Casting muzzle loader boolits

[Yooper003]

What is your opinion on 40-1 ( 40 parts lead to 1 part tin) for casting full cal. Size boolits for muzzle loader. I have the real mold from a Lee. Does any one PC their ML boolits? Will shoot most with Blackhorn 209. I did have the 50 cal. Maxi-ball & it shot great but loaned it out & it never came back. No more than I shoot ML , hate to spend 85$ for a new one.

[mooman76]

TC used are fairly common for around $35 if you look, maybe less. I use the REALs, soft but there is some tin in it, maybe even a little antimony and they do good. Never tried PC yet. I haven tried yet but the REALs often do better with an over powder wad.

[John McCorkle]

+1 on the wad with REALs.. I get amazing accuracy from a 1:28 twist over 95 grains of RS....but the key is a durafelt hard felt wad over the powder...it did wonders for accuracy.

40:1 should be fine. The REALs are larger than bore and by design....so if they are too hard you'll know as they may be very hard to seat. Do alot of QC on your cast bullets...I weigh them out +/- .5 grain (1 grain extreme spread) and that typically culls out the ones that don't have sharp corners/edges. They need that sharpness and full fill out to seal well (your tin should help with that)

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[GregLaROCHE]

I don’t see any reason you couldn’t use PCed boolits, but don’t see what you would gain, unless you didn’t want to lube them.

[Yooper003]

I don’t see any reason you couldn’t use PCed boolits, but don’t see what you would gain, unless you didn’t want to lube them.

Seems like I just PC everything I cast, just like the looks of them & they stay looking that way seem to stay cleaner also .if I use a lubed wad over powder as others suggest,probably I could get by with no other lube.
.

[GregLaROCHE]

One benefit to PC is reducing your exposure to lead.

[John McCorkle]

I did pc some once as a test...seems like as I remember velocity was higher by a sizable amount over my chrono ..like 75 fps more or so. Ran the test several times to make sure it wasn't a fluke. Not sure if the extra girth from the PC gave an even better seal and thus more velocity or if the PC acted as a slippery coating and less friction or what ...but they were faster and slightly less accurate but not by much.

I was more concerned with getting inconsistent coating and thick spots in future batches that could be negative for accuracy so I chose to go without PC. I may be wrong sided in my reasoning for that choice but it's the reason I went with anyways

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[megasupermagnum]

One benefit to PC is reducing your exposure to lead.

This is likely not true, but I doubt either one of us is qualified to say for sure. The lead bullet can't poison you anyway, it is the dust that can be absorbed. I'm willing to bet a PC bullet still has plenty of lead on the outside of the coating.

[charlie b]

What rifle are you using? The diameter and rate of twist will determine which bullet works best. How much do you shoot? If not much then why cast, just buy the bullets. Hornady Great Plains, TC Maxi Hunter and TC Maxi Ball can be found at the local shops.

I bought bullets for a few years before I started casting again. A little more expensive, but, 20 rounds a week is not horrible.

charlie

[dtknowles]

Why waste the tin? Just cast them from soft alloy. Pure is fine but anything soft works. Why bother with PC? The lube is as much for fouling as it is for leading.

Tim

[Edward]

I did pc some once as a test...seems like as I remember velocity was higher by a sizable amount over my chrono ..like 75 fps more or so. Ran the test several times to make sure it wasn't a fluke. Not sure if the extra girth from the PC gave an even better seal and thus more velocity or if the PC acted as a slippery coating and less friction or what ...but they were faster and slightly less accurate but not by much.

I was more concerned with getting inconsistent coating and thick spots in future batches that could be negative for accuracy so I chose to go without PC. I may be wrong sided in my reasoning for that choice but it's the reason I went with anyways

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I PC on occasion and regarding inconsistent coating I run it thru a sizer and that takes care of it (I also have been known to lube) just because . The big plus to PC is it seems to go faster with soft lead and less distortion but still mushrooms on impact with meat/Ed

[John McCorkle]

I PC on occasion and regarding inconsistent coating I run it thru a sizer and that takes care of it (I also have been known to lube) just because . The big plus to PC is it seems to go faster with soft lead and less distortion but still mushrooms on impact with meat/EdI believe the Lee REALs are progressive diameter though... meaning the base of the boolit has a smaller diameter than the nose end...I think this is to help get concentricity as you load it into the bore and provide a better seal against the bore dia. Sizing may remove that progressive diameter on them

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[Walks]

I've never cast muzzleloading projectiles from anything but pure Lead.
Can't see any reason to use anything harder or PC either.
I fire 20+ rounds at a time out of my T/C Harken or White Mtn Carbine, and never have any leading problems that would necessitate PC'ing as a prevention to leading.
I've had good results from Pyrodex RS & Goex 3F.
A tight patch or 3 and it's clean.

And both the Maxi & Plains bullets give excellent accuracy in .50 & .54 cal.
The Lee Real bullet in .50cal - 320gr didn't thrill me very much.
Maybe I'll try an over powder wad.

I'm afraid that balls cast of anything other then Pure for My C&B revolvers might break their loading levers.

[Good Cheer]

40:1 works just fine.

About muzzleloader molds, for years have wondered why there are no blunt nosed thick skirted shallow hollow base molds for all those 48" twist .50 caliber side lock rifles that Spain and Italy have flooded the world with. Lee has made a couple of fifty caliber minie designs but they aren't near what they could have been.
And Lyman? Forget it. :rolleyes:

[smithnframe]

I usu pure lead ONLY for all of my muzzleloading an cap n' ball weapons!

[mooman76]

A tiny bit of tin like 40-1 is not going to make it harder really and the tiny bit of tin used helps with fill out.