Playing With The .58 Zouave (9 target pictures)
 

Friday's range session was devoted to playing with the Zouave - a fun gun for sure.

Looking through my Zouave target file I realized that, except for one target at 75 yards and one target at 100 yards, all of my shooting with this gun has been at 50 yards.
So I figured I'd stick to 75 yards for this shoot.

Now I know this gun's favorite load is 70 or 75grains of GOEX FFFg and a .575 ball in a .016 patch. Here's the last 50-yard target I shot with that load back in March.




That's about as good as I can do with this gun at 50 yards, andI figured if I could come close to a group like that at 75 yards I'd be real happy.

SoI'm looking in my bag full of loaded up Lane's powder tubes and find a ziplock with some loads of 95 grains of GOEX FFFg and another bagwithwith 95 grains of GOEX FFg. Heck, I'll try those two loads. After all, oncewhen I posted targets with the 70 grain load Cayugad said "why don't you put some powder in that gun?" or something like that. :D

Here's the first target with the FFFg loads - wiping with one side of one alcohol patch between shots.




Heck, that's not very good. Just barely adequate for a broadside "boiler room" shot on a whitetail, but not anything that gives you a lot of confidence.

Notice that I was using Olive Oil for the patch lube. This is the first time I'veused just olive oil instead of my standardmixture of 25% bees wax/25% Crisco/50% olive oil. As it turns out I found that I really like the straight olive oil. It worked well, is pretty clean to use, is easire to get evenly on the patch,the patches looked good after being shot, and finalclean-up seemed to be easierwithout the bees wax.

For the second target I gave the FFg a try, still with 95 grains. Here it is.




Well that's just a little better. Were it not for shot #1 it would have been pretty good considering my eyes and my home made iron sights.

Let's try another target - going back to the FFFg load - and see if I can do better. Here's that one.




Not much better than the first target.

OK, back to theFFg for another 5-shot round. Here the target..




Oops! I hung the target upside down on the target board, but the picture is postedso you can read the velocity data- so just imagine that the group isreally in the upper right quadrant of the target.

Anyway, after the4+ inch groups on the first three targets I was somewhat pleased with thisgroup under three inches. By now I'm starting to suspect these balls a little. As far as I can tell the company that made them (Warren - Ozone, ARK) is"out of business". The balls seem to be fairly inconsistent in size. Some load fairlyeasily and somearevery tight.

Well, I'm out of pre-loaded 95 grain tubes. Let's see what's in the bag. Hey, here are five tubes of 85 grains GOEX FFg. Lets shoot that. Here's the target.



Well, looks like it's back to 4+ inch groups. :D

Check the powder bag again. Found five lonely tubes of 85 grainsTriple 7 FFG. Let's shoot it up.

(WARNING! This target is going to fool you.)




Those three holes that look real good at first glance were fired at 25 yards. The first two shots at 75 yards were over the top of the target, so I moved it back to 25 yards just to see where those hot T7 loads were hitting. It wasn't until after I shot the first two loads that I noticed the powder charges were 85 grain weight of T7 - something around 110 grains volume. I just WISH I could get a 3-shot group like that at 75 yards. :D

OK, back to the powder bag. Found a couple of tubes loaded with 75 grains weight of Pyrodex RS. Shot them up too. Here's the target.






Now, though I'm having a lot of fun burning powder I'm feeling a little glum about all of the 4+ inch goups. So I shot one more target. But put it out at 50 yards and used one of the proven loads of 75 grains GOEX FFFg. Here's the last target.



Not great, but good enough. So I finished up with a little smile.

RE: Playing With The .58 Zouave (9 target pictures)
 

Well Semi excellent report. Why dont you try weighing your balls and group them by weight before you go out next time. Maybe it will improve the accuracy.
BTW - what cleaner were you using? I can hardly notice the powder burns on the target....:)

RE: Playing With The .58 Zouave (9 target pictures)
 

Looks like a blast Semi. I wish I wasn't so darn busy so I could try out my Zouave. I picked up the ingredients for cayugad's moose milk and got myself some .570 hornady balls. I ordered this front sight from Track of the Wolf http://www.trackofthewolf.com/(S(pz1zdd55gmt31z45w4tdpync))/Categories/partDetail.aspx?catId=14&subId=167&styleId =763&partNum=FS-ZOUAVE
I'm hoping it will help.
Thank you for the report and get weighing your balls.
Art

RE: Playing With The .58 Zouave (9 target pictures)
 

Ain't no powder burns on those targets Bronko. I was an honest 75 yards away (or was that 75 feet???). :D

Ya` gotta get out there Flounder. These big bores are addictive. I'll be carrying the Zouavefor a few hunts next year when I'm heading for a stand in the woods.It will be the Omega, Mustang, or .45 Renegade for those150 yard food plots though.

I think you guys are right about weighing & sorting the balls. I plan to do that because I have 150 lbs. of pure soft lead sitting in the shed and two Lee moulds on the way - a .535 and a .575. Won't be buying any more balls. :)

RE: Playing With The .58 Zouave (9 target pictures)
 

Well that gun does not like large loads is all. But with them little loads it seems to do real well. Looks like that is a low powder rifle. If you look at the little gains in velocity from the extra powder, there is not really any need for it.

Most of all it looked like you had a great time. And that is the whole point. I bet you were getting a case of purple shoulder by the end of the day.

RE: Playing With The .58 Zouave (9 target pictures)
 

Not reallybad at all Cayugad. I don't know if it's the shape of the stock, or the weight of the gun, or the width of the buttplate, but I find it a comfortable shooter. Even after those 40 rounds (actually 41 if you count shooting out the one dryball ;)) I wasn't sore at all. But my right arm was a little tired from swabbing and ramming. :D Forty shots with a muzzle loader is a pretty full shooting session.

RE: Playing With The .58 Zouave (9 target pictures)
 

boy you would think with that heavy ball needing a lot of energy to get started you would feel it on the other end.