July 30, 2005
Playmate of the Month
The pics are of a Dixie Arms 1853 P53 3 band Enfield I built several years ago from a kit. All the brass work and woodwork are mine. A Civil war rifle that was imported from England by the Confederacy but used by both sides. Fifty three inches long and weighing in at a hefty nine pounds, I imagine it would get heavy on a long days march. .577 calibre it would shoot most muzzle loads used by both sides.
HERE is a good site of one in action. HERE is a real one.
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This is a Minie ball that I cast for the Enfield. Named after the French inventor, not for it size , these weigh in at a whopping 560 grains. That would hurt if I threw it at you! What these rifles lacked in muzzle velocity they made up in the physical mass of the projectile.
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I am still learning Movable type so please be patient with the poor quality of these posts.
Sweet! Do you fire it much? I've only taken my BP pistol out once...I haven't been too keen on solo range trips lately. The monthly matches take off the edge, I guess.
Posted by: Cowboy Blob at July 30, 2005 05:07 PMI used to when the Sabino Canyon range was open and they had their BP range. I have put about 500 rds through it, Minie balls and round balls. If you load 60-80 grains of BP you can shoot it all day. I put a Minie ball in a car hood at 100 yrds that left a hole the diameter of a beer can. You can see why so many died during the Civil War.
Posted by: Billy Budd at July 30, 2005 05:12 PMPretty nice. Enfield made a WWII gun I was thinking about buying (I ended up with the mauser). They look pretty clean.
Posted by: at July 30, 2005 06:00 PMThat was me.
Posted by: gindy at July 30, 2005 06:01 PMJeff you are probably thinking about a .303 Lee Enfield a great inexpensive British rifle similar to the Garand in toughness and popularity. Produced in great number, they can be had for $200-500 bucks.
Posted by: Billy Budd at July 30, 2005 06:25 PMThat's exactly what I was thinking of. Of course, it's not the same as a black powder rifle, but supposedly a pretty decent rifle for the day. On the other side of the coin, the Mauser is still considered by many to be one of the best bolt actions ever made ( I think that is accurate). In honor of this post, I think I will take out my .223 today or more likely go skeet shooting (if I can get some people riled up on a Sunday).
Posted by: gindy at July 31, 2005 10:43 AMNice musket. I'm glad to see you left it blued. There was a strong controversy some years back in the living history arena as to whether the bluing was removed when they were imported here or not. Supposedly to make them match our bright finished guns. At one point a challenge was thrown out to show one photo of the period that had a no-doubt-about-it blued Enfield in it. I have a photo like that of an Indiana soldier. I emailed it to the challenger and never heard back from him...
Posted by: Circa Bellum at August 1, 2005 09:28 AMThe Enfield Kit came blued, I also built a .540 calibre Hawken that I blued myself. It does look as nice but it sure does look authentic. I will post that one later, I have hunted Javelina with that one.
Posted by: Billy Budd at August 1, 2005 09:53 AM