Original Trapdoor and PP

[cold1]

I have an original 1873 Trapdoor (ser# indicate 1877 mfr) that i would like to shoot. It has some family history and has been shot with factory ammo through the years. I dont want to shoot jacketed ammo in it any more. The last time I did, about 30 years ago, the accuracy wasnt there. I would like to try PP to see how it would do. I am thinking that with the shallow rifling and old bore the PP will give me more accuracy and be easier on the barrel. The goal is to end up with a rifle ammo combination that can be used for hunting again. Its a beautiful rifle and has been in my family for years. I want to bring it back to a useful life and hopefully PP will help me do this.

I would like to get a LEE .452 diameter mold to start with. This will also work in my 45LC RBH. I am thinking I can PP it up to .460-.458 and load it over some smokeless. I dont want to do BP. I have also read about alot of people using the LEE 405 HB mold with pure lead.

First which do you think is best to start with? I am leaning towards the .452 mold because it can do double duty.

Second, trying to up the diameter from 452 to 460 what paper should I start with?

Third, what to watch out for as a newbie PPer?

Thanks.

[StratsMan]

The Lee molds are about $17 and change from MidSouthShootersSupply.com... I shoot my original model 1873 Trapdoor and thoroughly enjoy unsized boolits from the Hollow Base mold over 18.5gr of XMP5744... others on this forum use a little more powder, but I'm happy with my groups at that load and I don't beat up the ol' War Horse... I guess I'm not a fan of the extra variable introduced by a Paper Patch...

[varsity07840]

Shooting jacketed ammo is what probably ruined the accuracy.

Duane

[6.5 mike]

Slug your barrel first, it will tell you how much you will need to adjust your boolit diameter to get the best fit. Once you know that, it makes it easier to find the right boolit. Example, my sharps uses a 0.4545 boolit with two wraps of 0.0015 tracing paper to take it up to 0.4605. This fits my fits my fired cases snuggly. I use the Lee 405 gr.

[FredBuddy]

Cold: Your plan is a good one - jump in !

[cold1]

Update!
Purchased the Lee 452-225 and cast some boolits out of pure lead. I found some patterns for the Paper patch over at Marlinowners.com. I used a double wrap of plain copier paper. This bumped my size up to .462. I slugged the barrel at the muzzle. It showed .460ish, the rifling is shallow and hard to discern. I finally had some time today to play with loaded rounds. I was trying for a gallery load for starters. After alot of internet searching, I started with 7g of Reddot. I loaded a single round and put the rifle in the sighting vise. The target was a tree about 30 yards away. IT WAS AWESOME! She fired and the bullet struck right where I was aiming. I loaded up a few more at that charge and they hit very close to the first shot. The grouping was good. I then started dropping the powder charge, next step was 5g. Same results, great grouping. Then down to 2.1g, you could almost watch the boolit. You could here it slap the tree when it hit. Its very quiet. Still a good group. Its nasty and muddy out so I did not put up paper and really try to see what the loads would do,I was just happy to see the old girl still putting lead down range. Later on I will put up some targets and see what this old gun can still do.