This announcement by Parker-Hale regarding their .451 calibre muzzle loading Volunteer and Whitworth rifles was published by the Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain in the July 1988 edition of their ‘Black Powder’ Newsletter.
This announcement by Parker-Hale regarding their .451 calibre muzzle loading Volunteer and Whitworth rifles was published by the Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain in the July 1988 edition of their ‘Black Powder’ Newsletter.
The long range muzzle loading rifle is a specialty of its own and has components that are not found on any other type of muzzle loader. The most important of these is the breech plug
This article is part of a long treatise on ‘Managing the Enfield’ and is also applicable to full stocked military match style rifles. It is perfectly possible to clean a muzzle loading Enfield type of rifle thoroughly without ever taking the barrel out of the wood. Do this and you will always have the same point of impact with the same load.
When you first remove the barrel from the stock, what appears to be step one is to unscrew the tang/”breech plug” from the bolster. If you do that one then sees a recessed “plug” flat on two sides. We first tried to remove that with no success. I then ordered a parts diagram from Eurorarms – which showed the tang/breech plug, the bolster and the barrel.
Percussion caps, types of nipples and shooting the Gibbs. Sight elevations.
Cleaning and loading the rifle for best accuracy. Powders and charges.
The .45 cal. Gibbs has rifling with an 18:1 twist rate. Long heavy bullets which have performed well in .45 cal. cartridge rifles will usually work equally well in the Gibbs so if you already have such bullet moulds or commercial bullets (swaged or cast) which can make bullets .448″ to .451″ diameter give them a try and see if your Gibbs likes them.
Thanks to the late Dick Trenk (Pedersoli, USA) for permission to publish these special instructions packed with new Pedersoli Gibbs rifles after late 2006.
There are many accessories available to the long range muzzle loader. This short review covers some of the essentials: powder measures, drop tube, cleaning and loading rods, bore cleaning solutions.
