Help me pick a mold

[clintsfolly]

A buddy wants me to get a mold and cast him some boolits. What he wants is a conical to shoot in TC Hawkins 50cal . What I want is a 2-4 cav mold as he wants about 50 -75 lbs of them cast. Any good idea are welcome. Thanks for the help and your time Clint

[dondiego]

Does he know what shoots best in his rifle?

[rodwha]

Start by ordering as many conicals that molds are available for so that you'll know firsthand before you waste money and time.

I got fairly lucky with mine in that I bought some cast 320 grn REALs, and with a wad they showed promise. I still would like to find others before I purchase a mold.

[Doc_Stihl]

I'd try the 320 REAL first. They cast fast in a 2 banger and work well in everything I've tried them in.

[Squeeze]

If he shoots the typical 1-48 twist either a maxi or real should be OK, he will have to find what flavor and weight his particular gun likes. But if he has a 1-60/1-72 twist roundball barrel your probable stuck with roundball. best bet is to try some commercially available first and see how he likes performance. but he's probably better off with a good patched roundball in that gun. To it's range (for both the shooter and gun) it will perform as well as anything and has been used with great success on any north american game

[clintsfolly]

He is prepper and just want a 50yd deer killer for his 6-8 TC,s finding best for all is not a thing that will happen. Most likely these will just set for years and and his kids will sell them but it,s his money and he going to pay my time. Will look at the the Real bullet and see what is out there.Thanks Clint

[bubba.50]

you could buy both weights of lee real molds at midsouth for about $40.00 total.

[scattershot]

My vote would got to the T/C Maxi. It was designed for the T/C rifles, and is accurate in all I've tried.

[rodwha]

If his T/C's aren't fast twist barrels a patched round ball is plenty unless he might be shooting big game like elk, and there are some who use .50 cal PRB's up to 50 yds. They weigh less and take up less room.

[clintsfolly]

How about Accurate molds 51-325m??

[Omnivore]

A tightly fit patched ball in a 50 cal is very good on deer out to well past 50 yards. It will shoot well in a 48" or longer twist barrel (he most likely has 48" twist) and it will kill the heck out of any deer. What's not to like?

Still; he should do a bunch of shooting with different loads and methods before deciding, but if you want something that will for sure work for his purposes and is easy to shoot, the patched round ball has hundreds of years of success behind it. I've tired several conicals and sabots for years, and some work fine, but I keep coming back to patched round ball for my 50 cal with 48" twist.

I was getting cloverleafs (all holes touching) at 50 yards with the 250 REALs over a felt wad and 90 grains Goex 2F, but at 100 yards I couldn't get them to group as well as patched ball over 110 grains. I'm still have some experimenting to do, but I've hunted with that PB load for several years and it's never failed.

Others will have different thoughts. Idaho Ron has done extremely well with paper-patched, heavier bullets for example. There are many others.