Buffalo Arms PP Mold

[Southern Son]

As I stated somewhere else on the forum, I bought some stuff from BACO and it took only 7 days to get here. One of those items was a 530 grain, .444 dia. Money Bullet nose PP mold. I also got some of the %25 cotton paper they sell. The mold is quite good (nearly as good as my Steve Brookes mold), it casts a nice, smooth, round boolit that drops out of the mold easy, it seems to fill out well with the 20/1lead/tin at about 725 Deg. F. and to say I am happy with the mold would be an understatement (I am even happier with BACO's service, 7 days from ording to recieving for an INTERNATIONAL order). I wrapped the boolits with the cotton rag paper, 2 wrapps, with the paper wet with plain old tap water. The wrapped boolit measures about .452-.453. Has anybody else toyed with this combination? I will be using it with black powder. I thought that I would have to wipe between shots, but the boolit is quite tight in the bore (measures .449-.450) and I am thinking that any fowling will be too much and the patch may tear.

[montana_charlie]

If you are loading for a 'buffalo gun' of some kind, and will be using black powder, you are (essentially) following the recipe which is most popular today. Bullets 'patched to bore' and loaded only a short distance into the case is the 'hot setup' among BPCR paper patchers.

Yours may be a bit too fat to chamber easily, but you can probably make an adjustment somewhere.
More stretch in your wet paper might get it a thousandth thinner, and/or a pure lead bullet may cast a bit smaller.
Seating more deeply in the case may allow use of your .453" diameter without adjustments. Kenny Wasserberger seats to .420" and gets groups that are envied by others.

(For what it's worth, the slender nose of a Money bullet is said to need a 'hard' alloy (like 16-1) to prevent 'slump'.)

If you can manage to shove the current package up into the bore and get the breech closed, it should work just fine.

You probably will want to wipe between shots. You can use one of several 'mixtures', or plain water. Two damp patches followed by a dry one is the recommended sequence, and running the patches on a nylon brush is said to be more effective than on a brass jag.


CM

[Don McDowell]

I have one of BACO paper patch molds for 40 cal, and I find a lot of the time I don't need to open the blocks, just cut the sprue and turn the mold over the bullet will drop out.

If you use a lubed felt wad or a lube cookie sandwiched between wads under your bullet you may or may not need to wipe between shots. I have a load using a different bullet I've fired 15 rounds with out loss of accuracy on the 270 yd gong, of course these are hunting loads and not match loads.
You'll just need to get down to the dirty business of loading and shooting and testing more loads and techniques to find what you your rifle and that bullet can agree on.

[powderburnerr]

if the
ba paper proves too thick , go to the paper mill store and get some &7# or 8#
it is a lot thinner and closer to what works on that dia bullet......Dean



























3

[Southern Son]

Powderburner, I actually found the Paper Mill a while back. The problem is that they won't do an international order for less than $200.00. If you can get 15 patches per sheet, I think that it worked out to about 75,000 patches, which is a bit much for one bloke. Even with 4 or 5 mates it might still be too much (but I don't know that many paper patchers in Oz, anyway).

I already knew that I would be wiping between shots with this, but it is so tight that I am thinking that I will need to clean between shots. I think that the smallest bit of fouling will be a concern (grabbing the patch and tearing it). Don is right, I am just going to have to load and light em up. I have 7 days of work, so it will be a wait before I can.

[Hubertus]

Hello Southern Son,

First, congrats and best of luck with the new mold.
I know I am a rookie when it comes to PP and to BP.
But I found a paper here which is made by Brunnen.
It is typewriter copy paper (the German term is Durchschlagpapier - stands for punch through paper). It is really thin it only adds about .005" to my boolits. Once it is on it looks to be quite durable. As you know I use smokeless and wrap standard size boolits with it.

The thickness sounds to be the perfect fit for your needs.

If you can't find it, let me know I could send you a few pages to try.


Hubertus

Another option would be cigarette paper..... just food for thought :D

[montana_charlie]

I already knew that I would be wiping between shots with this, but it is so tight that I am thinking that I will need to clean between shots.
Two damp patches and a dry one leaves my bore looking almost ready to store till next time. If that doesn't clean yours out well enough, you could go with three damp ones and a dry...
concentrating on the chamber and throat with the last damp one.
CM

[Southern Son]

Hubertus, thank you for the most generous offer, I will keep it in mind.

Montana Charlie, I have been thinking the same thing with the three damp. I won't get a chance to find out now for a couple of weeks because of work. Bummed out there.