Parker Hale Musketoon
 

I am looking at a PH 2 band musketoon with a 24" barrel .Was wondering about accuracy with ball or the expandable skirt mini? Missing it's loading rod and I understand that PH used their own thread size?Same as the Sniders.Owner asking $430................Harold.

Can't help you much with the accuracy issue with round balls Pioneer. But the Parker Hales have a good reputation for quality of construction and accuracy with Minnie Balls. It might shoot round balls quite well.

The price seems OK if the gun is in good shape. But I would shoot for $400 (or less :wink:). A replacement military style steel rod will cost something like $40 if you can't make your own.

My thinking would be that I would buy it to play around with for a while. If you decide not to keep it I think you could sell it quite easily (possibly with a profit even) on the North-South Skirmish Association's classified ads forum.

The musketoon is smooth bore. While many will tell you accuracy stories, remember that it is a smooth bore. They were made to shoot Minnie ball. 60 grains was a standard load. I shot against a Parker Hale at a rendezvous in the 2x4 cutting competition. His Minnie ball really gave him an advantage at 25 yards. But in the accuracy shoot, he could not be in the game with the rifles. Also, people talk of gong shooting but is that hunting accuracy? It would be a great time shooting the smoothbore, but hunting I think you better say 50 yards is your limit. Still, you might have a better group then that.

I did not know that Cayugad. I assumed it was rifled. Personally, I have no interest in a smooth bore that's not a scattergun.

Musketoons can be either smoothbore or rifled. Musketoon basically refers to the gun as having a shorter barrel like a carbine version of a 3 band gun except that it only has two bands.
The Parker Hale 1858 two band musketoon has a 58 caliber, 24 inch barrel and is rifled with a 1 in 48" twist.
Parker Hale is a very reputable name and should be worth the price.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Dzx...20rate&f=false

Another musketoon with rifling is the 1861 Enfield Pattern Musketoon that also had a 1 in 48" twist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern...ield_Musketoon

OK.. well rifled,
The one I saw was a smoothbore. And at close range it was deadly. I went and did some reading on them. I never knew they came in a .451 caliber either. And the minnie seems to be the choice of bullet in them. It sounds like a fascinating rifle.