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All,
Curious if anyone has seen a good reproduction conical boolit for .44 or .36 Colts & Rems.
the brass presentation molds from Dixie are interesting, and the ones for the Walker are actually quite good.
But, I was hoping for something "faster" producing than the Lee conical mold and works with paper cartridges as well.
Anyone?
If you're interested in the looks of the cartridge, conical is cool, but round balls most often shoot more accurately and you can't seat them cock-eyed. I like the Lee R.E.A.L. for my Ruger Old Army - the base is slightly smaller than the upper portion and they seat nicely. However, they don't look olde-timey and they don't come in 6 cav. either. Stan
The only way I ever had any sucess with conicals was if I used a straight line seater that i made for an arbor press. The cylinder fit on a shaft and the press used a fitted punch to push the bullets straight down into the cylinder. This is definatly not a paper ctg outfit. I found my best accuracy with some oversized 200 gr swc bullets from a modified Lee mold. Regular rebated base bullets for the paper ctg never seat straight and I got tired of missing rabbits at 15 yards.
When I bought my very first Colt cap n ball revolver back in the 70's I ordered two mould, one a round ball and the other a hollow base conical. I'll talk about that conical here. It's a Lyman mould and Lyman listed it as a bullet for the 1858 Remington New Army (which I bought one of those later too). Today I have a Ruger Old Army and I still have that Lyman mould. Here's what I have to say. Using that bullet and the Ruger, makes for ONE (not all) of the most accurate revolvers I've ever shot. Today I'm shooting 200 SWC from a four cavity Saeco mould over Triple Seven powder and 44man will tell you I got some impressive velocities and accuracy out of that Ruger. More power then a 44 special and clipping the lower range of the 44 mag. The hollow base conical is a PIA to cast, but boy it's a good shooting bullet and great game getter. I would have to agree with KSCO on the solid conicals being hard to load striaght. I size my hollowbase ones and they just enter the cylinder mouth and then I seat them, so they go straight. The gas pressure flares out the skirt and makes for a tight gas seal.
Joe
Here's a pic of that bullet, sorry I didn't think I had one:
http://www.hunt101.com/img/326395.JPG
That looks like the perfect bulllet for a cap and ball. Do you have any creeping on the last round? I have a swedge for that nose shape and i might have to turn a hollow base former. That would be a heck of a bullet for gallery loads for my 45-90.
I had one of those molds like Starmetal shows back when I had my Navy Arms 1860 Army. I believe Lyman catalogued it as #450229. It was hard to load straight until I sized the base in a .446" lubrisizer die. There was a visible line of demarcation on the bottom band that probably served to start the bullet, but either it was oversized or the chambers on the cylinder were undersized. I didn't do much paper target shooting back then, but the conical bullet seemed to shoot a lot harder than the round ball, and just as accurately, if not more so.
I sold the mold when I sold the pistol decades ago. A couple years back, I got bit by the BP revolver bug again and went on the hunt for another #450229. The one I found had the same detent on the bottom band, and this time, it was small enough to fit in the chambers, so the bullet starts squarely without pre-sizing. The rest of the bullet was a snug press fit. In my new pistols, it doesn't seem to shoot any more accurately than round balls, but it looks cool and I've never had a chain-fire with it, even if I forget (in the excitement of battle, don't you know) to grease the chambers. They never crept forward, but neither do round balls if they're a reasonable match to the chamber diameter.
I don't know if they make this number anymore, but they do turn up once in a while at gun shows. If you can get one for trial, check the diameter of the very bottom of the base band and see if it fits OK. Otherwise a sizing die for a .43 Spanish bullet can be used.
KSCO,
No the bullets seem to stay pretty much put unless I'm firing very heavy loads. By the way Triple Seven with a heavy charge blows the skirt out badly. Back to the bullets, with heavy charges the last one did move forward a tad, never enough to tie up the gun.
Bentramrod,
Yeah, I forgot to mention with the bullet the blast seemed more like a crack, like the bullet had more velocity and power. I don't believe the mould is for sale anymore.
Joe