I just purchased a Swiss 1851 Feldstutzer percussion rifle and now need to feed it. It was designed for both .41 caliber compression bullets and minie balls and has a fairly fast twist. I am new to casting bullets and need any information as to where to get a bullet mould for this rifle and any tips from you guys. Thanks for ANY help.
what is a compression bullet?
Originally Posted by johnson1942
I think this is what he is talking about? I found this picture on the net
Attachment 195413
Gonna need a pretty exacting measurement on the bore of that rifle.
Do you have the means to do that?
Just off hand I'm thinking that if you do not, then perhaps we could get you some boolits of various sized diameters to use as gauges. That would probably depend though upon where you are geographically.
Hey and by the way, a pet project idea that I really want to get going is a rifle to shoot .41 Mag molds paper patched.
Could you please tell what the rate of twist is in that rifle? There's no substitute for finding out what people before you did because they usually did what works, learned through trial and error.
I can measure the bore with a micrometer. Do I measure land to land/ land to groove/ or groove to groove? I am an old hand with muzzleloaders, but this is a whole different arena. Where do you go to get moulds for compression bullets or minie balls? I have never seen a minie ball mould less than .50 caliber and this rifle is a .41caliber (10.4mm).
The rate of twist is 1 in 32 inches. Pretty fast.
It is called a Wilkinson Bullet. A guy was making them under the Moose Molds name but I do not know if he is still in business.
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Thanks. I will look for them online.
That is exactly the one I need. Ever seen a mould for one?
Hey there.
Good evening. I was just punching numbers into a simplified Greenhill formula calculator.
That twist would probably be good for a 3/4" long boolit.
If it has an odd number of grooves then it gets difficult.
My usual way is to use a larger size soft cast boolit and twist it into the barrel using the rifling as a machine tool to turn down the outside diameter of the soft lead. After a few tries and creating some representative samples I measure them and figger out what I got.
A more exacting means is to size some boolits to various diameters and use them as Go / No-Go gauges.
About the only .41 hollow base mold I know was commercially produced was a Lyman hollow base wadcutter.
For a hollow base mold to fit your rifle, there are some custom mold makers up to the task. But, depending upon how deep the rifling is and how wide the lands are, you might get accurate loads with a flat base expanding into the rifling.
And for a real what-if, if you could load a .410 diameter then you could get an off the shelf push through sizer right from Lee. That's kind of what I been puzzling on but would like to paper patch .41's and not have to squeeze them down so much.
I found a custom mould maker near me who can make a .410 minie ball. I am going to contact him for a custom mould. I am new to casting. Does a minie ball use pure lead?
Pure or at leat very soft. Hard to find 100% pure but a very small bit of alloy doesn't hurt but does help fill out from the mould.
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