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Heaviest Bullets For .50 Caliber 48" Twist

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nkbj

nkbj

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What's the heaviest bullet designs for the 48" twist fifty caliber rifles?
What have you tried? How stout a charge? How long of a barrel?
 
nkbj said:
What's the heaviest bullet designs for the 48" twist fifty caliber rifles?
What have you tried? How stout a charge? How long of a barrel?
Click to expand...
The biggest I've shot is the smaller 250gr lee real, so I have no advice. Just chiming in to ask why? I've seen the big molds, and seen the great plains bullets for sale, but never understood their use. Are you hunting dangerous game with it or long range shooting or something else?
 
longcruise said:
In a tc 50 1:48 I shot the 450 grain bullet design as in LEE mold. They had to be sized down. It was hands down the most accurate conical I ever shot out of any gun! Recoil was significant. I don't recall the charge.

https://leeprecision.com/mold-dc-515-450f
Click to expand...
So I’m rather curious what the diameters of the various bands are. And what do you size them to? I have a Lyman Deerstalker in .50 cal and bought some cast 320 grn REALs and found with a felt wad they’d shoot fairly well at 50 yds. I haven’t been able to get them to shoot, though I question if it’s the powder, I think I used old Pyrodex I no longer have nor want. 450 grns is a real whopper!
 
WonkyEye said:
The biggest I've shot is the smaller 250gr lee real, so I have no advice. Just chiming in to ask why? I've seen the big molds, and seen the great plains bullets for sale, but never understood their use. Are you hunting dangerous game with it or long range shooting or something else?
Click to expand...
Well, I have a .50 cal and live in Texas where a ball is plenty for just about I’d want. However I did buy a 320 gr REAL as it offered the capability to hunt larger game in the mountains where it could be small elk or something dangerous like black bears. I also bought a used 250 grn REAL mold. It does add the advantage of working well on breezy days if you’re shooting beyond 50 yds. I’m fairly good at judging distance within ~100 yds but judging wind speed/drift is another.
 
rodwha said:
So I’m rather curious what the diameters of the various bands are. And what do you size them to? I have a Lyman Deerstalker in .50 cal and bought some cast 320 grn REALs and found with a felt wad they’d shoot fairly well at 50 yds. I haven’t been able to get them to shoot, though I question if it’s the powder, I think I used old Pyrodex I no longer have nor want. 450 grns is a real whopper!
Click to expand...
They cast at 515 and were sized to 501. I. Didn't cast or size them. I got them from a fellow muzzle loader on an old mailing list before this forum existed. So I don't know what the various bands measured.

They shot so well I was somewhat tempted to get the mold but in the end didn't want the recoil and I had good success with maxi balls.

At the time I was very much into the conical for hunting. I also tried the lee modern Minnie with the hollow base but didn't see the accuracy. I had two different weights of REAL molds in 50 cal and one weight in 54. The accuracy at 25 yards was extraordinary. But all three shot huge groups at 50. Don't know why and I didn't go much further with them. Once again, the maxi balls were accurate enough and killed stuff.

Since Colorado went to a minimum projectile weight of 210 grains and min caliber of 50 for elk I have gotten some pa conicals of 240 grains for some of the younger grandkids with 50 cals in case they want to hunt elk. I shot a few in a tc Hawken 50 barrel and they shot pretty good. Myself I'm nearly exclusively a 54 rb hunter anymore.
 
WonkyEye said:
The biggest I've shot is the smaller 250gr lee real, so I have no advice. Just chiming in to ask why? I've seen the big molds, and seen the great plains bullets for sale, but never understood their use. Are you hunting dangerous game with it or long range shooting or something else?
Click to expand...
Definitely "something else" in the choices provided.
Muzzle loaders have been a peculiar interest, a hobby, that I've enjoyed immensely. Knowledge gained has generally come as the result of discussion and study of books over the years. It's had some expenses getting custom stuff like any hobby. Half a century ago it was me in the woods with .44 round ball and a bag of rice eating things not discussed in polite company. Like wood pecker and stock pond frogs over by Eastland. Over time that has developed into an appreciation of various types of muzzle loading rifles, pistols and the bullets made for them. It's still good fun.

When WW1 started aircraft design was basically a matter of "what looks good". There were some truly gifted designers that absorbed what they had observed and somehow intuitively processed that information into better aircraft before the mathematics were understood. That's much the same as what happened with muzzle loading technology.
I'm a throw back; I love it.

In the case of 48" twist fifty bore rifles, that's what the current manufacturers have flooded the market with. The American public constitutes the biggest and best funded small arms development laboratory that has ever existed on our planet. I'd bet someone has achieved the astounding.
 
Last edited:
rodwha said:
Well, I have a .50 cal and live in Texas where a ball is plenty for just about I’d want. However I did buy a 320 gr REAL as it offered the capability to hunt larger game in the mountains where it could be small elk or something dangerous like black bears. I also bought a used 250 grn REAL mold. It does add the advantage of working well on breezy days if you’re shooting beyond 50 yds. I’m fairly good at judging distance within ~100 yds but judging wind speed/drift is another.
Click to expand...
I really like the 250gr. I use the dry wool felt wads from track of the wolf and saturate them with lube, and push with 70gr 3F Scheutzen. I also smear lube between the rings. I've tried a few different lubes, the tightest 5 round group was with Tracks DGL lube at about 3" at 50 yards, and I blame my eyes and the chunky front sight for a lot of that. I just cast and powder coated 50 of them. I'm hoping powder coat means I can skip trying to pack the rings with lube, can't wait to try them out
 
I don't know about 50 cals but I've shot my TC 54 caliber New Englander with 95 grains of T7 behind 535 grain No Excuses conicals, it's a 1/48 twist and shoots them well ------ but --_ OUCH 🤕! I went down to 480's for hunting. Round balls are more fun.
 
Just bought another one, this time a flintlock with 24" long barrel. I'm going to do some experiments with some pieces and see what that fifty bore and the foot twist combination can do. I do have a few .515" diameter molds from paper patching them for the .52 bore Renegade so I can swage them down like longcruise was talking about. And there's Lyman #500294 to be tried out.
500294.jpg


And this paper patch rascal I used in a Green Mountain fast twist drop-in barrel long ago.
50 LRH - 450GR PP HB.jpg
 
In a Thompson Center Hawken, I have used the 295 grain power belts over 85 grains of 2f. Very accurate at 75 yards. It wasn’t painful but you know you’ve shot something with that crescent buttstock.
 
nkbj said:
What's the heaviest bullet designs for the 48" twist fifty caliber rifles?
What have you tried? How stout a charge? How long of a barrel?
Click to expand...
The heaviest that I've used are the Hornady Great Plains bullets in 385 grains for .50 caliber. 28" barrel, and 80 grains of 3Fg. 1:48 twist Thompson Center, and 38" barrel, 1:48 twist in a Blue Ridge Hunter (Pedersoli Frontier) BOTH shot very well.

I figured if a buffalo hunter can use a 405 grain bullet and 70 grains of BP or a 400 grain bullet and 90 grains of BP from a cartridge, to take Bison, then 385 grains with 80 grains of 3Fg with a .50 caliber bullet should work fine from either of my muzzle loaders.

Then I found out how much recoil I was taking from that brass butt plate on the TC and Frontier, and switched back to Patched Round Ball. There's nothing about a deer being "deader" where I am when it comes to whitetails.




LD
 
The 385 Great Plains out of a .50 TC are crazy powerful. There is some kick back. But, I like recoil. It’s my #3 rifle, so chances of it hunting aren’t very high.
 

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