1st Post and 1st Questions.
Assuming (bad word I know) I'm patching a .40 caliber bullet, how many patches can be expected per sheet of paper?
I have been shooting BPCR's since 2001, but have never shot the first paper patched bullet. I've only shot my own GG cast bullets. I have and use Paul Jones, Old West, BACO, and Brooks GG molds. I tend to go ahead and get good molds to start with. I have also tried quite a few factory molds and while the bullets shoot well, don't provide all of the features a custom mold will. I also use and have a lot of Swiss 1.5F and 3F and I have a stash of GOEX powders that include Cartridge, 2F, 3F, and Express in 2F and 3F.
My rifles are a CSA Highwall in 45/70 (which will be rebarreled to 38/55 soon) and a Dave Crossno Hepburn in 40/65. The Hepburn will be my test rifle for this. It has a Douglas barrel and with GG bullets can be depended on to shoot slightly over moa to 600 yards. I've recently found that a Douglas 40 cal barrel is .400" bore and .410" groove. As it shoots my cast bullets so well now, they must be getting a nice smack in the buttocks and bumping up. The mold I use exclusively now in the 40 is a BACO Money @ .409". I run the bullets through a Lee sizer die (.410") that just touches the 3 lower driving bands as the top 2 are tapered.
I'll probably statrt with a BACO elliptical style mold, but don't really know what size yet. I am in the process of getting some of the old 25% cotton 9lb onion skin paper.
After all that bouncing around, I now have 2 questions:
1 - what size mold?
2 - about how many patches will I get per piece of paper (standard size sheet)?