Paper patched (wrapped) bullets in Lyman Great Plains Hunter

[bluegrouse]

Hi,

I was looking for a replacement barrel for my Lyman Great Plains but it Looks like Green Mountain no longer makes fast twist barrels available. My goal is to shoot paper wrapped 400-500 grain bullets that some of the people on this site report as being very accurate in their rifles. Anyone has experience with paper patching .50 with 32 twist?

Thanks

[rodwha]

IdahoRon does. He uses the Lee .50 cal pistol bullet through his GPH.

[bluegrouse]

I thought IdahoRon has a Green Mountain barrel with twist faster than 32 (1-28 if I am right). Unfortunately, Green Mountain no longer makes octagonal fast twist barrels.

[johnson1942]

i have a custom inline 50 cal. that im sighting in right now with a 1/32 twist. im only going to shoot paperpatched bullets in it. have a icecream bucket of bullet swagged up, 485 grain .494 diam. i use the single wrap system. the first few was about in the same hole and now i just have to move the sight so it is in the x not just close to it. pm me and we can talk all about it.

[bluegrouse]

Thanks. What mold are you using? I am guessing that the Great Plains Hunter should be stabilizing the same bullet adequately since it too is 1-32 twist.

[johnson1942]

i cast bullets to the weight i want then swage them to bullet i want. however most cant do that and a perfect bullet for what you need is about 450 to 500 grains sized to about .493. go to ramshot.com and to the blogsection and read the article on paperpatching the inline muzzleloader. it is for side locks, underhammers or any kind of fast twist muzzle loader. it will explain the double wrap method or the chase single wrap method. pictures and all are their.

[idahoron]

Hi,

I was looking for a replacement barrel for my Lyman Great Plains but it Looks like Green Mountain no longer makes fast twist barrels available. My goal is to shoot paper wrapped 400-500 grain bullets that some of the people on this site report as being very accurate in their rifles. Anyone has experience with paper patching .50 with 32 twist?

Thanks

Take a look at this thread.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?227485-rlb-s-first-group-with-500-S-amp-W-bullets-out-to-100-yards&highlight=idahoron

[idahoron]

IdahoRon does. He uses the Lee .50 cal pistol bullet through his GPH.

I have TC rifles with GM barrels. But I did post about a Lyman.

[koger]

Listen to Ron and Roger, they have it down pat! I am shooting the .500 slug, 450 grains, sized an paperpatched with one wrap of freezer paper, eats a ragged hole at 100yds!!

[bluegrouse]

Thanks for the replies. Reading the thread link posted above by Idahoron it looks like that Lee C-501-440-RF is what I need. Excellent! Once again, thanks everyone.

[Fly]

I have a 1-28 twist GPH barrel & talked to Ron & I,m using the same bullet he recommend & mind
drives nails. I have not pp my bullets yet. But plan to in the future, but it still shoots better than me.

Fly

[Sharpsman]

A 500 grain cast bullet paper patch is going to need a 1-18" ROT to stabilize the bullet!

[johnson1942]

sharpman, you are correct for a 45 cal rifle barrel but the question was for a 50 cal barrel. a 1/28 twist in 50 cal will shoot a 500 grain bullet very well and a 1/32 twist may also. many long range blackpowder cartridge rifles in 50 cal have a 1/27 twist. ive shot 1/23 twist in 50 cal but as time goes by i prefer the slower twist and a lighter bullet. i found a 724 grain 50 cal pp bullet was way over kill on a deer. a 400 to 500 gets the job done with out thowing them like they were hit by a train.

[Sharpsman]

My best accuracy with the 50/90 was with a ROT of 1-22 using PP of 650-720 grs.

[charlie b]

Hi,

I was looking for a replacement barrel for my Lyman Great Plains but it Looks like Green Mountain no longer makes fast twist barrels available. My goal is to shoot paper wrapped 400-500 grain bullets that some of the people on this site report as being very accurate in their rifles. Anyone has experience with paper patching .50 with 32 twist?

Thanks
So, this was my first try with PP bullets in my GPH. Got the PP bullets from Oregon, the 450gn version as it was the lightest they had in .50 cal.

PP was onion skin from same placed, double wrapped dry and then sized through a Lee .501 die to 'iron' the paper (thanks to idahoron for his work on this).

I fired about 15 today. Most were trying to get bullet on paper. To be fair this is only my second time firing this rifle. I handicapped myself with wrong color target (black with orange center). I also screwed up and did not clean all the oil out of the barrel before firing. It left me with delayed ignition for some of the shots. And I did not clean between shots. All of which I will fix next time.

Regarless of the issues this was the result at 100yd (bottom dots on center target)

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170315/55140642b43fcc414b12a1937a26b906.jpg

[charlie b]

I am quite satisfied with the first try at this, especially since I had several variables working against me.

FYI the top three holes on the target were PRB over 40gn FFF triple7.

And the load for the PP bullets was 80gn FFF Triple7.

charlie

PS forgot, that bottom group is about 5" across

[charlie b]

Last,

Here is what the paper looked like after firing. Most of it blew away but I cought a few pieces just to see what they looked like

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170315/dafd9b092bd358c9e2f430d9d6e60fcb.jpg

[charlie b]

Well, another day at the range. Still having some delayed firing. After reading up a bit I think it may be more to do with tring for fire TripleSeven with percussion caps. I am going to go out and get some real black or Pyrodex for the rest of my 'experiments.

These were the last three shots of the day (10 shots worth). Note that these were weighed charges this time vs using a powder measure. Wiped between shots. Still using the 450gn PP bullet, 2 layers onion skin, 80gn equivalent. Down to 2" range at 100yd. There was a bit of wind blowing but didn't seem to bother it much.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170402/54e140d7ed2695623ceb2c20e29ebd94.jpg

[charlie b]

PS just wanted to thank all you guys who have figured out this PP thing again. Never would have considered such a thing without all that experience to help.

[Fly]

Yes these guys are great. Ron scoped me out on my GPH & it can out shoot me for sure. Any misses are me.
Nothing wrong with your GPH barrel. Better keep that bad boy.
Fly

[idahoron]

I am glad to hear of your good luck. I am also glad to help good shooting.

[charlie b]

Thanks Ron. One of these days I may even have to break down and start casting again.

[charlie b]

And another bonus for me is I will be adding the 17 front sight with the Shavers inserts. Just for grins I also got some target knobs for the 57 rear sight. So, I will actually be able to see the aimpoint on the target this time instead of a big orange blob (the original owner had the fiber front sight, probably for hunting). To top it all off I also order a smaller aperture for the rear sight.

Looking for that elusive cloverleaf :)