tried what many of you have been doing for years

[Chemoman]

i have 3, 50 cal muzzleloaders. two are 1/32 twist and the other is 1/28 twist. i have a bunch of 450 grain round nose swaged 491 bullets i made and they shoot very good paperpatched. but over the years i keep reading about a lubed bare bullet in a muzzle loader and ive never tried it. so to day i reswaged several back to .50. then i reduced them to .498. then i slightly knarrled them so they would just go in the bore. the gun with the 1/28 twist barrel is cut rifled. it was hard loading them until the middle of the barrel then the last 3 inches was hard again. shot real well or i could say very very good with 70 grains of blackhorn 209 for the load. 2, 30 thousands fiber wads between powder and bullet. then i tried my custom in line with the douglas button rifled barrel. used 80 grain of powder, 2 wads and the bullet when in the bore went down super easy with out any tight spots or loose spots. shot at a target 50 or so yards away and it shot right where the cross hairs were. so you guys were right about a lubed bare bullet. no leading at all, bumped up just fine. i wont be shooting them in the 1/28 twist as too hard to load. i will shoot them in my custom inline quite often. super easy to load. will have to try my lyman great plains hunter and see if the barrel on that rifle is easy to load. dont know if they cut them or button rifle them. thanks for getting me to try it by posting all the posts over the years.

[oconeedan]

My guns all have slow twist barrels, and I usually shoot patched round balls. But for hunting, the Lee REAL bullets and TC maxi-balls shoot very good with the CVA patch lube / bullet lube wiped in the grooves with fingers. The stuff in a tube. And my bullets were pure lead. I have never tried regular bullets. Dan

[sharps4590]

I have never tried regular bullets. Dan

Never saw a need to but, that's interesting.

[charlie b]

My Lyman does really well with lubed and PP bullets. PP seems to shoot a little better.

For the 1/28 try not knurling them. Size to your bore (my Lyman works best at .501, it has a .502 bore). I have found that 80gn is the lowest charge that will fully upset the 450gn bullets. I use 100gn for the 385gn Great Plains bullets.

[Chemoman]

thanks.