Ordered a mini mold. Have question

[MontanaS]

I ordered the Lee original mini mold the other day. It says it is .575 diameter. I found my Richmond book today which suggested a .574 round ball with .20mm patch. I have six old style mini's I bought years ago that I had fired in this rifle. I remember that after three shots it was difficult to get them down the bore. I miked the ones I have left and they were .581. The .575's should do okay, ya think?

[JeffinNZ]

You should be OK but if not consider paper patching it up to the size you need as I do with my .40cal Minies.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Shooting%20stuff/DSCN0591.jpg

[Underclocked]

Jeff, what kind of paper are you using?

[59sharps]

you want the minnie tobe sized .002 under bore dia. you will want to lube the round w/ bees wax crisco or bees wax oil oil mix. 50/50 in liquid form you can get a sizing die from north east trade co www.northeasttradeco.co (570) 546-2061 Or S & s firearms in glandale ny.
My son shoots an original richmond it shoots a .578
for more help try the N-SSA board.
forget about paper patching a proper sized minie will work fine try 42-48 of 3ffg

[JeffinNZ]

Jeff, what kind of paper are you using?

9lb 'onion skin'. I think the pink paper goes rather well with my purple long johns. [smilie=1:

[NoDakJak]

Jeff Forget the pink paper and just patch them with your long johns. Neil

[JeffinNZ]

Jeff Forget the pink paper and just patch them with your long johns. Neil

You know if they were cotton or wool I would but polyprop down the barrel. Can't see it working.

[mooman76]

I have used Lee's minie in my 58 and have had no problems with fowling keeping it from going down the barrel but it also depends on the gun. Works in mine.

[Mtman314]

I need to address something I've heard. I was told by my Bro-in-law that if I pour for my smokepole I shouldn't use ww since it will take out the rifling due to the alloy. That I should use only pure lead for the flinters. Is that true?

[mooman76]

That is not true. That's a good one though, I've never heard that one before. Even with WWs it is pretty soft. The thing is WWs are harder than you want for MLs. They will work in a pinch. If WWs is all you have then it's all you have. The hollow base on minies doesn't flare out as much as it should and Maxies are hard to drive in. I used them for years because that is all I had. They are better suited for RBs than the Minies or Maxies but all in all you are better off using soft lead. The stick on WWs are pretty soft.

[FL-Flinter]

Mtman314,

Tell your BiL that if his barrel is damaged by WW alloy, it's not safe to shoot with anything! :( As Moonman said, they may be a little hard loading and depending upon the thickness of the skirt on a HB style, it may not fully obtrude on firing.

Cutting WW alloy 50/50 with soft will work fine for thick-skirt mini's and maxi's, drops the Bhn down to the 9-ish range which is plenty soft enough to obtrude on firing. Pure lead and stick-on WW's are around 5-6 Bhn and clip-on WW's are around 12-13 Bhn.

I run WW alloy PRB's and for some conicals, matter of fact I ran WW conicals exclusively in a .36 I had, fired hundreds of them and the bbl held up just fine. :Fire: