New to inlines, cva optima 50 cal advise

[dmdracer]

Folks, as title says I'm new to these inlines, I have years ago shot a traditional cap and ball until I loaned it to a friend and it came back all rusty and pitted !

Here in Indiana the congress critters "screwed" up and our pistol caliber rifles are not legal this year so I purchased this optima (have it Wed.) to use.

I have spent too much time researching inlines and learned much.

My question is can I shoot a 45c boolit, pc'd, (saa452270 gr, currently used in my blackhawk) sized to fit the bore with out a sabot ?


My first thought would be use a sabot but then my reading talked about conical.... does that mean without a sabot ?

I have some 44 and 45 xtp's and proper sabots on order to try also.

Help me out here, hope this make sense.

Thanks
Dave

[Pipefitter]

You wont get a 45cal bullet to shoot out of a 50cal barrel without using a sabot. Try shooting them with the sabot and see how they group.
I shoot 452 swaged soft lead bullets with a sabot in my TC Omega with good results.

[NSB]

Go to Cabela's, WalMart, Dick's, etc and buy some SST 50 bullet/sabots all pre-packaged. Get some Blackhorn 209 and load 80-100 grains of loose powder in the gun. This combination (not my personal best by any means) should shoot pretty good out of your gun. I suggest Blackhorn 209 because it's a black powder sub that is closer to smokeless than true black but can be cleaned up with Hoppe's or any other smokeless cleaning solvent. You can shoot twenty or thirty shots without having to clean the barrel so sighting in won't be a big problem. It cleans up very, very easily. Almost every in-line I've seen will shoot this combo well enough to hunt with. Just make sure you clean your breech plug when you're done sighting in. Even with Blackhorn 209 the flash hole will start to close up and that will effect ignition and accuracy. FWIW, your "friend" wasn't much of a friend if he gave you your gun back that way. Good luck.

[OnHoPr]

Same as above, I don't think you are going to get that 452 boolit to shoot in that 50 cal without a sabot. MMP and Harvesters seem to be the average overall most accurate sabots, but all will kill a deer @ 100 yd. Yea, you can shoot a conical in it or PP boolit with 60 - 80 gr of powder for accuracy reasons and still have good thumpum with lower recoil. You will have to do a lot of testing and mix and matching to get real accuracy down, but you should get minute of deer in a couple of range sessions.

[dmdracer]

Guess I had a brain "stumble" there, I know the 452 is too small for a 50 cal. what can I say ?

I've read much about the BH209 and SST's and a few others that seem favorable and I'm not apposed to try them. I have some t7 to start with this week to get familiar with it.

For whatever reason my brain can't figure the conical thing, what bullet would fill that description ?

Yeah, i know something so simple... what am I smoken ? ? lol

Thanks for the responses

[ShooterAZ]

BH209 and the Hornady 250 SST's are hard to beat in an Inline. It smokes em' FAST into a 1-1/2"-2" or less group out of my TC Impact at 100 yds. The only bullets that were more accurate for me were the Barnes 300 gr...but they were a devil to seat for me and kicked like a mule.

[kens]

If you are accustomed to thinking in terms of muzzleloading round ball & patch; then a conical is a elongated bullet, not round per say.
the original conicals were 'minie balls', with the hollow base to grab the rifling. Those hollow base conicals or 'minies' could stabilize out of the slow twist round ball barrels of the era.

With your new inline muzzleloader, it will no doubt have a fast twist such as 1:28 or similar, it will stabilize a .50 or .45 bullet OK.
We have found out that the hollow base is not mandatory to swell into the rifling, a soft lead bullet can swell up into the rifling on its own.
I have a inline ML and it shoots .50 powerbelts or .45 pistol bullets (sabot) just fine.

[white eagle]

I have just gotten into the inline game myself
A 50 cal Ruger 77/50
I used to shoot a 54 Thompson Center Hawken
in the 50 I am using loose black with a 300 gr REAL boolit
I am getting a 3 shot cluster with all boolits touching @ 50 yds.
have tried the sabots but want a full bore boolit for hunting

[OnHoPr]

Lee Mini & REALS, Buffalo bullet, Hornady Great Plains, CVA buckslayer, Buffalo ball-et plus others for the conical application.


And I forgot probably the best known conical, the TC Maxi Ball

[kens]

I have just gotten into the inline game myself
A 50 cal Ruger 77/50
I used to shoot a 54 Thompson Center Hawken
in the 50 I am using loose black with a 300 gr REAL boolit
I am getting a 3 shot cluster with all boolits touching @ 50 yds.
have tried the sabots but want a full bore boolit for hunting

What twist is that barrel??

[RogerDat]

Molds to look at

Titan Reloading (site sponsor, link at top of page) only has what the list as "Conicals" in revolver calibers https://www.titanreloading.com/lee-p...al-bullet-mold Lee may make them larger for the 50.

BUT for rifle they do carry the minie molds in rifle caliber and looking at pictures of the pistol and rifle minie you will see they are similar profile https://www.titanreloading.com/lee-p...e-modern-minie The minie is hollow base which allows a smaller diameter to go in pass fouling but the base expands to grab rifling when fired. A bullet that self clears the bore of black powder fouling with each shot. Heavy and accurate.

Lee also makes a R.E.A.L muzzle loader mold for your rifle caliber, I have not used them but they might be an option. https://www.titanreloading.com/lee-p...-muzzleloaders did find this discussion of them http://www.modernmuzzleloader.com/fo...ic.php?t=17574 Where they are called conical

Honestly I would want to be able to cast for what I shoot but with it already being fall with little lead time to work out a cast bullet and load I think a store bought option such as suggested in other posts would be better. Remove complexity and allow you to focus on some range time with a "know good" option for this first season with the new rifle. Lot of reasons to cast own but there are some situations or use cases where store bought might be a better choice for some folks.

[white eagle]

not sure of the twist of the Ruger but it sure is accurate
and speaking of Accurate that is where I got the REAL mold
http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_...=51-300A-D.png,
I would post a pic of the group but haven't got a pic of it yet
I have this same mold for my 54 cal and it shoots just as accurately as does the 50 cal
http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_...=55-360A-D.png

[OverMax]

Being a new rifle you would be better served shooting store bought for awhile. I see little benefit in trying to shoot something your not sure can be shot and with who's /what sabot..
As for the proper sabo & projectile size & weights the [link] will take you to where I buy mine.

https://www.prbullet.com/shop/products.php

[dmdracer]

OK and thanks to all for your reply's'

Brain is working better today ! lol

I have ordered some xtp's (240 & 250gr) and proper sabots to start with, I also have my 45c saa 270 and this will use the sabots on order too !

I understand the conical now also and looked at the molds from above recommendation, any experience with the Lee real and the Lee improved 360 gr minie ?

either would probably work but your experience would be more helpful

Excited to work with this rifle towards end of week and I'll try to post results later.

Again... thanks for the help and good luck this hunting season.

You other guys getting into MZ, feel free to post any results you have for comparison

[Edward]

The Lee Real worked great in mine ,the mini (Looks like a garbage can ) shot like garbage and I recycled into Reals ,in my gun

[Rick Hodges]

I have two CVA inlines....both shoot real well with Hornady 240gr .451-2 XTP's and Harvester crushed rib sabots.

[charlie b]

If you don't want to mess with sabots then try the Powerbelts. A bit expensive but they are accurate for me.

If you really want to play with it, try paper patched bullets Buffalo Arms has some swaged ones that work well.

[gtgeorge]

We shoot a lot of critters from pigs to deer with cheap CVA inlines. They allow us to hunt pigs on public land during turkey, small game and primitive seasons. The 100gr BH209 load with Hornady 250gr SST works good for me and 75gr BH209 with 240gr XTP 44 hornaty sabot for my son. between the 2 we have put 9 hogs in the freezer and 2 deer so far this year. Both are accurate and pack a punch. Definately try different loads as what works in mine doesn't always shoot the same in it's twin brother.