Burnside Carbine

I have one. It has been shot quite a bit. First by Pop and then by me. It has taken deer and tin cans with equal proficiency.

I still have 25 or so of the cone shaped cartridges and a supply of both bullets and round ball.

Kevin

Interesting firearm. I watched a video, maybe not the same one, but it certainly perked my interest. It would be nice addition to a historical collection.

You need to ask this question on the N-SSA forum. In the North South Skirmish Association, we shoot the Burnside in competition in the Carbine class and it is well regarded by some.

I've got one. Never shot it, though.

The Fifth Model Burnside is probably the commonest one, and represented a significant improvement over previous models.

It's a rifle that could use a reproduction, but given the design I could see the cost of them being $1500 new. It would be cool to have a fast breech loaded black powder rifle, but the Sharps is a stronger, probably more accuracy design.

Chiappa is jumping heavily into classic rifles and I can easily see them adding this to the mix. The Burnside is a gun with historic significance in a market clawing for that but there are few if any good copies. Only issue with Chiappa rifles is the price, but their rifles do look good in pictures. Just look up their Spencer clone.

whughett said:

What caps do they use.

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It uses standard musket caps.
The guy in the Valmont Firearms video was using brass 4 wing caps to fire hand loaded brass cases.

Local hardware store that sells guns had a Smith Carbine on the racks.
I was tempted but the price was too high for my tastes.

Someone else bought it.

Whughett,

I seem to recall that Dixie used to custom make a Burnside bullet mold based on a Hair straightener used by folks to get rid of unwanted small curls. You might check an old Dixie catalog if you have any about to see if that looks like your bullet mold.

They also used those things for custom round ball and a host of original BP bullets. Turner Kirkland found them in his traveling salesman days and had some made into bullet molds for his out of the trunk customers and then when he started mail ordering bought "lots" of the hair irons. I think they still offer them....

Speaking of Dixie...I was at a national show one year and visited the Dixie booth and there were many of the family and staff whose pictures appeared in the catalog. I gave one of the ladies a dollar bill and told her thanks. She was a bit confused by it until I asked her to read me the cost of the catalog "$5.00 or $6 if you liked it" She then had to share the experience with everyone in the booth. It seems most of them never got their extra dollar!

-kBob

whughett said:

Update: So I won a bid for one of these. Arriving Monday. Included are a box of bullets several brass and polymer cases and what looks like a cast iron scissors type bullet mold. Local gun shop has musket caps and I have 2F powder on hand. Wednesday comings weather forecast is mild weather. Gonna give it run.



Next year I’ll try for one of those. One gun a year and I just blew the budget.

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The polymer cases are made by Lodgewood. IDK how long they last, but they cost significantly less than the brass cases do.

https://www.lodgewood.com/Burnside-Nylon-Cartridge-Case-_p_1618.html

I keep twenty cartridges loaded. Rarely go through more then 10 in a year. Easily reloaded as long as I have bullets.


Kevin

Impressive arsenal!

whughett said:

The Carbine finally came in. Shown among stable mates.

Can any one give me input on what diameter bullets work. It came with 50 .558 x 375, hollow base bullets labeled Burnside Carbine. I’ve seen these on EBay also.
The scissors type one cavity molds throws a .561x328 solid base. Both are going to be difficult to seat in the cases.
I’ve watched every YouTube video and unless I just missed it none have any dimensions. View attachment 955189

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For something like this it would be best to slug your bore with a .570 lead ball. Most of what I see on youtube for shooting people are using round balls.