45 cal pistol bullet lenth?

[plinky56]

Hey all....been a longish winter and trying to finish my last project b4 springtime. I hunt in PA, special regs, and use a CVA inline, 1:28 twist, BH209, 90gs and my lyman keith 454424 pistol bullet in a harvester crush rib sabot(sized twice to .452). Casts right at 265gr with COWW and is almost exactly at .701" in length. Super accurate for me for early season and regular season as well, with minimal clean up. Greatly accurate game getter with 1/2 inch hole in and 3/4 out, and it always exits! Here is my problem. I want to use this boolit for a TC Hawken my pop built in the 70's with it's bastard 1:48 twist but it won't shoot better than 6" at 50 yds. Went to the Berger bullets twist rate calculator and it shows a 1.15 result and marginal stability,(bc=.21/dia=.452/gr=265/length=.7/fps=1400). Tried from 60gr goex black thru 100gr and no joy! So, i'm thinking I need to try shorter boolits, according to the calculator, .6" and shorter. Problem is, can't seem to find information on lengths of cast boolits, with a nice meplat for the Pops TC for late flintlock deer season. Anyone have measured lengths/mold numbers for 45 cal that casts around .6" so I can make the 'best guess' b4 I shell out for 'yet another' mold that I need? If you could send the bullet length my way, i'd appreciate it. And as always, suggestions/comments are very welcome. Thanks

[John Boy]

Problem is, can't seem to find information on lengths of cast boolits, with a nice meplat for the Pops TC for late flintlock deer season.Your question really relates to muzzleloading. So delete this post and post it here ... http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?16-Muzzleloading

[plinky56]

Oops, sorry, was all over the site this am. How do you delete a post?

[C. Latch]

The math behind your question applies to all rifled firearms, regardless of how they load.

If you really want a stable bullet for your .50, I'd start with something like a 200-grain .45 pistol bullet. Shorter is better.

Something you might want to do is go to the mountain mold website and get into the 'design your own bullet' page for .452 bullets and tinker with the design until it says it's optimized for a 1-48" twist. You'll find you will need a VERY short bullet to achieve real stability.

Reality is, those old Hawkens stabilized bullets well enough to hunt with at close ranges, because it doesn't take perfect stability for short ranges.

[Washington1331]

Those older sidelocks were really designed for patched round ball use. I would give those a try before spending a bunch of money on custom molds. I've got a Lyman 54 deerslayer that won't shoot Conicals worth a darn, but with patched round balls it will shoot out the x ring at a hundred yards. Give them a try. You might find the same true for you.

[John Boy]

How do you delete a post?
Click on : Edit post >Go Advanced > Delete Post