A interesting challenge for our mold makers

[whitetailsniper]

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HELLO FELLAS,,
i have an idea,that i feel might be of intrest to some of you,,and if we can show enough interest,perhaps we can see if we can encourage one of our talented mold makers to become a reality. i have a ruger old army 45 cal blk powder pistol,,in 7 1/2 in barrel, we all pretty much know you need to shoot round ball .457=140 grain or .454 conical =220 grain. for us who have these and have shot them, we i think all agree the round balls shoot rather nicely, were as the conicals do not. with there round head, they are what they are. id like ,and im hoping there are more of me who agree here id like to see a 45 cal bullet with a round flat nose design, or a flat nose(as the ram can easly be altered for flat) that will drop from the mold at .454 diam. and have one lube ring design to lube with spg from our presses. id also like to get this bullet in the 1000 fps range as the ruger old armys can do this with no problem. the key here i think is to have a bevel base bullet for ease of starting,and seating the bullet over the powder for a straight ,sealed seating. the reason for flat nose is the guns ram,as i believe it will distort the hp style bullets, and for lite skinned deer type animals this i believe would make an impressive ,as well as accurate hunting bullet for this gun,and others like it. one of the concepts for us using,and having bullet molds of differant designs is to be able to get the most out of our guns,,so why not the ruger old army,and others like it. your thought,,and interested parties,,please sound off.

[Hellgate]

Check out biglube.com
He has a (I think) 200gr bullet in a 6 cavity mold for the ROA with a rebated base. Otherwise I would just use the LEE conical bullet. They work fine in all my Remingtons and my ASM 1860 Army with their rebated base and grease grooves. They align just fine and are very accurate in the 1860 Army.

[whitetailsniper]

NICE AND INTERESTING WEBSITE, but not what im looking for, as far as design goes,,,from what ive seen they dont have a bullet that drop out at .454 diam. i was thinking of more like the rcbs 82081 design with a bb and no crimp ring,,i believe this design will outshoot anything out there,and take lite skined deer best. even if this thread doesnt have the interest,ive got emails out to a few mold makers,,veral,mihec were my top choices for this job. also a 210 or 220 grain weight will give at least 1000 fps. but more importantly accuracy of this fine design. i have the lee as well,i think we can do better.

[Oyeboten]

I think there are options out there for a .454, .455, .456, .457 RNL or Blunt Nose.

Just have to look around.


.457 wise, one could also modify a Mold used for various of the .45-70 Bullets, for it to make a shorter Bullet of a weight suited for Revolver.

[Good Cheer]

Well, I can only speak to what I've tried.
The best "conicals" I've found are 45 bullets cast from pure lead and sized on the rear end in a Lyman / RCBS style press to fit the chambers and geometry of the particular piece. Lubing with a larger diameter and then sizing the hind end is what works for me. I like to have a fit that requires lining up the bullet for it to slide on into the chamber. Just as an example, the RCBS 225CAV has worked well for me in C&B 44's that have a geometry that allows something other than round ball to be used (many do not).
I haven't worked with a ROA.
If the chambers are too big for standard 45 pistol molds then that may work in your favor. Perhaps you could pick the style you want and then have the leading drive band enlarged for a small price.

[Charlie Sometimes]

I used to have a couple of ROA's, and I shot them a few times in SASS CAS competition- always using real BP, not the fake stuff.

I prefered using the RB, most of the time. I did use the Lee 456-220-1R a few times- it's okay, but a waste of lead in competion. I also bought one of the first Big Lube J/P 45 200 gr. molds for ROAs that was mentioned above. It worked really good. I still have it- it throws a 210 gr. boolit at 0.460 diameter, and I can use it in my Marlin 45-70!

The RB's and conicals are designed to "shave fit" into the chamber for a good seal. Any conical is most always smaller on the bottom than the top driving band to aid starting. A straight fit would require some compression, along with the lube, to seal the chamber properly to prevent the possibility of chain fires, and also to prevent the boolits from sliding forward during recoil and locking the cylinder up.

The Big Lube designs were preceded by individuals who used the 45 caliber Maxiball in BP cartridges in competions and wanted simliar lube carrying capacity in a "regular" boolit design. I never tried the maxiball in the ROA (except loaded in 45 Colt in a R&D cylinder), but it might be worth a shot or two to see if they would work.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c164/BaptisteBrown/Charlie%20Sometimes/6-cavmoldD1.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c164/BaptisteBrown/Charlie%20Sometimes/45Maxi.jpg