Why?

[leftiye]

Yeah, My application is a Handi Rifle with .452 bore, and .4575 groove diameters. About like micro groove, and probly cut thataways by Marlin anyways. Glad to see that it might work. I guess I'll have to "try it - you'll (I'll) like it", maybe. Thanks for your help!

[StrawHat]

Stawhat, most folks that build two part bullets do it the other way around. Soft bases (to expand into the bore) and hard noses (to avoid slumping). Every try it that way?

Yep, done them both ways, like you mentioned to fit a ratty old Colt clone but the other way to have a good base and soft nose.

Just one of the many ways I misspent my youth!

I have finally settled on using binary alloys and find it works well for me when I don't need to patch (ie revolvers).

[joeb33050]

Here's where I am. Anything I missed? May I use your comments?
Thanks;
joe b.
WHY PAPER PATCH BULLETS?

Sometimes, to make bullets from a given mold you have fit a gun. Ex: Maybe a .314" diameter bullet patched to 8mm. I understand that.
The CBA accuracy guys are not paper patching, so it ain't about accuracy at their velocities.
The BP guys seem to be shooting plain grooved bullets, if I understand the threads/sites.
In Harrison's book it was about high velocity with smokeless. Is that the reason, for smokeless?
Why paper patch with black powder? What am I missing?
Thanks;
joe b.

Here are the responses from the "Cast Boolits" forum:

Ducone 31
With me, it is for high velocity and accuracy. I have an Enfield, #1 MKIII .303, 03-A3 Carbine, and G63 Gustav 7.62
Paper patching for me is a way to close the gap. I like casting my own, wrapping it, and trying to get it on paper. I like the way paper looks on a casting. I like the idea of paper polishing the bore. I do not like the cost of jacketed bullets.
Essentially, paper patching keeps me occupied on my days off. A long time ago, I knew an old man, and he paper patched. He didn't speak much and he liked me. I was just a kid and knew everything about nothing. He liked me anyway. He had this old Sharps his father gave him. It had been converted to cartridge. Some did that back then. He showed me the primer corrosion on the barrel where the nipple used to be. They replaced the breech block back then.
He was an old man, and missed his dad. I liked the way those long paper patched cartridges looked. I never forgot that. Most everything else, but not that.
Now, I am trying to figure out how to make it work for me.
So far, so good.
He couldn't walk much anymore when I knew him. He showed me his old photos and told me about them. He showed me his father's Colt conversion. Back then they did not have the money for a Colt New Army. They converted the 1851s. He had one. Back then, no one cared about them. Couldn't get ammo. They were rimfire!
That is why I paper patch.
Kills the time also.

beemer
I have been asked the same thing about lead and casting. Most guys I know only shoot and load enough to support their hunting and cast is to much trouble. As far as paper patch goes I guess everyone has their own reasons. Some want to use the moulds they have, some want to use softer lead for hunting, maybe push the vel. or get buy without the gas check. I tried it for the same reason that I tried casting in the first place. It is something else to tinker with and try different things just to see what happens. It is slow but I don't shoot mass quantities so sitting down at the kitchen table and rolling up about 20 or 30 is not a big deal, not like I am missing anything on the tube anyway. I guess the real answer is if you want to try it why not.

I have been working with the 303 Brit. and 7.62x54, think I'll try 45 pistol boolits in my 45-70 just to see what happens.


BPC477
For me, the reasons are as follows:

1) I can avoid the ridiculously high price of gas checks. As well, all of the gas-checked bullets available for purchase (already cast) are MUCH more expensive than the bullets I use.

2) I can avoid using any more jacketed bullets - which are priced (now) at ridiculous levels.

3) I don't cast my own bullets, nor can I....so Paper Patching allows me to use cheap, available cast bullets - and paper-patching causes these bullets to work well in my particular rifle (they never did do the job before I tried paper patching).

4) I can get the velocity I need to make the Paper Patched loads truly useful (for short-range deer hunting, as well as target shooting), with only ONE load. This load is both VERY accurate for me, as well as having enough oomph for hunting.

5) On a lighter note, Paper Patching has given me a unique sort of cachet among my fellow shooters (at my local range). It is not very common - and even a couple of long-time cast bullet shooters I know have now become interested.

Paper patching has made all of these things possible - they wouldn't be (and weren't for me) before I adopted it.

Hyoder
The paper patch allows a pure lead boolit to be fired at near JB velocities, and mushrooms beautifully with good penetration for hunting.

Straw Hat
I patch because it keeps the lead away from the steel.
Higher velocities are not my goal but I won't turn them down.
I've also built cast bullets with hard bases and soft noses and vice versa but found paper to give me what I am looking for.

Missionary5155
I have a 43 Spanish Rolling Block. The rifling is so low to the bore that Paper Patching is my best way to get a boolit down the bore with all its lead and descent accuracy. If I am remembering right some old barrels were made for paper patching.