Groove diameter bullets

[2Tite]

Do groove diameter bullets work well with black powder? I have A .408 dia grease groove bullet and a .408 groove dia barrel. I'm used to .001 over groove diameter. I've never tried groove diameter bullets. Anyone have luck with this?

[Chill Wills]

2Tite,

Groove diameter bullets is pretty much all we shoot unless someone is paperpatching up to bore diameter.

Maybe I do not understand you question correctly.:???:

[bigted]

so i recon your shooting a 40 cal rifle. we all use greese groove boolits that meassure out to at least the groove diameter of the barrel and most find that .001 or .002 over the groove diameter of the barrel work very well.

and as chill wills pointed out...the paperpatch boolits are a different storie completly.

use of bp lube in your greese groove boolits will go a looooong way for your accuracy as well.

[semtav]

Do groove diameter bullets work well with black powder? I have A .408 dia grease groove bullet and a .408 groove dia barrel. I'm used to .001 over groove diameter. I've never tried groove diameter bullets. Anyone have luck with this?

depends on the gun and the alloy. I haven't had good luck with them, but I didn't experiment with softer alloys.

[Don McDowell]

Like Semtav said there's always what the rifle wants to take into consideration. Softer alloys will usually work better with groove diameter greasegroove bullets.
The only way to find out if it'll work for you or not is to try it. The worst thing that can happen is you'll become well versed and practiced in your favorite lead mining techniques.

[montana_charlie]

Guys who shoot lead bullets with smokeless powder will usually tell you that one or two thousandths over groove is the right size for your bullet.
But, smokeless powder doesn't bump up a bullet in the same way that black powder does.

So, assuming you are loading with BP and not using 'hardcast' aloy for your bullets, they will probably shoot well ... even if a thousandth or two LESS than groove diameter.

However, using the fattest bullet that will fit in your chamber is a good rule of thumb.

CM