Bullets for my Pedersoli Gibbs Questions

[oldracer]

I finally got to shoot my new (to me) Gibbs rifle last Thursday and got it on black at 100 yards in the 1st shot. It was super windy and ran the staff up and down a couple of times and the bullets went up/down as I expected. The wind was really gusty so I did not get concerned too much about left/right so after 10 shots I packed up. I had another rifle and ran some rounds through it too so had some fun. I found the Gibbs will only take 0.449 540gr bullets and the 0.451 490gr rounds did not want to start. I have ordered a Lee 0.449 sizer die and a 0.449 bullet mold so when the Pedersoli mold gets here I'll have two to work with when making bullets. The gun came with several 50 round boxes of Buffalo Arms 0.449/540gr bullets which are so pretty I hate to shoot them!

Once I get the molds and sizer I plan to make up some additional bullets and plan to pan lube them like I did with my 45-70 cartridge bullets. I do not want to have to buy an additional lubri-sizer if possible and plan to use my stash of Doug Knoell's lube which should work fine? Is pan lubing how most do long range ML bullets or does everybody get a lube-sizer? If you use a lube-sizer, which one do you like and why? Thank you.

[Guido4198]

For my Browning BPCR, I found that running the 30:1 NEI "Badger-Browning" bullets through an RCBS Lubesizer w/ .459 die gave me great results. For my (original) 1873 Springfield Trapdoor rifle I'm finding that using the same mold, but pan lubing is working out better.
Based on what you've already learned about that Gibbs rifle, it sounds like you might need to size rather than pan-lube.

[oldracer]

Before I sold both my Sharps and the other stuff needed for cartridge shooting I was doing bullets as follows: cast -> let sit for a couple weeks -> lube with Lee liquid lube -> let dry -> run through Lee sizer die -> pan lube -> next day remove bullets and store until used. I use Doug Knoell's lube which does not seem to dry out or shrink so I think doing the Gibbs bullets the same will be an okay way to start? For the cartridges I used a 0.459 sizer also but for the Tryon it like 0.451 and the Gibbs likes 0.449 (ease of insertion into barrel).

[451 Pete]

To be quite honest most of the fellas that are shooting competitively and getting the very best accuracy with their Pedersoli Gibbs rifles have found that paper patching is the ticket. I am not saying that the rifle does not shoot very well with grease groove bullets but it seems to prefer the paper patched ones at the further range's ( out to 1200 yds. ) that they shoot with these guns. This may just be another option for you to consider.

hope this helps .... Pete

[oldracer]

Thanks for the info. So far the longest I'll be shooting will be to 300 yards, maybe to 500 maximum for a bit. I am trying to stay away from paper patching at least until I get a handle on how the gun reacts and such.

I did find the gun was made in 2008 so it is in pretty good shape as far as I can tell. There are some spots in the rifling right where the top of the powder sets and I talked to Lee Shaver about that and he said it is due to the 0.449 bullets letting gas by until they expand and seal the bore up. I do find the barrel gets hotter, faster than my round ball shooters and much hotter, faster than my Sharps used to. The load is 80gr of FFG so it is about what I run in the round ball shooters.

[Boz330]

Mine is the same way, it will not take a slug sized to .450. .449 slides down with just slight resistance. I do use PP though. For shooting out to 500yd I would think that the GG boolits should work fine. When I first got mine with the same load of powder the PP out shot the GG by a couple inches at 300yd. After learning how to do it I decided to stay with the PP just so I wouldn't have to deal with possible leading along with the higher trajectory of the GG.
I bought the BACO GG Money Bullet mold and a .449 lube sizer die. Not sure who made them since the just carry the BACO name.

Bob