Which casts larger diameter?

[RhodeHunter]

.50 cal Lee REAL 320 gr?

or

.50 cal Lyman Plains boolit 395 gr?

and is the plains boolit have a flat base, or hollow? I have the REAL, that's flat.

[R.M.]

The REAL will be larger, because it's designed to fill the rifling at loading. The Lyman boolit should be just smaller than bore diameter. It bumps up at firing.

[RhodeHunter]

Anybody got micrometer data, please?

[RhodeHunter]

It was my understanding that all modern interference-fit BP boolits filled the rifling on loading. Only the CW minie was designed to load rather loosely. Or is this wrong?

Also, the Toby Bridges book I have from the library shows two hybrid boolits between minie and maxi. They're hybrid because they have somewhat of a hollow base. They are the Buffalo Bullet Co's plains boolit and the Hornady plains boolit. Can molds be found for these designs and where?

Micrometer data anyone?

[stubshaft]

The plains boolit is a flat base. I don't know about the 50's but my .54's were identical in diameter.

[idahoron]

The 50 cal real measures at .517 on the top band. The Lyman plains bullet measures .504 top band. When I bought the Lyman, midway had it listed at .508 so I sent it back. Lyman said it was correct at .504 so I talked to midway. They said they would change the listing but they never did. The real is the better bullet. The Lyman is ****. Ron

[RhodeHunter]

Awesome. Thanks. My REAL casted at .513

It really belongs to my buddy. Maybe I'll get one of my own and hope its a little bigger, and if not I can adjust it a little; that way I won't be messing with his mold.

[wgr]

the plains boolet cast at .508 in 50 cal

[mooman76]

Awesome. Thanks. My REAL casted at .513

It really belongs to my buddy. Maybe I'll get one of my own and hope its a little bigger, and if not I can adjust it a little; that way I won't be messing with his mold.

Which band did you measure? Mine drops 517 also but that is the top band. The bands measure smaller at the base and get larger as they go up for easier loading.

[idahoron]

wgr, the Plains bullet only measures .504 for the 50 cal. If yours measures .508 you are a lucky one. I have measured 3 and they were all .504. Ron

[RhodeHunter]

Toby Bridges book I have from the library shows two hybrid boolits between minie and maxi. They're hybrid because they have somewhat of a hollow base. They are the Buffalo Bullet Co's plains boolit and the Hornady plains boolit. Can molds be found for these designs and where?



Correction: The Buffalo Bullet Company's boolit is the "prelubed Maxi-Bullet", and the Hornady boolit is the "Great Plains Bullet".

And the books says, "Both feature a hollow-base design with oversized bands that must be engraved by the rifling during loading." and also... "Also, these bullets are loaded without patching of any sort, so they require relatively shallow rifling for a precise bullet-to-bore fit (refers to picture). Rarely will an accurate bullet rifle feature rifling more than .006 inch deep."

[RhodeHunter]

I just received two boxes of TC Maxi-Balls .50 caliber, 370 grain, new in the box prelubed.

With the micrometer, I measured three boolits:

top band: .505
mid band: .5035
bot band: .503

top band: .504
mid band: .500
bot band: .499

top band: .505
mid band: .502
bot band: .498

[idahoron]

Check out this TC bullet. After finding this bullet I went to using 410 gr Hornady Great Plains bullets. When Hornady quit making the 410 I went to making my own and said to heck with buying bullets. Ron


http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/2250Crap_TC_bullet.jpg

[Omnivore]

You'll get some variation in diameters depending on the temp of the mold and of the melt, and how you maintain the mold.

I tried the REAL 50 cal 250s and was initially disappointed, as they printed groups near 5 to 6 inches at 50 yards. I was so disgusted I went back to round ball for hunting. I read on here that a wad helps accuracy with these conicals, so I tried it. Yesterday I was getting cloverleaves (three holes touching) at 60 yards using a felt wad and a reduced charge of 90 grains Goex FF in a Lyman Deerstalker (my face is now sore - got to work down that comb a little bit). That was really satisfying.

Point is; try what you can try, and vary things up a bit. You may hit on something that really works.

[RhodeHunter]

mooman76,
Yes, my .513 was the top band. But this is somewhat suspect, as most of the boolits I cast (the REAL 320gr) were run through a sizer/luber. I don't remember if I measured one that was raw or not. NOT using the sizer is on the to-do list for my nexting casting session. It's too cold here to cast lately.

idahoron,
I would rather cast also, once I know what this gun likes (CVA Optima). You say you make your own, but didn't say what mold you're using. Care to share?

Omnivore,
I bought a bag of those .50 wonder-wads last month and haven't gotten to the range with them yet. Too cold and windy. But I am encouraged by your success. I just bought the Deerstalker .54 (right-hand caplock), but I shoot left handed. That big fat cheek-piece will be useless to me - haha - haven't shot that gun yet. Taking me forever and a day to get all the correct accessories I need.

But try, try is great advice. While I am not shooting or casting at the moment, I am trying to see what other boolits there are. That's why I ordered a couple boxes of the TC maxi-balls. Based on the diameters I measure when I got them today, I don't have high hopes.

Nobody has said anything about the two HB hybrids I mentioned. I will start searching again, but that probably means they're not being made. I like the civil war mini skirts blowing out to engrave rifling. Geometry is key, key, key. I am not a strong believer in obturation of flat based boolits. I would like more proof of that phenomenon to convince me. I am an engineer, but a total noob when it comes to boolits.

[RhodeHunter]

idahoron,
I knew I was looking at a post yesterday with a bunch of pronghorns pic. I found it again, with your S&W 500 boolit, so you can ignore the inquiry above. I know nothing about paper, so I will reserve that option (along with beagling) for when I get really desperate.:violin:

[RhodeHunter]

Track has these - anybody try shooting them?

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d73/TerryLaPierre/tracksbuffconicals50.jpg

[Boolseye]

My REAL 320 measures over .521. I forget which band I measured, but I thought it was the bottom.

[Omnivore]

Rhode;
I tried the Buffalo 250 grain BallEtt out of my Deerstalker. It's a "semi hollow base" with no lube grooves per se, but a cylindrical, knurled portion that's pre-lubed, and a dome-shaped tip. I used 100 grains Goex FF both with and without a wad, and 90 G.FF with and without a wad. The heavy charge was not good, but the 90 grain charge did pretty well, both with and without a wad, such that I'd use it for hunting.

I'm far more interested in casting, and so far the 250 Grain REAL with 90 grains FF and a wad has done better than anything for me, accuracy wise. I have yet to give the REAL 350s a good workout, but I cast up a batch of them. I did fire a few of them and so far I can tell you that they hit to a much different POI, but I haven't really tried them properly for group. If they'll group well, they'd make a good deep penetrator, say for quartering shots on elk, but I want velocity too, and they'll not get much of that I'm guessing. The patched round ball at around 1600 fps is slow enough as it is, but still gives some limited shock value on the white tailed deer. FWIW I get closer to 1900 with 110 grains volume of Pyrodex RS and a PRB from the 24" barrel length, and in that range you start to get some significant shock effects at very close range.

For them that's inclined to invest more in experiments, there's accuratemolds.com. He doesn't do core molds ("yet" according to him) so no hollow bases or hollowpoints, but other than that you can order any boolit mold you can imagine, and his price is very reasonable.

[RhodeHunter]

Omnivore,
I want to do mostly casting too, but I have to find out what my rifle (.50 CVA Optima) likes before I settle on a mold. Right now I have flyer problems with the REAL 320 grain boolits, even with as low as 60 grains of Pyrodex RS.

I am going to try the sabots also. I'll be able to cast .45 pistol bullets if those work out good. Just buy the plastic sabot separately.

I just bought a Deerstalker, in .54

I'll be trying to "shock" some deer with a PRB and the Deerstalker next year.

[Boolseye]

I have yet to shoot groups with the REAL 320s out of my TC Encore. I'll let you know how they fly.

Alright, now I have. put about 15 rounds through it yesterday at 35-40 yards. Bullet seems to need at least 30 grains of triple 7 to stabilize–I settled on 35 grains volumetric. I was holding about 5" offhand once I got it dialed in. I estimate the boolit to be traveling at better than 1000 fps, which would be ample whitetail medicine up to 75 yards or so. Have not chronoed it yet. Hopefully the flyers were a result of an unstable boolit rather than a problem with the gun/bullet format. Once I found the right load I had no more flyers–boolits are 1/4 range lead, 3/4 pure. Boolits are pan-lubed with Emmert's. They needed a good palm whack with the boolit starter, and one smooth stroke to the powder, no wad. Also did not need to clean between shots, due to the REALS scraping action.