Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

My Navy Arms .58 Zouave was complaining that I haven't taken her out for quite a while, so I took her to aSunday afternoon shoot. She ain't a pretty lady (needs a refinishing)but she's lots of fun. Also, she's still wearing the LOL hardware store nuts & bolts peep sight mounted in a forward position.



Her favorite load is 70 grains GOEX FFFg under a .575 ball in a .016 patch. But I've never shot her with hotter loads of GOEX, so I thought I would give that a try.
I put a target out a 50 yards and loaded with 105 grains of FFFg and a .575 ball. Took only three shots with that load. It was kicking the hammer back to half cock.
I'm thinking my nipple may be getting a little worn, because the mainspring sure isn't weak. Here's that first target.




So I put out a new target anddropped the load to 100 grains. Here's the 5-shot target.



Those four shots into a one and three-quarter inch group are about as good as I can do with this gun.
That shot way to the right that increased the group to over four inches is a mystery to me. Every one of those shots felt good, surely nothing bad enough to cause that much difference.

I decided to shoot another group with the same powder charge, but with a .570 ball. Here's the result.




Not too bad. Not my best, butabout my average "pretty good" group with this gun at 50 yards. Easily "lung of deer" anyway.

Up until now I'd been using some .016 patches cut from a $2 Good Will Store table cloth. So I figured I would try the same load with.018 pillow tick patches.
Here's the target.



Dang! Another group with four pretty good shots and one screwing it up. What's up with that.

Let's staywith the .570 ball, drop the charge to 90 grains, and go back to the table cloth patch material. Here's that group.




Well, at least with this one I know the shot low and to the left was my fault. I squeezed when I shouldn't have.
Anyway, I didn't want to break the pattern of 4 pretty good shots and one bad one. :D

OK, drop the charge another 10 grains and keep everything else the same. Here's what happened.




Not so good. I wonder if it's the load or me? Anyway, that 80 grain load is a lot more pleasant shooting than the 100 grain one.

Drop the load another 10 grains to 70 - which has always shot well in this gun. Here's the target.



DANG !!![:@] WHAT IS IT WITH THOSE 1 in 5 FLYERS ???

I had timefor one more round. So I shot the 70 grain load again, but switched back to the .575 ball which the gun has always preferred. Here it is.



Well, at least I finished the day with a "feel good" target. :D One day I may try to set the gun up with a peep back on the tang and see what happens. But to tell you the truth, I kinda` like that big 3/16" peep set forward on the barrel.

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

I'd say you tried,and got a winner.

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

Semisane

Thanks for the pics... it really help invision what is going on...

I need to get out and shoot my Renegades some more with PRB's your targets have given me inspiration + I have another project i should do - but muzzy target shooting season is coming soon....

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

You're welcome sabotloader. I post a lot of pictures `cause I know a bunch of you guys can't read all that well. :D

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

That is one great looking gun. Nice shooting. Have you shot any deer with that gun?
Art

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

I like reading stuff with a lot of pictures. you know. nevermind

great looking gun. semi

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

I've never shot a deer with it flounder,but I sure would like to. I carried it for three or four hunts last season but didn't get a shot. We have a long season (mid Nov to end Jan) and I hunt at least two days each week end. But I swap guns around a lot. One morning I'll take the Mustang. That evening I might take the GP flintlock. The next morning maybe theB-78 25-06or the New Englander. So I never know what gun I'll be shooting a deer with. The guys in my club laugh at me a lot.

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

Me too Corey.

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

Great shooting! I really need to get me one of those sidelocks.:)

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

Do ya ever forget some of the guns you own? :)
Great report.

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

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...

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

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.

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

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.

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

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.

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

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?

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

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...

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

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.:D

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

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.

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

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.

RE: Shooting The Zouave (9 pictures)
 

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.