shooter575
12-22-2005, 03:17 PM
Seems to be a lot of confusion on shooting em in front stuffers so I thought I would try to shed some light.This is for non sabot users
1.Forget everything you know about RB. It do not apply
2 .The conical has only two ways to engauge the rifleing
A. To be big enough that it engauged as it is loaded [ie the REAL] This type of bullet will shoot well but is slow to reload and gets harder to load every round as fouling builds.Thet will not engauge coming out if they do not engauge going down. Unlike smokeless BP will not bump them up to fill the grooves
B.A bullet that expands as it is fired. ie a minne ball or a compression bullet. The minne has a hollow base that expands by force of powder to fill the rifleing.The compression bullet has a flat base with large right angle grease grooves in the skirt that collapse like a accordion when fired to engauge the rifleing.During the C/W the Lorenz and the Willams cleaner bullet were compression types.
Hollow based minnes are 99% of what is out there so I will keep to that type.
Fit.
You got to know the bore size.What the barrel says means nothing. I have seen Italian repos for .58 cal. go from .572 up to .582.I have been told that some went to .585. I have seen a couple guys buy 2 muskets at the same time same place and be .003 diffrernt bore sizes. Go figure!
Measuring
Tough to measure a 3 land bore. Here is pic of a cheep bore gauges I cary with me. Single one is for .50 cal..500 to .514. Set of 3 is for muskets.I just drop down bore and that is bore size at muzzle. You could make up a minne on a threaded rod and upset the hollow base to measure also. Or you could pull the breech plug to push through a oversized minne to measure.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/shooter575/cwpluggauges.jpg
OK now lets assume you have a .577 bore in your musket. You will need a bullet od .001-.002 under sized to get the most out of that barrel. You are in luck as there are a lot of moulds that cast in .575. BTW.You can size then down just like our smokeless boolets. [Buckshot get ready for some orders] I use a custom lubersizer die. A push through works well also.
Now most C/W rifles and muskets use a 3 land shallow rifling.They will work well with thicked base as they do not need to expand as much to fill up them grooves If you have a heavy 7 land barrel a thinned skirt will deform better to fill er out.
Moulds
Lee.
Most of them cast a .575 minne.They list a .578 but the last two I got were way undersized.ie .572 The 460-281 mould I have never got to shoot worth a crap in anything. The Lee ashcan[fnwc] workd well out to 100 yd. The traditional one works past that.
Lyman.
They have a pile of moulds.The 575-213 and the 575-213os are good.They made them in .580 at one time. The Blue-gray mould is a copy of the RCBS Hodgen mould.It is .578 dia.,
RCBS The Hodgen mould is a real good one.It comes in .580,.578 and .576 dia.It has a captive base pin that makes for faster casting in a iron mould no less.
Rapine.
Ole Ray Rapine makes a bunch of moulds for minnes.He has them up to .584 as I recall.Captive base pin,Al blocks.They last a long time unlike a Lee.Have a couple that have cast over 5,000 minnes and no prob yet. They are getting a bit pricey of late though. [over a c note]
Here is a pic of a group I was working up for a custom 55 rifle.shot with a .576 RCBS hodgen sized to .574 in a Jerry Harmon 7 land barrel.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/shooter575/MVC-007F.jpg
1.Forget everything you know about RB. It do not apply
2 .The conical has only two ways to engauge the rifleing
A. To be big enough that it engauged as it is loaded [ie the REAL] This type of bullet will shoot well but is slow to reload and gets harder to load every round as fouling builds.Thet will not engauge coming out if they do not engauge going down. Unlike smokeless BP will not bump them up to fill the grooves
B.A bullet that expands as it is fired. ie a minne ball or a compression bullet. The minne has a hollow base that expands by force of powder to fill the rifleing.The compression bullet has a flat base with large right angle grease grooves in the skirt that collapse like a accordion when fired to engauge the rifleing.During the C/W the Lorenz and the Willams cleaner bullet were compression types.
Hollow based minnes are 99% of what is out there so I will keep to that type.
Fit.
You got to know the bore size.What the barrel says means nothing. I have seen Italian repos for .58 cal. go from .572 up to .582.I have been told that some went to .585. I have seen a couple guys buy 2 muskets at the same time same place and be .003 diffrernt bore sizes. Go figure!
Measuring
Tough to measure a 3 land bore. Here is pic of a cheep bore gauges I cary with me. Single one is for .50 cal..500 to .514. Set of 3 is for muskets.I just drop down bore and that is bore size at muzzle. You could make up a minne on a threaded rod and upset the hollow base to measure also. Or you could pull the breech plug to push through a oversized minne to measure.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/shooter575/cwpluggauges.jpg
OK now lets assume you have a .577 bore in your musket. You will need a bullet od .001-.002 under sized to get the most out of that barrel. You are in luck as there are a lot of moulds that cast in .575. BTW.You can size then down just like our smokeless boolets. [Buckshot get ready for some orders] I use a custom lubersizer die. A push through works well also.
Now most C/W rifles and muskets use a 3 land shallow rifling.They will work well with thicked base as they do not need to expand as much to fill up them grooves If you have a heavy 7 land barrel a thinned skirt will deform better to fill er out.
Moulds
Lee.
Most of them cast a .575 minne.They list a .578 but the last two I got were way undersized.ie .572 The 460-281 mould I have never got to shoot worth a crap in anything. The Lee ashcan[fnwc] workd well out to 100 yd. The traditional one works past that.
Lyman.
They have a pile of moulds.The 575-213 and the 575-213os are good.They made them in .580 at one time. The Blue-gray mould is a copy of the RCBS Hodgen mould.It is .578 dia.,
RCBS The Hodgen mould is a real good one.It comes in .580,.578 and .576 dia.It has a captive base pin that makes for faster casting in a iron mould no less.
Rapine.
Ole Ray Rapine makes a bunch of moulds for minnes.He has them up to .584 as I recall.Captive base pin,Al blocks.They last a long time unlike a Lee.Have a couple that have cast over 5,000 minnes and no prob yet. They are getting a bit pricey of late though. [over a c note]
Here is a pic of a group I was working up for a custom 55 rifle.shot with a .576 RCBS hodgen sized to .574 in a Jerry Harmon 7 land barrel.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/shooter575/MVC-007F.jpg