The Remington Zouve is a fun black powder rifle available at reasonable cost. We took one in a Euro Arms Zouve replica on trade recently at the store and decided to give it a good test firing this weekend at the range.
Remington Zouve rifles were built late in the Civil War and there is some debate as to whether they saw combat use or not. Thousands were sold as surplus in near-new condition and Zouve’s are some of the best preserved US arms of the period. Reproduction Zouve’s have been built by a number of firms over the years and are a low-cost way to own and shoot a civil war era rifle. Zouve’s are 58 caliber rifles, the same caliber as the more common Springfield and Enfield rifles of the North and South.
We cast up some original .575 diameter Minie-Balls from a Lee Bullet mold for our range shooting. These weigh in at 500grs and have a hollow base which expands to engage the rifling. The Minie-ball was a breakthrough in projectile design for military muzzleloading rifles as it eliminated the need for a patch – drastically reducing loading effort and time (at least with a clean rifle).
Standard loads are 60-70grs of FFg Black Powder. For ‘plinking’ we reduced the load to 50grs which combined with the fairly heavy rifle yielded mild recoil and grouped about 2″ high at 25 yards using the shortest sights.
Here’s Ranger Firearms own Sarah Z taking her turn with the Zouve:
Ranger Firearms carries a complete line of Black Powder guns, supplies, and accessories.
