Great Plains

[triggerhappy243]

It does, it is basically a slip fit, just a hint of rifling engraving.

Well that is definitely not good. I measured the Maxi balls that I cast and coincidentally enough they are ten thousands of an inch larger than yours. And seeing as how Smith & Wesson now owns TC they will not honor any kind of warranty seeing's how that they don't do anything with Muzzleloader stuff anymore. I am curious is your rifle a TC rifle?

[charlie b]

All may not be lost. If you put a felt and card wad behind them with a stiff load of powder it will upset into the grooves just fine.

Slip fit is how I shoot all the conicals out of my .50 cal Lyman GPH, including the paper patched stuff. Like I mentioned before, the Hornady Great Plains bullets are very accurate fired that way.

[megasupermagnum]

I've got them casted, so I might as well shoot them. Yes, I have a Thompson Center Renegade. The guy I bought the mold from says they shot great in his Renegade, so who knows.

[Chill Wills]

I hope they work out.
I agree with Charlie b. I am not sure what the right charge would be. A little fun with load testing will tell.
As long as the bullet does not move or fall out and you find an accurate load, all is well.

For what it is worth.
My T/C 54 Maxi-ball mold cast 0.538" body - 0.548" nose band.
But with this new fast twist Hunter barrel I have had better accuracy with the hollow Lyman Mini bullet and 80grs of 2F Olde Eynsford.

[megasupermagnum]

Really, a minie ball shot better for you? I don't want to bother with most minie's, but I have been looking at the Lee improved minie oversized 540" diameter.

[PRONGHORNSOUTH]

If you'd like, go to Prbullets. Not trying to sell product here, but they do have a bullet chart showing expansion, of their bullets. Perhaps you could get an idea, of what to expect, with a similar bullet.
Got to the home page, left side bar, click on "new qt" under saboted bullets, (yes...saboted bullets, bear with me) scroll to the bottom of the page, click on "bullet screen". Check the photos.
Hope things work out. Testing is the fun part!

[Good Cheer]

Get some valve grinding compound.

[megasupermagnum]

Get some valve grinding compound.

There is no way the mold is still going to be round after lapping .010". I would rather just sell it to a person with a tight bore.

[megasupermagnum]

Still didn't get to the range, been too windy. I got my Accurate molds 55-430M today, only a week after ordering. Tom is so fast, and makes such a great mold. I love that he started putting vent lines on the top too, as the bases fill out so much easier. Anyway, I went right to casting with it. Just my usual cleaning, and heating. With pure lead, this mold is my hottest running mold for sure. I had to go all the way to 810 degrees, and run it fast enough to where it started finning to get perfect fill out. Oddly, I found if I squeezed the handles just a little harder, the finning mostly went away. I've got a handful of good bullets casted, I'll be pan lubing some along with the maxi balls with some SPG to compare with TC bore butter. These run big, I specified both bottom bands at .541". They are casting about .543". The third band is about .550", and the top band is a good .553". As long as I can load these straight, I bet they shoot great.



I have no doubt to the lethality of this bullet.

[megasupermagnum]

I finally got to shoot over the weekend. Thankfully the 55-430M shoots as good as it looks. like all conicals I've tried so far, they love the speed. 80 grains is poor, 100 grains is decent, 110 grains very good, and 120 grains brought it down to a 3" group at 100 yards. Next trip I'm thinking of even trying 130 grains. I couldn't find my SPG, so I used 50-50 beeswax and crisco for lube. Fouling was tough. I tried soaking the felt wad in bore butter as well, still no better. I could shoot two shots fine, but a third would be too much. At the range I swab every shot anyway. The only thing I was worried about was how hard these large casting bullets would be to start. It turns out it's not bad at all. Just a quick wack with the short starter and they pop right in.

Now the big problem came later with another gun. I was shooting as normal and went to swab the barrel after a shot. I pulled up and the handle came clean off my range rod. It is the 5/16" stainless rod with bore guide from Track of the Wolf. A great rod. I used vice grips and pulled the rod out. I then went to use my spare rod, just a basic aluminum rod with two pressed in ends. After a couple shots, I noticed the end, ferrule for lack of a better word, was coming loose. I finished the rest of the day with the rod I keep on the gun without issues.

The aluminum rod is one thing. It was just a couple ferrules pushed into the end of a tube. The range rod shouldn't have failed. Along with gluing the handle back on, I'm thinking of trying to drill through and using a roll pin for extra strength.

[triggerhappy243]

I finally got to shoot over the weekend. Thankfully the 55-430M shoots as good as it looks. like all conicals I've tried so far, they love the speed. 80 grains is poor, 100 grains is decent, 110 grains very good, and 120 grains brought it down to a 3" group at 100 yards. Next trip I'm thinking of even trying 130 grains. I couldn't find my SPG, so I used 50-50 beeswax and crisco for lube. Fouling was tough. I tried soaking the felt wad in bore butter as well, still no better. I could shoot two shots fine, but a third would be too much. At the range I swab every shot anyway. The only thing I was worried about was how hard these large casting bullets would be to start. It turns out it's not bad at all. Just a quick wack with the short starter and they pop right in.

Now the big problem came later with another gun. I was shooting as normal and went to swab the barrel after a shot. I pulled up and the handle came clean off my range rod. It is the 5/16" stainless rod with bore guide from Track of the Wolf. A great rod. I used vice grips and pulled the rod out. I then went to use my spare rod, just a basic aluminum rod with two pressed in ends. After a couple shots, I noticed the end, ferrule for lack of a better word, was coming loose. I finished the rest of the day with the rod I keep on the gun without issues.

The aluminum rod is one thing. It was just a couple ferrules pushed into the end of a tube. The range rod shouldn't have failed. Along with gluing the handle back on, I'm thinking of trying to drill through and using a roll pin for extra strength.

mega...... when you swab, do you use a bronze brush first to scrub the crusty stuff first? that is what I do. Works wonders to loosen the hard fouling.......... which in turn makes swabbing much easier. And, YES, I swab between every shot.

[triggerhappy243]

mega, what does your target look like? I use a target like this. 6.5 inch dia. bullseye ring. the ring is 1.2 inch wide. And yes, I did shoot this 3 shot group at 100 yards.

[megasupermagnum]

No, I never tried a brush. I'll give it a try next time out. For targets, I like the NRA pistol targets, with about a 4" black circle. I use that with the smallest target aperature I have, and the smallest circle in my globe front sight. The pistol target allows me to clearly see the dot at 100-200 yards, yet still give a fine aiming point. I doubt it is as good as a scope, but these peeps are very close. I wasn't shooting quite as good as the target you show. That must be about a 1 1/2" group? I also shoot 5 shot groups, as I find I get too many false positives with 3 shot groups. My best load was a 1/8" felt wad, 440 gr bullet lubed with 50-50 Crisco-beeswax, and 120 grains Goex OE FFg.

Next time out I am going to try 120, 125, and 130 grain charges. I also want to try both with and without the wad. Lastly, I want to try standard Goex.

[dondiego]

Several of my friends, new to muzzle loading, have brought me rifles with the brushes stuck in them. Be careful.

[LAGS]

That is because they inserted tight the bore brush, then just tried to pull it out straight.
If you rotate the bore brush clockwise as you try to remove it, it will not Bind an pull off the end of cleaning rod.
That is why I always put in Pins on my Ends of my Wooden Ramrods, to prevent the ends of the ram rods from pulling off.

[triggerhappy243]

Several of my friends, new to muzzle loading, have brought me rifles with the brushes stuck in them. Be careful.

dondiego, the bronze brushes I use are just snug enough that they exert just enough friction to scrub without the need for 2 men and a small boy to pull out. Too tight of a brush is a bad thing. You make an excellent point.

[megasupermagnum]

That's a good point. I've never had a brush come apart in a muzzle loader, I have had them come apart though. I only Pro-Shot black powder bore brushes with the continuous loop. They cannot fail unless you unscrew them from the rod.

[Good Cheer]

That happened to me about 2009 or '10 when cleaning the .401 bore Great Plains. The 16" twist pulled the brush apart. The easy solution was a piece of 3/8" brass tubing.

[megasupermagnum]

Well I got to the range again, but stupidly forgot the bore brush and targets. I luckily had some stickers, and found some paper plates to use. Results were still very good, I like consistency, as this renegade has proven to be anything but picky this far. I shot two 4 shot groups, both went right at 3 1/4". I am happy with that. This was again same load, CCI magnum caps, 120 grain FFg Olde Ensford, felt wad, and 440 grain great plains bullet. I did remember the plain red bottle Goex FFg though, and ran that. After four shots I saw nothing but a big hole in the spotting scope. I decided to do one more for good measure and blew it! I saw the sights move right at the shot. It would have went just under 2" if I hadn't blown the shot. As it is, it is still a 3 1/2" group. I'm still going to try 115, 125 and maybe 130 grain powder charges as well. I also want to try without the felt wad.

Now here is the amazing thing. I had the hard fouling with Goex OE same as I did last time. I forgot the brush, but it is a pain to swab out, usually taking 2 or 3 patches. Standard red bottle Goex did not have this hard fouling at all! One quick swab with a licked patch and I had a clean barrel. Being lazy, I usually just left some crust with OE. I believe this is why standard goex shot better, because I had a consistent bore, and more importantly, I could seat the bullet more consistently.

I guess I shouldn't have bought 8 pounds this year of OE before trying it, I still have 5.5 pounds left. This seems so backwards to all the praise Olde Ensford gets. I'll give it another chance, but to me it is plain as day an inferior product for my uses. It smells funny too, red bottle smells like what blackpowder should smell like.


100 yards; CCI magnum cap, 120 grains Red Bottle Goex, felt wad, 440 grain great plains... 4 good shots, one pulled

[charlie b]

Nice group.

You might also try it with a card wad. That made a big difference in my group sizes. Best for me is a card wad with felt wad on top and then the bullet. I use the veggie card wads from BACO.