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Thread: Black and the 50 Alaskan

  1. #1
    Boolit Master MOA's Avatar
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    Black and the 50 Alaskan

    What kind of pressure is this cartridge going to develop? Has anyone played with this cartridge by using black instead of smokeless? Cast boolits only.

    My inquiring mind wants to know.

  2. #2
    Boolit Master
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    Not enough to consider, you can"t stuff enough BP in that case .

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    Boolit Master MOA's Avatar
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    I'm contemplating taking one of my 1876 Swede rollers currently chambered in 12.7x44Rmm ie. (Remington 12mm, Swede 50-70) and having the original chamber reamed to the specs of the 50 Alaskan but only using black powder. Pressure could be more than action or block, barrel could handle. Guess I need to check closest capacity of other BP cartridges of 50 Alaskan size for their pressure figures.

  4. #4
    Boolit Buddy
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    I built a 50-2.1 (50 AK) on a Peabody receiver. All I shoot in it is BP. Its about midway between the 50-70 and 50-90.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master MOA's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RichardB View Post
    I built a 50-2.1 (50 AK) on a Peabody receiver. All I shoot in it is BP. Its about midway between the 50-70 and 50-90.
    Your opinion on the possibility of this Husquvarna roller handling an added 25 grains of black powder?

  6. #6
    Boolit Buddy
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    As long as you stick to black its not a problem. They are a very strong action anyway.
    I have one in 45-70 and another in 45-120 and an original 12 mm like yours I shoot as a 50-70.

  7. #7
    Boolit Buddy
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    shooting BP its not an issue.

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    Boolit Master MOA's Avatar
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    Well I just hate to have new starline 50 Alaskan brass and have to cut them down to 44mm when I could just have the chamber reamed for the 50 Alaskan and have a unique cartridge and a cleaned up chamber plus use the 50 Alaskan case full of bp, wax card, lube disc, wax card, cast boolit with beeswax n crisco lube using a 30:1 lead-tin mix.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master MOA's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Keith View Post
    As long as you stick to black its not a problem. They are a very strong action anyway.
    I have one in 45-70 and another in 45-120 and an original 12 mm like yours I shoot as a 50-70.
    Keith, did you rebarrel a 12.7 Swede roller to 45-120? If so what barrel, length and twist.

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    Good morning
    We shoot our 86 (jap) in 50 Alaskan with 3F Goex and a 350 -450 grainers cast of 40/1. I have no doubt it would harvest any critter that would be on the receiving end. In the 26 inch barreled model 86 is very mild to shoot. Our BP brass have annealed necks so there is no blowback into the chamber. We do not resize the brass. The cast are crimped. Normally I load three in the mag.

    We do not have bears in east ILLinois to contend with. If we did I would carry 5 - 500 grainers at 1850 fps.

    Off cross sticks it will shoot 2 inch groups at 100 yards.
    This rifle is a JES rebore also.
    Mike in LLama Land
    "Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28
    Male Guanaco out in dry lakebed at 10,800 feet south of Arequipa.

  11. #11
    Boolit Buddy
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    Quote Originally Posted by MOA View Post
    Keith, did you rebarrel a 12.7 Swede roller to 45-120? If so what barrel, length and twist.
    My mistake I wanted it in 45-120 but my gunsmith said it was too long to fit past the hammer, so we did it in 45-110. This was 20 years ago. Just a Green Mountain 18 twist 34 inches long. Even that was too much for me to handle so its now a 45-90.

    I am just building a Norwegian Roller in 40-72. in the Black Powder section

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    Boolit Buddy Huvius's Avatar
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    Just dumped some BP into a 50AK case and it looks like it will hold 75gr with a little room for compression wads, etc.
    Would be fun but not a high performer I'd think.

  13. #13
    Boolit Master MOA's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Huvius View Post
    Just dumped some BP into a 50AK case and it looks like it will hold 75gr with a little room for compression wads, etc.
    Would be fun but not a high performer I'd think.


    I guess that could be true, might depend on what your criteria is of a high performer.
    Stuffing it with a 500-600 grain boolit and punching holes in paper might be a high score getter, and then again, punching holes clean through animals the size of the American Bison with no problem, might be considered a non-performer. Guess it just comes down to what the elements one is looking for that make a cartridge a performer. The Alaskan is just short of what you would find in power of a 50-90. It's a great performer for many.

  14. #14
    Boolit Buddy Huvius's Avatar
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    True enough MOA.
    I guess I'm used to thinking of fiftys in the 100+ gr powder charge realm.
    In your roller, it would work fine but is it much of a step up from the original chambering to be worthwhile?
    Have you sourced brass and dies for this project yet? I have both I would sell you.

  15. #15
    Boolit Master MOA's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Huvius View Post
    True enough MOA.
    I guess I'm used to thinking of fiftys in the 100+ gr powder charge realm.
    In your roller, it would work fine but is it much of a step up from the original chambering to be worthwhile?
    Have you sourced brass and dies for this project yet? I have both I would sell you.



    Huvius,
    I've got 100 pcs of Starline Alaskan brass, about fifty are cut to the 44mm lgn, the other fifty are uncut. I've been using some 50-70 dies to size the current caliber. If I ream the chamber I most likely will first try just neck sizing the full length Alaskan case with the same dies and if I need to crimp I might try running the completed shell back up into the sizer die without the decapping pin in it to see how that works, and if that does not work I'll put together a dummy round and send it off to Lee for a FCD, which is what I did on the 44mm cases. These are the cartridges I used the new FCD on and I must say it did a sweet job on crimping them. If I ream the chamber I might also still be able to shoot the shorter round in it still, it will be something that I will try just to see if I can utilize the shorter cartridge. Either way, not having to spend the time cutting down expensive Alaskan brass will be worth paying the extra money for the caliber reaming on the rifle.


  16. #16
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Huvius View Post
    Just dumped some BP into a 50AK case and it looks like it will hold 75gr with a little room for compression wads, etc.
    Would be fun but not a high performer I'd think.
    I been wondering what it is that a 350 grain 50 cal slug cruising along at 1450-1500fps wont kill ????? Should be a quite adequate performer within its range - the 50 alaskan should hold at least as much BP as the old 50/95 load for the 1876 ?

  17. #17
    Boolit Master MOA's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by indian joe View Post
    I been wondering what it is that a 350 grain 50 cal slug cruising along at 1450-1500fps wont kill ????? Should be a quite adequate performer within its range - the 50 alaskan should hold at least as much BP as the old 50/95 load for the 1876 ?




    Hi Joe, that's my thinking exactly.

  18. #18
    Boolit Mold singleshotcajun's Avatar
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    Interesting thread. What projectiles are those ? In my particular Swede I trim the Starline 50 Alaskan cases to 1.690, dump 70 gr FF Goex then seat Buffalo Arms .513" 350 gr Flat nose soft cast lead on the powder no card. Shoots great in mine. I do use a home made .513 expander die to both form the inner neck and to seat the boolit.
    Last edited by singleshotcajun; 01-13-2020 at 06:56 AM. Reason: boolit information

  19. #19
    Boolit Master MOA's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by singleshotcajun View Post
    Interesting thread. What projectiles are those ? In my particular Swede I trim the Starline 50 Alaskan cases to 1.690, dump 70 gr FF Goex then seat Buffalo Arms .513 300 gr cast lead on the powder no card. Shoots great in mine. I do use a home made .512 expander die to both form the inner neck and to seat the boolit.

    The cast projectiles are for the s&w 500 revolver. But it was the perfect size and weight for the 12.7x44R roller. I'm using 30:1 alloy so I get upsetting from boolits.

  20. #20
    Boolit Mold
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    I have an 1875 dated Norwegian Rolling block in excellent original condition that is stamped ".50-.348 LUGNET" on top of the chamber. I researched the caliber and did a chamber cast, and discovered it had been rechambered to .50 Alaskan. Lugnet is a sports complex in Sweden, and I'm not sure why the chamber is stamped as such. I ordered some Starline cases, and am planning on making up some loads using Trail Boss and 385 gr. hollow base .50 cal Minie Balls to take advantage of the deep grooves of the rifling. Original charge in the 12.7 was 75 grs. of BP, and I'm planning on 70 grs. of TB. The previous owner tried shooting .50/70 out of it but it was wildly inaccurate. I have a .50/70 die set and a Minie Ball bullet mold in .385 grs. as well as some pure lead. It will be my first attempt at casting boolits.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check