Farmingdale 54 Caliber military rifle

Support for the 1863 shooter. Discussions of powders, loads, bullets, etc.
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George Babits
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Joined: Tue Jun 16, 2015 10:53 am

Farmingdale 54 Caliber military rifle

Post by George Babits »

On New Year's day I always try to start the year off with an afternoon shooting session. Today I took out my early Shiloh .54 caliber military rifle. I got his rifle last fall and really haven't done a lot of shooting with it. My main purpose was to see how well I had "nitrated" the paper from which I made the cartridges. Load was 75 grains of FFFg GOEX pushing the Lyman .54 caliber minie bullet. The paper cartridges pretty well burned up. Nothing left in the chamber, but some paper ash on top of the snow. Can't complain. It was 10 degrees and I was shooting in 18 inches of snow. Ended up with 5 shots into a 2" group at 60 yards offhand. I wasn't about to sit down for shooting in a foot and a half of snow! Rifle cleaned up easilly and no brass to scrub.

George
Salmon, Idaho
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snapcap14
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Re: Farmingdale 54 Caliber military rifle

Post by snapcap14 »

nice to hear. aA suggestion if i way use to ffg instead of 3 fffg. it will save wear on the gas check p;ate. i use 38 of 2ffg for target work,
Standing on the ROCK
14th VA. Cav.
N-SSA
George Babits
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Re: Farmingdale 54 Caliber military rifle

Post by George Babits »

I think the rifles are designed for around 60-65 grains of powder. I plan to try some FFg but will probably use around 70 -75 grains. When sheering off the tails of the paper cartridges some powder is almost always lost, so better to be loaded a bit on the heavy side. Even with 75 grains of FFFg the rifle is pleasent to shoot with the 450 grain minie bullet. I need to roll some more paper cartridges in the next few days.

George
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snapcap14
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Re: Farmingdale 54 Caliber military rifle

Post by snapcap14 »

Forget the sheering off. by sheering off you have no control of your powder charge. Accuracy will suffer. Do the back end flat. I know they have large chambers mine will hold close to 100. but they do not need to be filled to shoot well. the less powder the cheaper to shoot and I shoot a lot. one bullet design I use shoots well w 38 the other 42.
Standing on the ROCK
14th VA. Cav.
N-SSA
George Babits
Posts: 442
Joined: Tue Jun 16, 2015 10:53 am

Re: Farmingdale 54 Caliber military rifle

Post by George Babits »

Yea, I know that about loosing a little powder when sheering off the tail. Thought about cutting them into tubes and plugging the base. What do you plug the base with? maybe tissue paper? or perhaps cigarett paper?

The Shiloh chamber holds about 120 grains which I really wouldn't want to use! The original chambers, at least in the carbine, only hold about 84 garins. Both were measured using FFFg and the Lyman 54 caliber minie. Even with sheering off the tails and loosing a bit of powder I was getting a 2" group at 60 yards offhand. That was when it ws about10 degrees and 1.5 feet of snow.

By the way, during the bi-centennial of the War of Northern Agression, I was serving with the 27th Volunteer Virginia Infantry. Not a lot of that sort of thing going on out here.

George
Todd Birch
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Location: Somewhere in the Cariboo ....

Re: Farmingdale 54 Caliber military rifle

Post by Todd Birch »

Congrats on shooting your '63 .54 Military Rifle!

I have one (Farmingdale) in .50 with a civilized chamber that holds 50-55 grs in a chamber length cartridge. I shoot the same Lyman 515141 bullet I use in my 50-70 Military Rifle and carbine. I can shoot it all day and not have my teeth rattled.

I've got some 'brag' targets which are eye openers - sub-2" groups off hand at 50 yds and not much bigger at 100 from the bench. The '63 do very well.

I had a vey nice Shiloh 'Sporter' in .54 with that cavernous chamber. I couldn't be bothered to use fillers and already had my .50s, so I was happy to part with it.
"From birth to the packing house, we travel between the two eternities ....." Robert Duvall in "Broken Trail"
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snapcap14
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Re: Farmingdale 54 Caliber military rifle

Post by snapcap14 »

I use perm papers. I've also used news paper. I've stoped rolling my own. Now use Charlie Hahns cardboard tubs. The go right out the bore on firing.
Standing on the ROCK
14th VA. Cav.
N-SSA
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