PP muzzle loader?

[MBTcustom]

I'm thinking about using a PP boolit from one of my homemade molds in my muzzle loader. Hears the mold and the slug, I these are 300gr .493 diameter pure lead.
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l481/goodsteel/IMG_0479.jpg
Any body ever done this? I tried pushing one through my ML barrel w-out the breach plug in it, and It had good resistance but didn't need me to be a he-man to get it down the barrel.
Last year, this rifle liked a .452 diameter cast boolit in a sabot and the resistance was almost identical as it was pushed down the barrel.
What do you think?

[calaloo]

It is done all the time. I shoot paper patched bullets in my Whitworth and Gibbs. Generally the bullet is sized so that the weight of the ramrod is all that is required to seat the bullet. Of course this is in a target rifle, you would probably want a tighter fit in a hunting situation. Some folks lube the bullet by rolling it on a felt pad soaked with something like jojoba oil.

Go here to read about paper patching muzzle loaders. http://www.researchpress.co.uk/ .

[Nobade]

I dunno about that bullet design, it has a lot of nose and not much bearing surface. The idea of paper patch bullets in muzzleloaders works great, I get the best accuracy from my rifles with paper patch; either 45 or 50 cal. But for a 50 I like to see a bullet at least 500gr, with parallel sides and a short, round nose. In the 45, a 400gr. bullet is about as light as I like to go. But I may be wrong! Best thing to do is try it and see what happens. I have noticed with PP there is a definate lower limit to powder charges. Too light and they are all over the place. Once you hit a level where you're getting good bump-up they start to all go into the same spot. I also like to wipe between shots with a somewhat damp patch, then turn it over and wipe with the dry side. This seems to give me the best consistancy.

[MBTcustom]

Nobade, can you show me a picture of one of those 50 cal 500 grainers? Just so I can get an idea of the shape. I can modify that mold to get a more barrel shaped boolit.

[Nobade]

It is an NEI mould, best I can do is direct you to the picture in their catalog. Try
http://www.neihandtools.com/catalog.html

go to page 13, and the one I have is #359C, .496-500-PP. If the pictures are too small, hold down the control key and hit the plus sign at the same time to make it bigger.

I was going to make a mould pretty much like this one, then the NEI came up on Ebay and I got it for dirt cheap. I guess nobody knew what to do with it. So far it is amazingly accurate in everything I have tried it in, and doesn't need sizing when patched with 9# onionskin.

I have also had great success with the Lee 440gr. bullet they make for the 500 S&W. I used a chucking reamer to make it a plain base, and it does need to be sized down for patching since it casts out at .501" But it is a very good hunting bullet design and shoots quite well. Plus it's big enough that if you have a White or other oversize bore rifles it can fit very nicely by patching.

[nanuk]

Nobade: do you size the LEE down before, or after patching?

[MBTcustom]

Doesn't get any simpler than that!
Any opinions on what diameter to size the boolits to? Do I have to use onion skin, or will green bar work like I use on smokeless PP?

[uscra112]

Read up on the old cap-lock "slug guns" that were used for benchrest competition in the later 1800s. Paper patched boolit, loaded from the muzzle, sometimes swaged of two parts, hard nose, soft base. They were intricate beasts to load, but they'd give modern benchresters a run for their money, no foolin'.

[Nobade]

Bullet size depends on the paper you use and the rifle's bore size. I do try to size them before patching. The 9# onionskin adds .006", and you want ideally .001 - .0005 clearance between the bullet and the bore so it floats down by the weight of the ramrod.

So if most 50 cal. ML barrels are .501", you'd want a .494" to .4945" bullet. The thinner paper seems to work best for black powder shooting, it allows a bigger bullet and seems to smash into the grooves easier.

I have tried tighter bullets, groove size or even a touch bigger. You need to oil the patch right before you load it, it's way harder to load, and doesn't seem to shoot any better. I have given up on that.

[nanuk]

great...... Now where the heck do I find sizers of the oddball sizes???


oh... YEAH! Buckshot!

[MBTcustom]

Make friends with a machinist. If you're only sizing lubed boolits, then a push through sizer, even made out of soft steel, will give you many, many, rounds before you notice any size increase.
I have made 3 so far and I keep tweeking them to do what I need. The good news is that when I find the perfect size, I can have Lee make a custom hard sizer that will last forever.

[10 ga]

Zoom on down to the muzzleloader forum. There is a sticky there in PPing for the ML. 10