone shooting. I've no argument with the people who use the modern chemical cleaners....I've used them and will probably use them again in the future. Shooter's Choice (for Black powder...try the gel) works very well for the hard to clean areas...for most of the cleaning, it's hot slightly soapy water for me.

Caps...haven't tired too many types of top-hat caps (I assume yours has the normal musket mipple). CCI makes a musket cap....seems the other brands are hit-or-miss in availibility.

Kind of "iffy" on guides...unless you use one to load the rifle every time, are still running a steel rod in and out of the bore to load it. Good news is that the larger the bore, the easier it is to center the rod by hand and not grind down the sides of the muzzle. Never have bothered with cleaning guides for loading muskets, just take care to center the rod to the bore. The last one I had fr cleaning, I just made.

Used a square scrap of 1" thick board (about a 3" square). Bored it 1/2 ay through with a hole that would just take the barrel snugly. In the cneter of that bored hole, drilled another hole that would just take my cleaning rod snubly. Varnished the devil out of it to make it water proof.

Thanks for the help! This is rrally clearing things up. I don't know why i didn't list it previously but what grade (?) powder to use? I'm having trouble understanding all the FF and FFF, whats best for a rifle?

Is their anything I can apply to the metal parts, particulary the Lock, Nipple, and Muzzle (inside and out) to help protect it from moister, and the corrosive effects of the ignited pouder?

FFg and FFFg are your basic blackpowders for percussion. FFG is recomended for larger bores and FFFg for the smaller. FFFFg is the 'flash' powder used in the flintlock acting like the cap you need.

Now this is simplistic and I'm sure further research will help you more.

The more Fs, the smaller the powder grains and the faster it burns. FFFg is best for small bores and light projectiles like a round ball. FFg is for bigger bores and heavier bullets. I don't have a .58, just a .50, but I think a .58 round ball is at the point where FFg would work best. FFFg should be OK with light plinker loads in a .58, but don't ask me where the cutoff is. I've fooled around with Miniés a bit and they don't like a hard swat from a heavy charge. Use a flat based bullet for more powerful loads.

It's a dry climate here, and I don't have much of a problem with rust. FP-10 oil is a super lube, fairly good rust proofer and won't tar up from firing black powder like some lubes do.

Bye
Jack

Proably today's FFg would be a good duplicate for the powders used back then...certainly wre some black powders back then that were different from todays, but during "the war" powder quaility generally was a bit slip-shod (the CSA had trouble getting enough European powder and their home-brew wasn't quite as good...and the Union powders were supplied by various low bidders, and some of them were known to cheat the quality standards a bit).

That maker generally recommends loadings in the 60-70gr. range. Doubt you'd blow the gun up with more, but that's the maker's view of things. Considering that accuracy is more key than sheer power, I'd play around with the little details looking for an accurate load rahter than strive for the fastest.

Phillip, Black powder is graded according to the granule size. The following is the rule of thumb I learned years ago.
Fg is the coarsest and generally used for large caliber arms ie: shotguns- 20 ga and larger, muskets in the 72 cal (12 ga) and bp rifle cartridge.
FFg is best used in bores larger than a nominal 45 cal up to and including the 577/58 cals.
FFFg is used in revolvers nominal 44 & 36 cal and small bore single shot pistols and rifles under 45 cal.
FFFFg is very fine powder best reserved for priming the flintlocks.

I have found that a load of 55 gr FFg (volume measure) is the most accurate in my 58 cal military rifles/musket.

The bullet lube I use is homemade and I melt it then dip lube the bullets.

You'll probably want to get some musket "winged" caps rather than #11 or 10's.

I recommend that a person go back 3 days after cleaning their muzzle loader and wipe the bore with a dry patch and re oil it.

This is a big help. Learing a lot fast and thats the way I learn best. It seems to me the things I need here are:
-FFg Powder
-winged musket caps
-bullets (.577 conical, do I need to load a patch when I shoot these?)
-bore butter
-patches for cleaning
-a cleaning jag
-worm
-nipple pick
-powder measure

I'm also going to buy a spare nipple, nipple wrench, and I've heard really good things about Ballistol so I might buy a can and try it out. I figure most my cleaning will be with hot water and a little soap but every once and a while I think I want to do a very thurogh clean with some modern prducts.

Thanks again for all the friendly advice and help.