The more I see of them rifles the more I want one. The old military rifles are really an interesting rifle. I like the .69 caliber 1841 if I had to get one. That should put a hole through something...

Semisane, Was your Zouave made by A. Zoli? The reason I ask is I had a Navy Arms Buffalo Hunter which was a Zouave cut down with a 26" barrel. It was deadly accurate with the round ball, but it would never shoot Minis. The barrel appeared to be choked in the last 4 or so inches.When you loaded a mini, it would be a snug fit the 1st 4" then would slide down without resistance unless the barrel was really fouled. I replaced the musket nipple with one with a smaller orifice. If I remember it came with 2 nipples a Number 11 and a musket.

I got lucky and picked up a Zoli Zouave for only $200.



These are great guns to shoot. But I noticedthatyou are loading it withvery large powder charges. I load mine to lower charges of only 41 grs. of FFF Goex.



I am sure that these guns were never loaded to such high charges. I believe theywere onlyloaded to no more then 60 grains, if that. This target results was discovered after shooting manydifferent minis and powder charges. I use this mini:



I have not tried to shoot a PRB in my gun. Don'tknow the actual twist rate for mygun, but if some guys are shooting the PRB with a lot of success it must be in the neighborhood of a 1 in 48" twist rate I would think.

I haveyet to take it into the woods during deer season, but will think about it next year. It is a little heavy, but sitting in a tree stand would make it a lot more comfortable.

Thought I would throw in these photos for all you photonuts.

Yeah RockFish, mine is a Zoli too. I shot some Minnie ballsout of mine once but they were too small for the bore and not very accurate. Mine shoots round ballswell enough that I never bothered to search for the right Minnie. Balls are a heck of a lot cheaper, and as sabotloader will tell you - I'm cheap.

You got an excellent buy with that gun Rafsob. Your load is a little on the light side but obviously great for 50 yard targets. The service load for a 400 grainMinnie ball in the Zouave was 60 grains FFg and a muzzle velocity around 750 fps. My chart doesn't go down to 40 grains, butshows a 50 grain load of FFg yields 680 fps under a 400 grain Minnie.

The twist rate in mine is 1:62.

According to the Dixie Gun Works.. 60 grains of FFg and a .575 roundball or a .575 minnie.

What I find most interesting about these older traditional and military rifles is the small powder charge they used. Yet in our modern rifles it seems we're not happy unless we are pounding 100-150 grains of powder down the bore. Now granted the modern are normally shooting sabots. But are we really being more effective with the modern inlinesor just shooting longer distances?

Semi

I never said that in public.... and I really do not know about cheap but you are related to Mr. Scrouge - think cayugad said dat someplace...

Wow. That's a cool looking gun. Guess I'm so into the newer rifles, I'd forgotten all about them.

Brings back memories when I shot first got my T/C .50 Hawken in the late '70's at a public range here. Another shooter I met there had one of those and we'd shoot at adjacent stations, away from the centerfire guys.Everyone now and then when I wasn't paying attention he'd put a big .58 slug thru my target and mess up my group.

Good point Cayugad. I think it's a distance thing. We all want a 200 yard slam-bam killer load, even though 90% of us will seldom shoot a deer over 75 yards out. If we were satisfied with a 100 yard gun and load we could all be shooting big lead over 70 grains and the deer would never know the difference. That Zouave is surenice to shootwith 70 grains of powder. It pushes the 278 grain ballaround 1250fps-laughablewhen compared to in-line T7 and Blackhorn loads. But I have no doubt it would do the job nicely out there at 75 to 100 yards.

I can understand cheap, especially with todays prices.

No as for the powder charge, I am using recommended charges thatmost, if not all, skirmishers use. I am sure the troops must have used a heavier load back in theday. I amtotallyhappy with the mini ball I am using, but now you got me going with PRBs. I willtry it. I can say that I amreally happy shooting this gun. Itis fun to shoot!

I alsothink somefolks are into trying tostretch out the effective distance with inlines. I don't havea problem with this, I just don't need to dothis with the area I hunt in Virginia.

That's a nice looking rifle, and a good shooter too. I have thought about getting one them several times over the years but never have. The photos make me wish I had gotten one of them instead of some of the inlines I have. Hmmm. maybe I'll have to part with an inline and pick one up some time.