Flat Fronts

[Good Cheer]

Once upon a time I read somewhere that wadcutter type flat noses were used in muzzleloading target rifles. Don't remember where I read it. Anybody? Do you recall such?

[mooman76]

I have a mould I picked up here in 54 cal with a RB on one side and what looks like a wad cutter on the other. I would think it would only be accurate out to 50y or so but I could be wrong.

[Nobade]

Lee and Moose make wadcutter minie' moulds for muskets. No reason they wouldn't work in other calibers too.

-Nobade

[KyBill]

Hope this photo works it may help these are for my 58 cal

[KyBill]

Machine the semi wad cutter to flat top . make a stake cutter for competition shoots

[johnson1942]

ive found that the kieth nose in my muzzle loader .45 is very very accurate. the kieth nose is a short taper and then flat in the nose. when i tested the kieth nose in my 45/70 the kieth nose shot a lot tighter groups than the 3 different pointed ones i tried. the blunt round nose and the kieth nose shot the same and the pointed ones were bad.

[KyBill]

I have shot all three under light loads 40 - 60g pyrodex rs .in the 58 mini ball 60 g can hit 1 1/2 inch wide stick @ 100 yrds every shot . The flat top 75 yards 60g same . the semi wad cutter 40g 100 yrds My eyes are getting old I have to paint sticks white and put them in shade so i can see

[Good Cheer]

I'm still looking for the reference. See if I can find pictures. Have looked for mold designs from the 1860's-1870's but no luck there. Got a few more books to dig out yet.
Got to thinking about it in the .45 caliber rifle. A 400 plus grainer paper patched with a flat front end would be awesome for hunting performance at open sight distances.
But, I think what they were used for was target shooting with bullets heavy enough to have their inertia provide accuracy, to expand into the rifling. Oh well, will find it one fine day!

[Omnivore]

Just so we're all clear on the subject; the wadcutter design exists so as to cut a sharp, full caliber hole in a paper target to maximize your score, and NOT necessarily due to any special inherent accuracy in the design. Of course it has to be accurate at the intended competition target distance also, or any benefit from a sharp, full-sized hole is lost.

Now the subject of terminal ballistics in a hunting bullet is something else, and there a wide meplat seems to be a good thing, and so although there is some overlap in benefits, it has nothing to do with why wadcutters were developed. The external ballistic performance of a wadcutter is somewhat dismal compared to sleeker bullet of the same weight, but wadcutters weren't designed for long distance rifle matches.

Or such is my understanding...