muzzle loading bullets

[cptjack]

bought a lyman mold for my 50 cal lyman....bullet just drops down the barrel.....so what to do ...flat based bullet...do I swag the bullet to .503 the barrels dia. or paper patch? thanks guys

[44man]

Need mold number. Not all molds are for ML's. A good .50 ML will have a .500" bore and .010" deep rifling.
You do not mention if the twist is for a RB or sabot either.
The Lyman is one of the very best. Rifle and revolver boolits are different.

[Harter66]

What is the design of the boolit? For hunting or target use? I had a rifle that Maxi's only fully engraved the top band on while a sister rifle marked the bottom band . Day by day the 2 shot about the same.
If it is a Minne design then its supposed to be ''loose'' and seal w/the skirt. presumablely the seating of the ball also flairs the skirt to hold it in place.
Last and I always screw this up as I cant remember if alloy makes fat or skinny boolits, but I mostly cast my ML balls from 1-20 or 1-30.

You could PP but they are hard to load w/o tearing . Buckshot shoots a 45cal ML 1000yd target rifle PP'd w/excelent results. It could be that I lack the patience to load them.

[cptjack]

48 my rifle is a deerstalker 50 cal 1:48 twist the mold is a lyman 504617 maxi

[Maven]

"...do I swage the bullet to .503 the barrel's dia. or paper patch?"

If you can bump that Maxi-Ball up a few thousandths and do so consistently, things should improve. Paper patching, while an option on many undersized CB's, will be difficult given the shape of the Maxi-. Btw, Lyman Maxi-Ball molds, although well made, are as often undersized as oversized. T/C Maxi-Ball molds, on the other hand are very likely to be correctly dimensioned. You may want to trade your mold to someone with a tight bored .50cal. rifle whose twist is 1:48" or faster.

[cptjack]

great thanks

[44man]

48 my rifle is a deerstalker 50 cal 1:48 twist the mold is a lyman 504617 maxi
My take too, the mold casts too small. You should have a hard thumb push or more.