Originally Posted by
tacfoley
a. Have you been reading the current threads on getting/measuring the bore for the right size Minié bullet?
b. The Parker-Hale rifles like the conical base interior, and NOT the shallow flat base.
c. You seem to be spending money like the bride's father at a gypsy wedding without having done any background investigation - trial by chequebook? This is NOT the way to find out what makes your gun shoot well.
d. Many of us here with diffferent-sized mould have exchanged bullets with each other in an effort to find out the best size, but I'll just repeat myself. Some like the dedicated Lyman for Parker-Hale with PH after the number - mine does not - it's 575213AV
.
e. Whatever size the bullet IS that you have, it SHOULD just push down into the muzzle with the pressure of the thumb with little or no effort. THAT is the size for YOUR gun. Lubrication is also important - my mix is 50/50 Neets Foot Oil and Beeswax - sometimes I also use Bore butter - there is, in my case, no obvious diiference part from the smell on firing. Others have other mixes - the original stuff was simply tallow, pressed into the grooves in the sizing die. Regardless of what the Hindus and Moslems here might tell you, it WAS mutton tallow, and nothing to mutiny about.
f. You don't mention your load, either - the service load of the day was 2.5 drams - that's 68gr of what we now call FFg, but the quality of stufff these days can only be matched by Swiss #2, IMO all the other stuff is the floor-sweepings after they've made the fireworks for 5th November. You WILL have to experiment, but my Musketoon puts every shot I fire into a three inch group at 50m, with only 45gr and the lube mix I mentioned above.
tac
PS - we usually shoot the P53 at ranges from 300 - 800 yards, so 30 yards seems to me to be mite unfair to expect accuracy - I would not have thought that the bullet is actually stable at that short a distance.