Hello fellow casters,
If I could lend your ear, I'd like to request some of that infinite wisdom that resides here. My main question is boolit design for good feeding. But, I'll give you all the details below as well.
I recently became the proud owner of a 1975 Marlin 1895 45-70, from a fellow member here. She's a beauty and is currently shooting well for my tired eyes and peep sights (1" @ 50 yds). But, she's got a leading problem. Not bad, just enough to annoy me.
I currently own an NOE 460405PB
mold that I'm using. It drops around .461" and my sizer is set up for .460". I slugged the barrel on the Marlin and its at .4605". So, for my first session at the range I decided to try powder coating the NOE boolits with no sizing as they are .462" or so. They are being pushed around 1650fps. But, even with powder coating and NO sizing, I'm getting some leading at that speed. I'd like to stay around this fps. So, I figure a new mold with gas check would work. I honestly don't want to fool with the powder coating anymore. Call my a traditionalist or just old foggie. Either way, I like to look of a nice casted boolit with no makeup on
Onto my question as I'm not that familiar with lever guns and casting. My other 45-70 is a Winny 1885 High Wall. So, I'm curious if I need to be careful of any specific boolit design for feeding concerns? I'm looking at getting an Accurate mold for this gun in 405 grains. But, I may go to a 350 as well. Either way, my current NOE has boolit "head" length of .395". And, it feeds OK in the Marlin. The ones I'm looking at on Tom's site are longer with a wider meplat (.40"-.45"). Does anyone have any knowledge of feeding issues with WFN boolits?
The design I like most is the 46-405VG
http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_...46-405VG-D.png. But, the 46-405T
http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_...=46-405T-D.png has a shorter boolit "head" at .40" and would match my NOE design closely.
OK, I'm done rambling and hoping the above makes sense
Thanks for all advance