.45 Hawken

[meaux308]

I am new to this site and someone advised me my post should have been placed in the muzzleloading section instead of the cast bullet section so here is the original post: "I am a fan of the sidelock muzzleloaders. I have a T/C .45 hawken but due to inlines and many southern states now allowing single shot rifles the .45 is dying quickly. Buffalo Bullet from my knowledge is dead and Hornady Great Plains is no longer available. Only thing I can find is the Maxi-ball. I have harvested deer with all of the previous mentioned bullets and the buffalo does great. I am looking for a solution to this ordeal. I have two of the 325 grain .45 Flat Base Hollow Point bullets and a box of the 275 grain Hollow Base Hollow Point buffalo bullets. I also have some great plains but where may I find a mold to begin casting such bullets. Or how or who can I send one of these bullets off to to make a mold so I may keep a steady diet of ammo for my hawken. Would anyone have any suggestions? I am starting into casting and loading for my 45 acp... and ready to expand my self supply of bullets. "

[GabbyM]

Lee makes two different diameter improved minie molds for 45 caliber. 294 grain.
I never thought a 245 grain maxi was under weight. You can run more powder under the maxi. I picked up a be minie mold IIRC 265 grain from RCBS on Ebay a couple years ago. Have a bag cast up but haven't got around to shooting any. I figured they'd be good for fast reloads.

[Nobade]

Lyman also made a minie' mould in 45 caliber that can be sized down to slip fit in your rifle's bore. Those work well in my TC rifles. I also have been sizing down and paper patching 45 ACP pistol bullets with exceptionally accurate results in my Cherokee. Specifically the Lee TL-452-230-TC. Loaded over 50gr. FFF it outpowers a 45 Colt and holds less than 2 inches at 100 yards. Plenty of hit for deer hunting.

-Nobade

[fouronesix]

meaux308,

I don't fully understand your dilemma. There are 45 cal muzzleloader conical choices available. Both the Lee REAL and the Maxiball design will do the job as well as any conical you may have used but each will require some home work and range time.

Ebay usually has many molds listed but do a price and reality check before bidding. Most large online retailers have a variety of the Lee and Lyman molds.

Casting ML conicals using pure lead is usually very easy and straight forward.

Here's two examples from Midway.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/500283/lyman-1-cavity-maxi-ball-bullet-mold-454616-45-caliber-454-diameter-245-grain

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/147264/lee-2-cavity-bullet-mold-45-200-real-45-caliber-467-diameter-200-grain-real

[meaux308]

Thank you for your replies. I already pour lead for my 45 acp. I have bagged deer with the maxiball but everyone has a personal preference. My first deer was a 4pt at approx. 85 yards and through the smoke I could see the white on the belly turn up with the 325grn Buffalo Bullet. Since then at the age of 16 I was hooked on muzzleloading. Accurate shots are what it takes to ethically put animals down but do to tracking a doe for some distance in a swamp I prefer the anchoring with a buffalo bullet or great plains design. The Lee Real design resembles that of the Maxi-ball to me. I was even game to finding a mold for the maxi hunter design but unable to locate. I was hoping to gain advise on how to get a mold of the Buffalo Bullet/Great plains or something extremely similar. I have a several hundred of the maxiball from dixie gun works so I see no need to pour the maxi style yet.

[mooman76]

Do some looking at the auction sites an eventually one will pop up. I know the 45 was popular for awhile and 50 became more popular with all the inlines and such but 45 is still fairly common. You could also post in the selling section here a WTB of the mould you are looking for. You also could have one custom made but it won't be cheap.

[meaux308]

Thank you but I am serious muzzleloader I got where I leave my .308 at home unless hunting where possibility of over 100yds Im willing to spend money but dont know where to go or who is willing to make the mold. My other gun I use commonly is a .35 rem that was left to me by my late cousin. It is a meat gun to for some reason I like slow moving bigger than the usual bullet plus I know the .45 puts a big hole but dont blood shoot a deer as bad as the .308. Did anyone ever make a mold for the .45 buffalo bullet style/great plains they are nearly the same bullet and I read somewher online that is the reason why buffalo didnt succeed was do to big company basically by making minimum changes. I know to believe nothing what I hear or read and only half of what I see but the Buffalo Bullet puts em down.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I bought one of these thinking I could make it work for the French 11mm gras...still am working on that. It has a hollow base, but would need to be sized down to fit in a TC 45 bore. I could hook you up with some samples ? also, I don't have a TC in 45, can you tell me what size you would want them sized to ? I may be able to do that if I have the right size sizer...if not, you could probably pick up a Lee sizer and size them yourself ?

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/226848/lee-1-cavity-improved-minie-ball-bullet-mold-454-298m-454-diameter-298-grain

[Fishman]

Contact Accurate Molds. If you have a sample bullet, Tom can duplicate it if he hasnt already. You will be happy with it I am sure.
http://www.accuratemolds.com

[meaux308]

Thank you very much for your assistance. I got a response from him he does not make the hollowpoint designs.. I always was told dont settle for something you dont want. That applies to several things but guess i may end up having to settle for the lee improved minnie with heaviest weight available and come up with a presidential solution to making it a hollow point. Just will have to worry about if it will have to be sized. I was hoping maybe someone with experience or been in this world longer may have acquired a mold or had one made and can point me in the right direction.

[Outpost75]

It should be possible for Erik at www.hollowpointmold.com to do a Cramer HP conversion on a double-cavity Lee 250-grain R.E.A.L. bullet, which will load OK in your Hawken and give you about a 230-grain with large meplat and suitable cavity for blackpowder velocities. He could do a similar mod to a double cavity Maxi.

[GabbyM]

Don't see much need for a hollow point myself. If you use pure lead there will be no fear of to little expansion. Over 1,200 fps they would be more likely to mushroom clear past the base and come apart. No hollow point needed. Buffalo and some of the others selling HP's in soft lead bullets are simply exploiting an advertisement gimmick. Just like HP's in shotgun slugs. Since any Forster pure lead 12 gage slug I ever saw recovered from a deer was in pieces. I do think the HP makes many of the heavy slugs more accurate. This by placing more of the weight towards the outside edge. In true pure lead I use a little tin to keep them together.

We've had photos posted here on this board of 45-70 bullets cast of 30:1. Recovered from big animals that will stop them. 405 grain bullets fired at 1,250 MV and mushroomed past half there length and quite a bit lighter on the scale. No hollow point in those. I've never recovered a Maxi ball. A friend showed me a 50 caliber maxi he'd removed from a big whitetail shot at over 100 yards. Perfect mushroom. Scrap lead he'd used was hard enough it wouldn't scratch with your fingernail.

My big grand master plan is to use the 240 grain Maxi for first shot. Then have the big Hollow based Minie balls to re load with. Since they are way under bore diameter and just fall down the barrel. I've some truly pure cable sheathing lead here I cast them from. No worry of them bumping up over 54 grains of FFG. Which is the spout size on my flask. Just went back and weighed one of the RCBS HB Minie balls. 285 grains. I've never shot that bullet as I've not been deer hunting since they doubled all the fees here in Illinois. Have wondered if the TC Hawken would even stabilize them well. RCBS hasn't made that mold for a while. I picked this one up off EBay about three years ago. It's similar to the Lee HB Minie. Huge flat nose.

[fouronesix]

Don't see much need for a hollow point myself. If you use pure lead there will be no fear of to little expansion. Over 1,200 fps they would be more likely to mushroom clear past the base and come apart. No hollow point needed. Buffalo and some of the others selling HP's in soft lead bullets are simply exploiting an advertisement gimmick. Just like HP's in shotgun slugs. Since any Forster pure lead 12 gage slug I ever saw recovered from a deer was in pieces. I do think the HP makes many of the heavy slugs more accurate. This by placing more of the weight towards the outside edge. In true pure lead I use a little tin to keep them together.

We've had photos posted here on this board of 45-70 bullets cast of 30:1. Recovered from big animals that will stop them. 405 grain bullets fired at 1,250 MV and mushroomed past half there length and quite a bit lighter on the scale. No hollow point in those. I've never recovered a Maxi ball. A friend showed me a 50 caliber maxi he'd removed from a big whitetail shot at over 100 yards. Perfect mushroom. Scrap lead he'd used was hard enough it wouldn't scratch with your fingernail.

My big grand master plan is to use the 240 grain Maxi for first shot. Then have the big Hollow based Minie balls to re load with. Since they are way under bore diameter and just fall down the barrel. I've some truly pure cable sheathing lead here I cast them from. No worry of them bumping up over 54 grains of FFG. Which is the spout size on my flask. Just went back and weighed one of the RCBS HB Minie balls. 285 grains. I've never shot that bullet as I've not been deer hunting since they doubled all the fees here in Illinois. Have wondered if the TC Hawken would even stabilize them well. RCBS hasn't made that mold for a while. I picked this one up off EBay about three years ago. It's similar to the Lee HB Minie. Huge flat nose.

Plus 2 on that! ^^

If the OP is looking for a bang flop, DRT (or whatever the current lingo is) with minimal messy or inconvenient tracking especially for a whitetail at close range in a swamp, then I'd suggest a 243 with a hi vel 80-100gr cup core bullet.

[meaux308]

Thank you for your support I also have 308 and 35 rem for that bang flop but I always get bang flop with buffalo too and with maxi I never have recovered one of those bullets either but I generally try to aim for right behind the shoulder and seems like the maxi dont expand with our little deer in the south. Hope you guys are staying warm think I will try to go hunt this polar vortex tommorrow or next day ducks finally made their journey here. Plus do some deer scouting on public land for the upcoming muzzleloader season. But I also dont use the cup core of remington core lockt had to many lately break apart completely from 20-75yds and I want to venture more into primarily using my muzzleloader except in wet weather.

[10 ga]

Contact BullShop for ML bullets. I think current contact info is bullshopboolits@aol.com they can fix you up with pretty much whatever you need in way of ML conicals. 10