Need some help with a Danish Rolling Block

[Many Klatch]

I have been shooting round ball muzzleloaders since the 1980's. I know about casting round ball. However I have recently started shooting an original Danish Rolling Block and it's a whole new game. This is one of the Danish made ones not the earlier Remington made ones. It is stamped with a date of 1875 so I think it is made with the better German steel. The rifling is pristine.

I swaged a roundball in the barrel and found that it measures .460. The chamber was modified to allow the use of 45/70 brass probably in the 1950's when it was imported. The brass does swell a bit but the new Starline cases seem to take it in stride. After fireforming the brass I don't resize or do anything to reload except clean the brass and install new primers.

I found out the hard way that .458/500 grain flat based bullets just keyhole at 50 yards. Lesson learned.

I found that Buffalo Bullets .460X405 grain hollow base bullets over 61.5 grains of 2F blackpowder will shoot a 19 shot ragged hole at 50 yards. I do a light compression of the powder before loading. I use an LDPE overpowder wad and then a light paper wad under the bullet. Got another batch of 100 loaded up and will try it at 100 yards tomorrow.

I don't like buying bullets since I have about a 1,000 pounds of pure lead stored. So I bought a Lee 459/405 HB mold and a Lee .460 bullet swager. Now I need to start casting when it gets warmer. I have pure lead and pure tin on hand I also have some SPG lube, but I will probably start messing with making my own lube soon.

I would appreciate any advice that you all can give me. One question is what mix of lead to tin should I use. The 1 to 20 that Buffalo sells sure seems to work well. However how do you all mix the alloy. I have only worked with pure lead.

[GRUMPA]

When I did mine I originally used WW+1% tin and went the 20:1 later. I just grabbed 10Lbs of soft lead and added 1% tin, just mixed in the tin when the lead melted.

Here's the link I did on the ammo part of it.. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?138818-11-7x51R-HELP

[JSnover]

Add as little tin as you need to get well-filled boolits. 5% should be more than enough, though I manage pretty well at 2%-3%.

[Tatume]

Sounds to me like you're doing just fine! Welcome to the list. Let us know how your like the Lee HB bullet. Also, I'll second the advice above; use as little tin as is needed to get the bullets to fill out the mold well. Two percent should be enough, but up to five won't hurt.

[Many Klatch]

Thanks, I was wondering what the tin was for. I have cast some lead figures and a high percentage of tin was required to fill the molds. I'll give it a try.

[JSnover]

Thanks, I was wondering what the tin was for.
Yeah, don't let anyone tell you it's for hardness. It isn't, especially you're only pouring lead/tin. Lead figurines are more intricate, so I imagine they might need more.

[Harry O]

I don't have any particular experience with this specific combination, however, I would think that the Lee or Lyman soft-cast 405gr hollow-base bullet would work well with an oversized bore.

[enfield]

Get the Lee 405 HB, I have 2 moulds and they both drop about .462"- .463" , a friend uses them in his Danish and they see to work very well.