Lee 500-360-M for an Inline???

[mikenbarb]

Im wondering if anyone has any experience with this boolit in an Inline Muzzleloader. Its a improved mine traditional design and wondering how they shoot out of them and if anyone has any suggestions where to start with a powder charge. Im dropping them at 365 grains with soft lead but its not totaly pure.

[Underclocked]

Start at 65 grains and work up slowly. You'll probably wind up with 75 to 80 grains. What rifle are you going to try those in?

[Maven]

mikenbarb, I have that mold and have done a bit of testing with it. Preliminarily, I'd say it didn't perform as consistently as either the Lyman or T/C Maxi-Balls I tested, using the same loads. Moreover, accuracy seemed to worsen with charges greater than 60gr. FFg, but I'm not sure whether it was due to powder fouling, the primer type I was using, or a combination of the two. Here's what I'd suggest:

1) Weigh & separate the Minie's: You already know why.

2) Try them with and without BP lube in the hollow base, but lube the body in either case.

3) Try them with various primer types: Normal #209's, BP #209's and #11 caps if your gun allows their use.

4) Start at 50grs. FFg or Pyro RS and work up to 80grs.* as Underclocked suggests.

5) Damp swab your bore after every shot, else the Minie's will be difficult to seat and accuracy will go south in a hurry.

Hope this helps you out!


*My rifle is very sensitive to powder granulation and performs significantly better with FFg or Pyro. RS than FFFg.

[mooman76]

I tried them in mine and wasn't happy at all with the results. I'm not saying they shot bad but they certainly what I would concider good either. I tried both the improved minie and the target minie and the REAL too. I do cancer with Mavin, on the swabing after the first shot. I had trouble seating mine and it was more like a maxie than a minie after the first shot.
To be fair though I didn't go all out to find to the best results, in other words I gave up sooner than I should have but I didn't like the CVA inline I had so maybe I wanted it to fail.
Sounds like you already have the mould so get out and try some loads, yours might shoot better than mine.

[mikenbarb]

Im going to be shooting these in a Traditions Evolution long range hunter. It uses #209 primers and I have Pyrodex Select and American Pioneer Powder to try with them. Im going to start light with the powder charge and work my way up to see what it likes. Im not going to be using these for any long range shooting and got this mold for using them for close range shooting in swamps we hunt because it looks like they will knock a deer on its ass real quick. All my shots with these will be 75 yards and under so im hoping they will work out good. If they dont, Then its back to the good ol Maxi-Balls and Lee REAL's. I have been also trying a bunch of different sabot lately but like the option to cast my own boolits to use in it and im working on a .451dia cast boolit for the sabots to save a little money in the long run. The sabots are used when I need to reach out over 100yds on the one farm I hunt because my smokepole wont shoot anything else accurate enough at those ranges. I will let you know how I make out later today when I get done sighting it in with them.

[mikenbarb]

Well, Shot the Mini's today and not impressed with anything over 110yds. BUT, Within 100yds they are deady out of my smokepole with 68gr Pyrodex Select and 75gr American Pioneer. I was averaging 3" @ 50yds and around 5-6" @100yds with them and didnt have much time to play with the powder charges but im sure there is room to improve. The accuracy dropped of dramaticaly over 125 yds and hoping to fix that problem tommorow with a bunch of different pre weighed charges that I made up in groups of 5.

[mikenbarb]

Shot at the range again and these boolits definatly like slooooooow velocities with light powder charges. I found the best combination was to use them cast from a 50/50 mix of WW's and pure to soften it up a little because they mic'd a smaller diameter than my Maxi's. I got the best accuracy from 65gr Pyrodex select and still 75gr American Pioneer powder. I am happy with the results and got it down to a 4-5" @ 100yds with both powders by just playing with lube and seating pressures. I lubed the entire boolit sides with Bore Butter and left the base empty and packed it just tight enough to seat it good but not a crushing tight that I normaly do with Maxi-Balls or sabots. I guess I found a new shorter range slug for swamp and thicket hunting. Thanks for the help everyone.:drinks:

[richbug]

I used this bullet this year for whitetails. I found best accuracy with 70 grains of Pyrodex"P". well under 2" at 65 yards. Any higher charge and they got really erratic, probably blown skirts. I'm going to make a new base plug for next year.

With pure lead and the 70- grain charge I killed a good size doe, half inch hole in, 2" hole on the way out. DRT