.40cal "Minie" photos.

[JeffinNZ]

Team.

Some time back I was fortunate enough to secure a Lyman 39538 .40cal hollow base, 124gr bullet mold from a fellow board member. The bullets cast at .396 in 40-1 alloy so to make them fit my Colerain barrel on my caplock I paper patch them with two wraps of 9lb onion skin paper taking the girth out to .403 which is a nice fit.

Sunday I was at the monthly MLer shoot and had the chance to briefly do some berm mining and recovered two of my bullets from a past shoot. Here they are with a patched Minie and a bare bullet.



You can see how the bottom two driving bands have slugged up into the grooves (.424) and how the bullets have shortened. The nose band slugged up to .40 neat. They shot REALLY well for me over 30gr of Swiss 3Fg for 1500fps.

This is 3 shots at 50m/55y.



Oh, incidentally, they fit nicely in the hollow base of a .58 Minie!!!

[northmn]

Interesting modification fo minnie use. Most just let the skirt expand as designed. However in a deeper grooved round ball barrel your idea might be better.

Nortnmn

[Boz330]

Jeff,
What is the lenth of that Minie and what twist are you shooting it in?

Thanks
Bob

[Baron von Trollwhack]

I may be mistaken, but I think that bullet was designed for DIXIE's very first 40 caliber long rifle introduced in the mid-1960s. I recall the twist on that rifle was 1/48.

I used to shoot with a friend, Richard Foster,now deceased, from the Tidewater area, Chesapeake, Virginia who used that boolit and the Dixie rifle and was a superior offhand shot, and later a very competitive skirmisher. Your pictures illustrate very nicely just how much a snug fitting Minie' slugs up. BvT

[JeffinNZ]

Interesting modification fo minnie use. Most just let the skirt expand as designed. However in a deeper grooved round ball barrel your idea might be better.

Nortnmn

From memory I think 0.55 inch long and my Colerains are 1 - 48. Heaps of twist for the short bullet.

[Boz330]

I have an Ohio squirrel rifle with a Montana barrel in 40, 48 twist. I tried deer hunting with it and a 175gr 38-40 boolit. The accuracy was less than impressivebut I was trying to patch the base to get a good seal and accuracy but it didn't work very well.
I've never seen a 40 Minie where did the mould come from and what does it weigh?

Thanks
Bob

[Newtire]

Sure looks perzactly like Turner Kirkland's design for his first Belgian imports. If you ever need to get shed of that thing, put me on the list!

[HARRYMPOPE]

Sure looks perzactly like Turner Kirkland's design for his first Belgian imports. If you ever need to get shed of that thing, put me on the list!

Talk to me.i have one in the oddball mold box.
Trade me something good

[Woodnbow]

Has Newtire made an offer for that mold? What do you need?

Do you per chance work for or with Nelson Irrigation?