What’s your favorite .50 mold for BP boolits?

[DirtyDusty]

Anyone cast a .50 in the 350gr or so? Was wondering how a wln or wfn would work.

[Good Cheer]

350 grains is going to give you a relatively short bullet to barrel bearing length unless the mold is designed with either pretty big lube grooves or a hollow base, and there's nothing wrong with either. The Lee minie is a WFN obviously made for hunting and their REAL is practically a Thor hammer wadcutter.

Because of bearing length and wanting inertia to assist in getting the boolits to expand into the rifling I have "fifty" rifles that are set up to use off the shelf Lee, RCBS and Lyman rifle molds, paper patched (and a .519 diameter push through sizer). It's a practical though not perfect solution born of wanting to use the various molds.

[Ozark mike]

50 cal wfn is just a round brick and will fly as such

[crandall crank]

My old (from the 80's) TC Renegade loves the TC Maxi ball. Nothing shoots as well through it.

[Nobade]

The Lee and RCBS designs for the 500 S&W work well in 50 cal. rifles. Either lubed or sized down and paper patched.

[longcruise]

50 cal wfn is just a round brick and will fly as such

They are serious killers though.

The most accurate out of my TC .50 was the Lee 450 grain 50-70 bullet sized to a semi tight fit to the bore. I quit shooting it though because the recoil was severe.

[Edward]

Lyman Great plains or Lee REAL ,might be a brick but flys where it"s pointed and if it"s live it ain"t for long ! Ed

[charlie b]

What rifle and barrel twist?

The Lee .500 S&W mold gives me bullets around 440gn. They are stable out of my 1:32 Lyman GPH barrel and accurate to over 200yd.

The Hornady Great Plains bullets work as well and are 385gn. I size them (and sometimes paper patch them) to be a smoother fit in the bore. For me they shoot best with 100gn of powder.

If you have a 1:48 barrel then I'd stick to the Maxi Ball and similar stuff.

If you are buying bullets and don't mind spending the money I found the Power Belt (silver and black) to be accurate and also good to 200yd (and maybe further). They are expensive if you shoot a lot.

[Edward]

What rifle and barrel twist?

The Lee .500 S&W mold gives me bullets around 440gn. They are stable out of my 1:32 Lyman GPH barrel and accurate to over 200yd.

The Hornady Great Plains bullets work as well and are 385gn. I size them (and sometimes paper patch them) to be a smoother fit in the bore. For me they shoot best with 100gn of powder.

If you have a 1:48 barrel then I'd stick to the Maxi Ball and similar stuff.

If you are buying bullets and don't mind spending the money I found the Power Belt (silver and black) to be accurate and also good to 200yd (and maybe further). They are expensive if you shoot a lot.

A TC custom Buckeye special carbine /1-48 twist and dont laugh ,but if a 16 inch barrel isn"t short enough I am now shooting a 14 inch barrel on my new pocket blaster (muzzle loader) scoped pistol 1-28 twist CVA V2 50 cal with both of those bullets . I"m starting with the Lee as I need to work up to the Great Plains (RECOIL ) is quite noticeable with the 80 grains OE 2F under the Lee .4 inch @ 100 is my best (1 time)so far after probably 8-10 lbs of lead . Did I mention it"s a BLAST !/Ed

[Good Cheer]

As posted in another thread...

For years have wondered why there are no blunt nosed thick skirted shallow hollow base molds for all those 48" twist .50 caliber side lock rifles that Spain and Italy have flooded the world with.
The "buffalo balls" work great and a cast version would be an easy design to get good castings.

[ndnchf]

While not a stock mold, I have machined down an Lee 515-450 mold to 350gr for cartridge. Its a very nice shooting bullet. I have also swaged that same bullet in sizing die to make it a little shorter with a large meplat.

[MOA]

These are the ones that work best in my 50's.

The MP group buy mold for the S&W utilized for my Swede roller, along with the Lyman Great Plains.







Here's the great Plains as it's now offered.