bullet size ??

[Sneakfoot]

I slugged the barrel on my rifle today and the measurments are .500 to the lands,.510 to the groves. I would like to have a mould made for it by Tom at acurate mold, but I don't know what size the bullet should be in relationship to the bore measurments for best accuracy. I have read that it should be a few thousands over and also that it should be undersized. It will be #51-460M a maxi and no patch or wad will be used. All oppions welcomed.

[451 Pete]

:coffeecom:coffeecomYou mentioned that you would like the best accuracy from your barrel with this bullet. The one thing that you didn't give is the twist rate of the barrel. This wil pretty much determine what that barrel was designed to shoot or what it will shoot most accurately with.

A slow twist barrel of 1 turn of the rifling in say 66 or 70 inchs of barrel length is designed more for the round ball instead of a bullet. The bullet needs a faster rotational value to stabilize properly. Thompson Center made the Hawken in a 1-48 barrel twist and it is generally thought of as a kind of a universal twist for a .50 cal. It does alright with both round ball and bullet but not great for either one. Faster twist rates of 1-32 or 1-28 or even 1-24 impart more spin and are better suited for shooting bullets accurately.

If your using a soft or pure lead to cast your bullets the bullet will obturate, or bump up, into your rifling. A lot of shooters do not know that the accuracy of the bullet comes from the bullets base and not it's nose. A felt or heavy cardboard wad will help so that the burning powder and hot gas'will not erode or deform the base. (Additionally if you think about it this is also why the crown at the muzzle is so important to accuracy. If the gas pushing the bullet escapes from one side of the barrel before the other it will impart a wobble to the bullet and your accuracy will suffer. )

I know that this is not an answer to your question but given just the info. above I am reluctant to try and guess.

Hope this helps .... Pete

[mooman76]

451 Pete gave you good info. Also there are allot of maxie moulds already out there and it may not be needed to go with a custom mould. You could probably get some samples here from different folks but like Pete said if you don't have the right twist rate you won't get bullets to shot real well or will only get them to shoot so-so.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

bodily injury!

[Sneakfoot]

The barrel in a Greenn Mountain and it has a 1-28 twist. I did buy a Lyman mold, 395grs. It was supposed to cast a .508 bullet, but they came out at .504 and out of round.
A buddy borrowed me one of his molds and it also was undersize. The Lyman mold was bought from Midway and cost me about 63 bucks. I sent it back with a nice letter. So I figure if I'm gonna stay with this I may as well buy a mold that fits the bore of my rifle.

[Omnivore]

You should try firing the bullets before sending back the mold, and furthermore some load development will be in order to determine what the gun/bullet combination likes. It can take some time. See the posts above.

[mooman76]

You should try shooting some like Omnivore said. When you run it down the bore the barrel will make it round and also if it is smaller you still have the bore size of .500. The lead has to go somewhere and it will form in the grooves and may end up just fine.

[idahoron]

I bought that same mould the lyman plains bullet. I complained to Lyman about it and sent it to them. They said it is supposed to be .508 so they sent it back. I complained to midway and they said they would take it back. I sold it to another guy that wanted it.
It is advertised as .508 it should be .508 then there is the fact that this bullet will not shoot out of a Green mountain worth a cr@p. I tried so many different loads it make my head hurt. After I gave up on the mould I even went back and tried it paper patched. That was a wreck. It is the worst bullet I have ever shot. Here is a picture of a normal 50 yard group.

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/2250399_felt_wad_50_yard_2.jpg



Sneakfoot, You say yours is a Green mountain barrel. That is what I have on my TC's. The mould I am using now is a Lee C-501-440-RF. It is a 500 S&W bullet. I paper patch this bullet and size it to .501. They are a very good shooting bullet. You can see some of what I have written about this bullet if you do a search. Here is a typical group with this bullet at 100 yards. Ron

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/idahoron/Muzzleloaders/Paperpatch501.jpg
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/idahoron/Muzzleloaders/500SW3-22-08small.jpg

[Sneakfoot]

I bought that same mould the lyman plains bullet. I complained to Lyman about it and sent it to them. They said it is supposed to be .508 so they sent it back. I complained to midway and they said they would take it back. I sold it to another guy that wanted it.
It is advertised as .508 it should be .508 then there is the fact that this bullet will not shoot out of a Green mountain worth a cr@p. I tried so many different loads it make my head hurt. After I gave up on the mould I even went back and tried it paper patched. That was a wreck. It is the worst bullet I have ever shot. Here is a picture of a normal 50 yard group.

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/2250399_felt_wad_50_yard_2.jpg



Sneakfoot, You say yours is a Green mountain barrel. That is what I have on my TC's. The mould I am using now is a Lee C-501-440-RF. It is a 500 S&W bullet. I paper patch this bullet and size it to .501. They are a very good shooting bullet. You can see some of what I have written about this bullet if you do a search. Here is a typical group with this bullet at 100 yards. Ron

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/idahoron/Muzzleloaders/Paperpatch501.jpg
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/idahoron/Muzzleloaders/500SW3-22-08small.jpg

If the bullets I casted from that Lyman mold shot like that, I would not have sent it back, but as it turned out I had a hard time hitting the back stop with them. I need a bullet that more closely fits the bore.