Lee hollow base boolit with black powder??

[Marlin Hunter]

Lee has a hollow base 45-70 boolit # 459-405-HB. My understanding of black powder is that there should be no air between the powder and boolit: The powder should be compacted/compressed a little. But how can I be sure there isn't an air gap if the boolit has a hollow base?

What is the best Lee boolit (I can't afford a $60+ mold) for black powder in the 45 cal rifle?

[Lead Fred]

I saw that too, figured it was a smokeless only mould.

Most dont butt the powder up against the boolit, some use cookies or wads as go betweens.

[martinibelgian]

Maybe you gents should wonder how it would be possible to shoot a Minie bullet with BP in a rifle musket like a Springlfield, Zouave etc. That no air thing isn't the absolute it is claimed to be by some, and that specific Lee slug was made for BP. Don't make BP reloading harder than it really is - pour in powder up to the bullet base, seat lubed slug, load, pull trigger.

[13Echo]

The Lee 405gr hollow base 45 is a copy of the original bullet for the 45-70 introduced in 1873. Works fine with BP especially in the Springfield Trapdoor.

Jerry Liles

[cajun shooter]

You put a wad over the powder and then seat this bullet with the base filled with lube.

[mooman76]

If you are thinking the hollow base as an air gap, as long as the bullet is against the powder you are ok. It probably will fill or near fill anyway when you compress the bullet. It is actually a very small void compared to other minis. The bullet you are talking about is very good and maybe one of the best(of Lees) for the 45-70 rifle but that also depends on which 45-70 rifle you are taling about.

[Nobade]

In my experience that boolit shoots much better without the wad. It's all I use in my Trapdoor, drop tube 70gr. Swiss 1.5F into the case, compress to allow proper seating depth, seat boolit. It shoots great, no leading, and carries enough lube to keep shooting a long time before needing cleaning. I make them out of stick on wheelweights, they cast well and are quite soft. The cores of jacketed bullets work well too.

[Harry O]

I have loaded and shot literally several thousands of hollow-base bullets with black powder. They are three kinds of hollow-base bullets for the 41 Long Colt.

I fill up the case with black powder so there is some compression of the BP when I seat the bullet. Do some measuring. About 1/8" works for me in that small case. I have opened up a few of them afterwards to check on what you mention. There are many small marks in the base of the bullet and in the hollow-cone, where the BP was pressed against the soft lead (40:1 or softer).

I have never had a problem with it. I have tried cards under a hollow-base and have also tried filling them with lube. In both cases, the accuracy was dramatically less than ones that were just plain filled with BP.

[NickSS]

The lee bullet is an exact copy of the Springfield M 1873 slug that was loaded for the trapdoor rifles and carbine (until 1881 when the rifle was switched to a 500 gr slug. Of interest is that the HB bullet was loaded for carbines with a 55 gr charge to reduce recoil. The arsenal loaded this carbine ammo three ways over the years. First they used wads to fill the case between the bullet and powder. This proved to be inaccurate. Next they used a cardboard sleeve in the case to reduce case capacity. This worked fine and was used until the army started using solid head brass cases in the 1880s. The all they did was seat the bullet deeper in the case without any wads of sleeves. This load was used until the army started having ammo loaded with smokeless powder for the trapdoors. The carbine round was used in carbines and cadet rifles and could be used in rifles as well. Of course the reverse was true too. I have shot many hundreds of the lee bullet in my 45-70 rifles and find it an excellent bullet for moderate ranges. It like most 400 gr bullets start loosing accuracy beyound about 400 yards and by time you get to 600 yards it can't compete with a 500 to 550 gr slug.