Many Klatch
01-30-2016, 11:04 AM
I have been shooting round ball muzzleloaders since the 1980's. I know about casting round ball. However I have recently started shooting an original Danish Rolling Block and it's a whole new game. This is one of the Danish made ones not the earlier Remington made ones. It is stamped with a date of 1875 so I think it is made with the better German steel. The rifling is pristine.
I swaged a roundball in the barrel and found that it measures .460. The chamber was modified to allow the use of 45/70 brass probably in the 1950's when it was imported. The brass does swell a bit but the new Starline cases seem to take it in stride. After fireforming the brass I don't resize or do anything to reload except clean the brass and install new primers.
I found out the hard way that .458/500 grain flat based bullets just keyhole at 50 yards. Lesson learned.
I found that Buffalo Bullets .460X405 grain hollow base bullets over 61.5 grains of 2F blackpowder will shoot a 19 shot ragged hole at 50 yards. I do a light compression of the powder before loading. I use an LDPE overpowder wad and then a light paper wad under the bullet. Got another batch of 100 loaded up and will try it at 100 yards tomorrow.
I don't like buying bullets since I have about a 1,000 pounds of pure lead stored. So I bought a Lee 459/405 HB mold and a Lee .460 bullet swager. Now I need to start casting when it gets warmer. I have pure lead and pure tin on hand I also have some SPG lube, but I will probably start messing with making my own lube soon.
I would appreciate any advice that you all can give me. One question is what mix of lead to tin should I use. The 1 to 20 that Buffalo sells sure seems to work well. However how do you all mix the alloy. I have only worked with pure lead.
I swaged a roundball in the barrel and found that it measures .460. The chamber was modified to allow the use of 45/70 brass probably in the 1950's when it was imported. The brass does swell a bit but the new Starline cases seem to take it in stride. After fireforming the brass I don't resize or do anything to reload except clean the brass and install new primers.
I found out the hard way that .458/500 grain flat based bullets just keyhole at 50 yards. Lesson learned.
I found that Buffalo Bullets .460X405 grain hollow base bullets over 61.5 grains of 2F blackpowder will shoot a 19 shot ragged hole at 50 yards. I do a light compression of the powder before loading. I use an LDPE overpowder wad and then a light paper wad under the bullet. Got another batch of 100 loaded up and will try it at 100 yards tomorrow.
I don't like buying bullets since I have about a 1,000 pounds of pure lead stored. So I bought a Lee 459/405 HB mold and a Lee .460 bullet swager. Now I need to start casting when it gets warmer. I have pure lead and pure tin on hand I also have some SPG lube, but I will probably start messing with making my own lube soon.
I would appreciate any advice that you all can give me. One question is what mix of lead to tin should I use. The 1 to 20 that Buffalo sells sure seems to work well. However how do you all mix the alloy. I have only worked with pure lead.