Today I got the bright idea to try paper patching the Lee 230gr. TC tumble lube boolit I usually use in my 45 ACP for use in my Cherokee and Patriot muzzle loaders. Running the numbers for the Greenhill formula told me it should work fine in the TC's 1:48 twist barrel.
I had never gotten the Cherokee to shoot for beans with PRBs, but it did moderately well with hollow based Minie' bullets. It has very shallow rifling and is moderately pitted in the bore. The Patriot is also pitted a bit and though it shoots reasonably well with balls it's nothing to get excited about.
Sooo, I cast up some of those Lee boolits from straight lead. Sized to .442" and patched with 9# paper to .450". They loaded easily in both guns. I had also just gotten some LDPE wads from Shiloh to play with, so I took those with me. I am sure glad I did!
Shooting 50gr. of homemade powder topped with a LDPE wad and a lubed felt wad, those boolits cut one hole groups at 25 yards from the pistol and close to it at 50 yards from the rifle! At 100 yards I was seeing approx. 2 1/2 inch group from the rifle. And the best thing is, those wads must really wipe the bore clean because I didn't have to wipe either gun all day! I just kept loading and shooting until I ran out of boolits and the feel never changed. I have never been able to do this, so I figure it has to be the plastic wads.
So now my pistol and little rifle both exceed 45 Colt ballistics, are accurate and easy to load. And I am relieved since I was figuring on having to buy barrels for both to get them to shoot reasonably well. A great day at the range!
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