CVA Firebolt MOLD

[monge]

Looking to buy a lee mold for my 50cal firebolt barrel slugs .510 are the R.E.A.L .517 diameter to big ,should they be sized ? Dont have eney experience in casting muzzle loader boolits eney help will be much appreciated!

[Nobade]

Were it me, I would try some of them as cast and see how hard they are to load. If too tough, size them a bit. REAL are designed to be pretty much groove size with very small driving bands that deform easily and can be loaded. Cast them from dead soft lead and they work reasonably well, especially with a lubricated felt wad over the powder like a wonder wad. A small soft mallet is a help to get them started sometimes. Once they are engraved they should go down pretty easily.

[mooman76]

They are designed to be too big. Try them as is with soft lead and they size themselves as you load them. REAL stands for Rifle Engraved At Loading. They should not be that hard to load. Some like a over powder wad in them tight twists to help it shoot better and use stronger loads.

[newton]

I think the questions have been answered but I'll throw mine in too.

No need to size the REAL boolits. They do like a wad over the powder for sure. Your gun has a 1:32 twist I believe so you might benefit from a little harder boolit than pure lead only. Either that, or just don't try to push them too hard. They will have a tendency to want to skip the rifling.

If you want great accuracy go with a little longer boolit and heavier to boot. If you really want to try something out of the box I would suggest doing the paper patch thing idahoron does. I bet your gun would love it and it does not take much to get set up for that.

I went a different route and love it, but it takes more time and more equipment. I would have never gotten as far as I did without the help of others for sure.

Ask all the questions you need around here. People are always willing to help.

[Maven]

monge, You are indeed fortunate to get a REAL mold to drop a CB that large! The two .50cal. REAL's I had cast too small for my bore (as did a Lyman Maxi-Ball mold).

[monge]

I have not bought the mold yet lee says they drop at.517 ?

[mooman76]

Mine drops at .517