Thanks Eddie2002
Lots of great advice. You are entering a form of gun shooting that will become a passion. I started in 1977 & been one of the greatest loves
in my life. I still shoot smokeless guns. But even then I always bring one of my black powder guns along to the range. Welcome to the dark side.
Fly
Greetings to all ! Working on my Hawken .50 build at the moment, first BP muzzle loader I've owned. Have a Pietta .44 1858 New Army pistol that I have used for 18 years, so not a newb to BP. My question is what y'all recommend for conical boolits besides starting off with just balls. I use a stash of Blue Buffalo conicals in my .44 and love the accuracy improvement over ball rounds. While I will certainly test out the rifle with ball rounds first, I'm looking for a good conical self casting mold. The standard ball is .490, so what mold will be the right one to use for self cast boolits ?
The solid soft lead bullet is undoubtably the best and most satisfactory expanding bullet that has ever been designed. It invariably mushrooms perfectly, and never breaks up. With the metal base that is essential for velocities of 2000 f.s. and upwards to protect the naked base, these metal-based soft lead bullets are splendid.
John Taylor - "African Rifles and Cartridges"
Forget everything you know about loading jacketed bullets. This is a whole new ball game!
Like stated, we need to know the twist of your barrel to make a recommendation. Assuming it is a 1/48 twist, many have good luck with the Lee REAL with an over powder wad. There is also paper patching bullets too. The faster the twist, the longer a conical you will be able to use.
Aim small, miss small!
reb, you can look at a t/c or lyman 50 cal. maxi ball mold. I have both and what I cast, both shoot very well. In My opinion, all conicals take a bit of experimentation to find what the rifle likes best. These t/c style molds are very common and pop up often.
1)Why would you want to take out the breech plug ???? been shooting MLoaders since 1989 and never had a reason to do it
2)If you get your hands on a mid 1980's CVA that is in decent order you got a prize barrel - people get in the habit of rubbishing these because they were cheap
what Waksupi says x 2
theys ball twist (slow = 1:66 1:72) and theys boolit twist (1:36 and under) and they do their stuff well - in the middle is yr compromise twist (generally 1:48) - and it does both ok but neither particularly well - that can be adjusted by fiddling with loads - hot load yr boolit and soft pedal the ball - makes it work. Proper ball guns are fun - easy to load - easy on the shoulder - and good game getters out of all proportion to the ball weight - alls ya gotta do is sneak up a bit closer - most fellers are at (or well past) their functional limit with open sights on game at 100yards - yeah I know ! we can all shoot a gnats eye out at that distance but there a lot of those little bugs still flyin round - somebody missed! ....... a round ball gun will do it to that distance. WHATS THA TWISTRATE ? that is start and end of the story.
yeah - no short starter is a almost perfect way for a newbie to stuff the muzzle on his new gun - either that or break the wooden ramrod that came with it - ok for the experts that have had the muzzle carefully coned so it loads easy - but they forget the new guy likely has a cheaper rifle and if he dont use a short starter and a cone muzzle protector on his loading rod --- a year or two down the track he is gonna saw an inch off the end - and reset the front sight because he wore the rifling off being clumsy with the ramrod.
there is NO NEED for a short ball starter IF the selection of patch and ball allows the ramrod to properly do its thing. patch thickness and ball diameter are key. there are generally two schools of thought, a tight patched ball fit for best accuracy, or a looser patched ball fit for faster loading, such as on a woods walk, that will deliver acceptable accuracy.
please, show me empirical proof that a short ball starter was used during the 18th century in America. consider that the ubiquitous firearm of that era was the smoothbore/fowler, for both ball and shot. fast reloading was far more important than supreme accuracy. that can't happen with a tight patched or wadded ball.
Who gives a hoot about empirical proof - this thread was sposed to be help for a newbie getting started - not a history lesson !!! ---fer the record I agree with ya about patch ball fit - I load mine slicker than most guys and If I loose the short starter someplace I can git it done without - but I been doin this a while too - you tellin a green shooter with a new bought gun he dont need a short starter and he best use spit patch is settin him up for grief - sooner rather than later - no other way of sayin it.
indian joe, are you related to jon koz?
take it easy, joe, it's all subjective and aesthetic stuff one way or t'other because it's not a safety issue.
my reply about the short starter had to do with this post ...
Originally Posted by bob208 ... there have been old possible bags found with ball starters in them. and they used a short starter with a loading block also.
Thanks to all who have taken the time to type some knowledge here.
I'm about 'this close' to buying a spectacular looking Thompson Center Renegade .54 Cal from a fella here at work for $150, including a handful of "bit and pieces". I'll be lurking looking for wisdom and taking some notes.
Thanks fellas!
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |