Lyman Plains .50 Cal (New mold)

[54bore]

This is the Lyman .50 Cal Plains bullet, these bullets from this new mold drop at 397.5 to 398.5 Grains, I just got done trying them and they shot well! I shot at 60 yards to test, i shoot Swiss 3F powder, i was gonna try 50 Grains first but ended up loading one of my 70 Grain vials first so i went with it. It was starting to rain so it was anything but comfortable! After the second or 3rd shot it was raining hard enough i had to huddle over my barrel to keep my powder dry, ROYAL PITA! I shot 5 shots and quit. My rifle is a Renegade with a Stainless Green Mountain LRH .50 Cal barrel, Lyman 57SML Peep with Williams Large aperture (the one pictured in my williams peep aperture thread, a williams aperture will fit a Lyman peep, but a Lyman aperture doesn't seem to fit a Williams peep? I have tried) Lyman 17AHB Globe with fine bead post Lee Shaver insert. Double wrap of onion skin paper, and finish sized to .499, .060 Thou Vegetable fibre over powder wad

193494 193495

[54bore]

193496 193497 193498

[54bore]

Now that i know they are gonna shoot i will get them out to 100 yards next, i feel i can shoot these better than i just did at 60 Yards, I hurried my shots due to it raining, my shots felt good but i was in a hurry!

[Harleysboss]

Good looking group! Your gun seems to like them for sure. Six o clock hold?

[54bore]

Good looking group! Your gun seems to like them for sure. Six o clock hold?

I was holding right in the center of the black, these little fine Lee Shaver beads are FLAT OUT AWESOME!

[RBak]

Nice post .54bore.
What is the twist on that GM barrel....1:28????
I think you may well be onto something with this combination.
Wishing you luck in many of your very interesting, and worth while endeavors, makes for some great reading!


Russ

[54bore]

Nice post .54bore.
What is the twist on that GM barrel....1:28????
I think you may well be onto something with this combination.
Wishing you luck in many of your very interesting, and worth while endeavors, makes for some great reading!


Russ

Russ, It is a 1:28 Twist, These Green Mountain Fast Twist barrels REALLY shoot!! The only bullet i have tried so far that this particular .50 Cal barrel did not seem to like was the Buffalo Arms .492 550 grain bullets, i think i could probably get them to shoot better if i pushed them harder? But I doubt i will mess with the 550s again in this particular gun, on a side note My little TC Scout with 1:20 Twist shot the 550s pretty darn good, very acceptable.
I plan to shoot the .492-450s tomorrow in the Green Mountain 1:28, will be interesting to see how they do?

[54bore]

In case anyone has any interest in doing what i did here, you need to keep in mind that these Lyman Plains bullets are similiar to a Maxi ball, they have a larger front band, (mine measure .502-.503 top driving band, and the bottom band is .497-.499, The length of this bullet is .829) so very similar to sizing the S&W 500

There are 2 ways of going about this, My personal preference is to size all of my bullets through my .499 first, i roll the bullets across a lube pad (just like you do brass cases to reload) Lubing the bullets before sizing makes them slide through the die near effortlessly, My next step is to wipe the Lube off the bullets, remove the die and push a clean dry cloth in it and clean the inside of the die REALLY good by twisting it (takes about 1 whole minute of your time) if you dont clean the lube from the inside of the die it will be tacky and when you try sending your paper patched bullet through, it will grab the paper and strip it off, so make sure you clean the die! You dont have to get ridiculous with the bullets, just wipe them off good so you cant feel lube (if theres a little bit in the lube grooves it's not gonna hurt a thing) if you try sizing the bullets WITHOUT lube be prepared for a Stuck bullet (believe me, i know this first hand!) you will get away with a couple dry bullets, but about the 3rd one will be HARD to push through, try another one and it will stick in the die! Friction=Heat. This will also leave a small amount of lead smear in the die. LUBE YOUR BULLETS and you will avoid all of the above.
After the bullets have been sized, lube wiped off, and die cleaned, i then Wrap my paper on the bullets and send them back through the .499 sizing die, doing it this way creates WAY less stress on the papers than wrapping the papers with the bullet at .503 and sending them through the die, think about it? .499 vs .503, You are making the bullet 3-5 thou smaller BEFORE wrapping the papers and sending them through the die.
The other way is to skip the lube sizing all together, Wrap your papers on an already oversized bullet and push them through, This method no doubt works, BUT you will NEVER convince me that it isn't more stressful on the paper.

[54bore]

I shot these Lyman Plains .50s again this morning, except i stretched out to 105-110 yards. I had just got done shooting a 6 shot 50 yard group with the Buffalo Arms .492-450 grain bullets. The first Lyman plains bullet i shot to start this group would have been the 7th shot, i had what seemed like a very slight hangfire on the first shot? The other 4 felt perfect. I have 3 shots in an inch and 2 that are high, not sure why the 2 went high? I am happy with the results and look forward to more playing with this bullet, This Lyman Plains bullet should make an AWESOME hunting bullet!

193592