A Little help please, my CVA Hawkins slugs out at .515

[kungfustyle]

Hello,
I've been shooting muzzle loaders for a long time, but I've only used round balls. I've been casting for my other smokeless rifles and pistols now for a bit and wanted to get into the REAL/Mini ball moulds for my BP. My 50 cal Hawkins shoots the .490 round ball fine and I tried to slug the bore an drove a fishing sinker about 1/2 inch down the bore and it came out to .515. I didn't want to drive the slug down much further and have to break out my ball puller but I can. If these dimensions are correct am I looking at paper patching to get it to get a good bore seal or does this work like smokeless.....
My question is do I need to run the slug all the way down? or does this matter with BP? If this is the size am I looking at Paper patching to get the size?

[mooman76]

This is a kind of try them and see. It's kind of like smokeless for fit but not quite. The Lee REAL is .517 at the top band and will form to the barrel and rifling as it is driven in. Try it as see how it shoots and if it doesn't shoot to your liking, you can try an over powder wad which usually helps.

[kungfustyle]

Thanks, I've shot one like this so I'm looking forward to it. I just bought a mold from one of our members should get it in a day or two and wanted to get some direction before it gets here.

[johnson1942]

be more interested in the top of the lands diam., when paperpatching. maybe i misunderstood but is .515 the top of the lands? you want to size the bullet your going to wrap to be the size needed with plus the paper your going to use 2 thousands under the top of the lands diam. 1 thousands under is pretty tight when going down wrapped. with my .50 which is about a 1/2 thousands over .50 top of the lands diam. i use a .492 diam bullet with two wraps of number nine paper which bring it up to ,498. just right with lube on the paper to go down correctly. now ive change to a .495 sized bullet and 1 wrap on 18 lb. paper in the chase singe patch system as no fliers and very accurate. this is the point. a wrapped bullet should be about 2 thousands under the top of the lands diam. i think if your going to use a hollow base mini ball bullet that sized right it would be a perfect canidate for the chase single wrap system. good luck.

[fouronesix]

Hello,
I've been shooting muzzle loaders for a long time, but I've only used round balls. I've been casting for my other smokeless rifles and pistols now for a bit and wanted to get into the REAL/Mini ball moulds for my BP. My 50 cal Hawkins shoots the .490 round ball fine and I tried to slug the bore an drove a fishing sinker about 1/2 inch down the bore and it came out to .515. I didn't want to drive the slug down much further and have to break out my ball puller but I can. If these dimensions are correct am I looking at paper patching to get it to get a good bore seal or does this work like smokeless.....
My question is do I need to run the slug all the way down? or does this matter with BP? If this is the size am I looking at Paper patching to get the size?

Well, it would be better to drive the slug down at least a few inches. Once they form to the bore they aren't that hard to pull back out with a screw puller.

When you say .515" I assume that is the GROOVE diameter (major diameter of the slug). The other diameter you can measure off the slug, albeit a little harder to get a good reading, is the BORE diameter (minor diameter of the slug).

For patched roundballs, the patch takes up any windage, helps seal the grooves and takes the rifling for spin when fired.

Solid base conicals are a different story. Usually they should be very close to bore diameter. With the Lee REALs and T/C Maxis, their top drive band diameters are slightly larger than bore diameter and are engraved at loading. Then the rest of the drive bands are about bore diameter. The base portions of their shanks should obturate upon acceleration thus filling the grooves (more or less) and take the rifling for sealing and spin. Many times, solid base conicals do best with slightly heavier charges and a hard fiber base wad.

A true Minié is different in that the large hollow base expands into the grooves due to pressure for sealing and spin. Generally, Miniés require very little spin for stability. Most times, Miniés do best with light to moderate charges.