Anyone cast 54 cal.

[fredw1324]

I am interested in using 54 cal soft cast bullets in a 28ga brass shotgun shell. The gun will be a SXS with a rifled 54 cal liner turned to fit and the chamber cut to accept a 28gauge shell.The breech will also be relieved a bit befor the bullet hits the rifling. My intent is to keep the pressure at or near that of the shotgun..........Thoughts
Thanks

[jhrosier]

I would figure out about how much ffg black powder would be appropriate and the cut the shells down just long enough to seat the bullet touching the powder.
Just do enough cases, 5 or 6, to allow you to shoot a few groups for accuracy.
If you don't like it for some reason you can always cut the chamber a bit deeper.

There is probably little point in pushing a .54 caliber boolit much over 1200 fps anyhow.
Whatever was the typical load for the 1853 Sharpes rifle would be a good place to start.

The Lee .54 improved minie mould might be a good choice for a boolit.
I would think about cutting the top of the base pin down to make a plain based boolit.

http://www.leeprecision.com/graphics/shoppingcart/impminie.jpg

Sounds like an interesting project.

Jack

[NickSS]

The original load for the Sharps was 65 gr of ffg in their 52 Cal rifles and carbines. Actually the groove diameter of those rifles was around .540 and the bore diameter was around ,520. As for bullets you could use almost any of the 54 cal ML projectiles but a mini ball may be the way to go. A charge of around 60 to 80 gr of FFG should work well.

[fredw1324]

I'll try both of your suggestions, and also try the 28ga smoleless loads that are in the Lymans book. Seems like the shotgun guys do things like this with slugs in rifled barrels or chokes.
What I am really doing is making a cheap double rifle, but since none of the rifled shotgun barrels will slip inside each other, the idea of turning an already rifled barrel came to my mind

[fredw1324]

For reference, this is similar to what I am doing, but with a fully rifled liner
http://forums.nitroexpress.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=130854&an=0&page=0#Post130854

[jhrosier]

I'll try both of your suggestions, and also try the 28ga smoleless loads that are in the Lymans book. ...

Do please be careful. The shotgun slugs are probably a lot lighter than the Lee minie, and smokeless powder can be unforgiving..

Jack

[fredw1324]

You are very correct in being careful. I will only duplicate the loads for the same weight in grains that the slug weighs for the same amount in the shot wad as specified in Lymans.....This seem to be the tecnique the others follow who are working up loads not already documented.
Thanks fro your caution!!
TC

[Southern Son]

You will have to promise to keep us updated with this project, it sounds very interesting.

[fredw1324]

I will keep everyone posted, so hang in there it might not be until the late summer to get all together.
Thank all