Black Powder concave base boolits?

[BossHoss]

HI,

recently a friend who shoots BP Rifle handed me a large rifle boolit that had a concave base , a lot like a .177 pellet. The concave was huge, enough to almost put my pinky finger in .

It looked like the boolit was pulled from cartridge ammo, many bands, but no lube. I could be wrong.

I think he said it was 50cal.

He asked me if it was possible to cast such a boolit for him.

The only thing i can conjure up is, that it would have to be reversed in the mold...with a pin to make the hollow/concave base....sprue on the nose.

Are there molds for BP Rifle that are setup this way??

Sorry, not much of a BP guy, other than cap and ball...and a little experimentation with BP handgun cartridge.

[R.M.]

Yes, Lee makes a hollow base mold, or did anyway. I have one I bought many years ago, but have never shot them.

[Chicken Thief]

Minié bullets are like that.
http://www.ellsworth.k12.wi.us/middleschool/tech%20civil%20war%20pages/1sem/5th%20Hour%20HTML%202009/logan%20Kemmerer%27s%20civil%20war%20HTML/123456.jpg

[BossHoss]

minie bullets?

funny name...ok.....searching

[bowenrd]

minie bullets?

funny name...ok.....searching

Minie is the name of the man who invented it.

[Mk42gunner]

Lyman and others make Minie and other hollow based boolit molds.

If it is meant for a muzzle loader, it will probably be dimensioned to cast with pure or near pure lead.

I haven't cast any .50 caliber, but I have cast a bunch of .58 caliber minie balls. Keeping the pin hot for good fillout makes casting almost any hollow point boolit look easy. In my experience, if the base pin is too cool you can have a good looking exterior, but have voids inside the base.

You really need to do a thorough inspection on minie balls, don't be afraid to probe the hollow with a punch/scribe/screwdriver. It will cut down on unexplained fliers.

Robert

[BossHoss]

Lyman and others make Minie and other hollow based boolit molds.

If it is meant for a muzzle loader, it will probably be dimensioned to cast with pure or near pure lead.

I haven't cast any .50 caliber, but I have cast a bunch of .58 caliber minie balls. Keeping the pin hot for good fillout makes casting almost any hollow point boolit look easy. In my experience, if the base pin is too cool you can have a good looking exterior, but have voids inside the base.

You really need to do a thorough inspection on minie balls, don't be afraid to probe the hollow with a punch/scribe/screwdriver. It will cut down on unexplained fliers.

Robert

Thanks for the advice, I am reading all I can now about them. They were never on my radar , as I just dont shoot muzzleloaders ,yet. ;-)

But, I am sure to be casting these for my friend. No doubt, I will be going down the muzzleloder rabbit hole soon.

[ku4hx]

The Minié ball (or minie ball) is a type of muzzle-loading spin-stabilising rifle bullet named after its co-developer, Claude-Étienne Minié, inventor of the Minié rifle. It came to prominence in the Crimean War and American Civil War.

[mooman76]

Lee makes several for the 50 as a minie and also for other calibers. They also make some hollow based bullet moulds for cartridge rifles. If you got to Lees web site at the top of the page you can see them.

[JohnFM]

I have a perfectly intact Minie ball I found at the site of a battle down in Arizona.
The thing is ~.56 caliber and weighs ~480 grains.
Never have found out just what it was shot from, but that is a big bullet! :smile:

[BossHoss]

But, let me get this straight, a minie' ball is not a ball...but a hollow based bullet.

eh?

Gotta go find a youtube of someone casting one up.....

[JohnFM]

But, let me get this straight, a minie' ball is not a ball...but a hollow based bullet.
..

Yep.

Just like military "ball" ammunition doesn't shoot round balls.

[mooman76]

Yes, and a maxie ball is not a ball either. It is a solid based ML bullet. Made slightly oversized so when you drive it into the barrel it sizes it to the barrel. The minie is slightly smaller than the barrel and the base expands when fired.

[Larry Gibson]

"Ball" is a military term that refers to the bullet specifically to differentiate it from other types, AP, tracer, etc. It also is used in conjuction with the bullet loaded in a cartridge to define an ammunition type such as in M80 ball, M118 Special Ball, etc.

Some bullets are concave base to regulate bullet weight while maintaining a specific external dimentions such as the M1873 405 gr 45-70 bullet and the M1881 500 gr bullet. More modern would be Russion "L" type bullets. Probably what you are looking at though with the 50 cal is a "hollow based" bullet. These are to allow the skirt to expand and take to the rifling as with the minie' bullet. Note in the photo the left bullet with the thin skirt; that is a true HB bullet of which the skirt will expand to take the rifling and seal the barrel. Note the center bullet; that is Lees replica of the M1873 bullet. See how thick the skirt is? It will not expand to take the rifling unless cast of alsomt pure lead and pushed hard. Then it is more of bullet obturation through set back than expansion of the skirt. The cavity is there to regulate the weight (405 gr) while maintaining the external dimentions of the bullet.

Larry Gibson