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Specific rifling depth for hollow base/flat base muzzloader bullets

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SolidLeadSlug

SolidLeadSlug

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Due to difficulty locating a mold maker who can make me a hollow base mold for my swiss feldstuzer, I'm wondering if using a flat base mold will be reasonable.

The rifles groove depth is around
0.007 and mat or may not be progressive depth.

The bulholzer bullet is a 289g hollow base paper patched bullet of .399 diamter. When loaded, it will be patched to .408-409.

I've found a .410 300 grain grease groove bullet that I am hoping has sufficient weight to be swaged i to the deep grooves. It will be cast of pure lead.

My question is will a flat base bullet be able to bump up to a deeply rifled bore or should I hold out for a hollow base bullet that is paper patched
 
My small amount of experience thinks you will be fine. I am shooting a .50, my barrel measure .499/.517. I size my bullets to .5005. They seem to seal up just fine with a overpowder wad.
 
Gollywomper said:
My small amount of experience thinks you will be fine. I am shooting a .50, my barrel measure .499/.517. I size my bullets to .5005. They seem to seal up just fine with a overpowder wad.
Click to expand...
What rifle and load are you shooting exactly? That's good to hear your having good results. The Swiss feildstuzer and infanteriegewehrs when through 3 variations of bullet. A linen patched flat conical, PP compression and finally more or less a .399 minie style with paper patch.
 
I am shooting a traditions mountain rifle, with a 418 grain grease groove bullet. These are poured with a 40-1 alloy, slightly harder than pure lead.

There is a lot of pressure on the base of a bullet during ignition. However nobody know for sure until they experiment with loads and variations of such.
 
SolidLeadSlug said:
I ordered a mold from him and he demanded a ridiculous amount of money for it without even giving me a quote after making it. My lyman mold is just as good as his stuff
Click to expand...
No....No it is not.

You can give the land and groove dimensions of your barrel to Steve and he will custom make a mold for your barrel and the bullets from his molds will be perfect.

He is one of the reasons I was able to shoot master class in BPCRS.
 
SolidLeadSlug said:
Due to difficulty locating a mold maker who can make me a hollow base mold for my swiss feldstuzer, I'm wondering if using a flat base mold will be reasonable.

The rifles groove depth is around
0.007 and mat or may not be progressive depth.

The bulholzer bullet is a 289g hollow base paper patched bullet of .399 diamter. When loaded, it will be patched to .408-409.

I've found a .410 300 grain grease groove bullet that I am hoping has sufficient weight to be swaged i to the deep grooves. It will be cast of pure lead.

My question is will a flat base bullet be able to bump up to a deeply rifled bore or should I hold out for a hollow base bullet that is paper patched
Click to expand...
Hot doggies!
Here's molds for the solid base and hollow base versions of the Buholzer bullet currently available to be ordered. Mold numbers 40-289M and 40-289MN.
https://accuratemolds.com/catalog.php?page=14#catalog-anchor
 
Yep, the way Accurate does hollow base designs is to provide the partially completed plug hole and you obtain the plug elsewhere, or you could get the plain base version.
Something I've done in the past is to have them make the mold to my specs to use a plug I already have.
I considered trying the plain base Buholzer in my .401 bore rifle, having Accurate tweak the diameters to suit. Would love to try it but have other things ahead in line.
Say, have you considered trying the bullet design the rifles initially went through the military acceptance trials with? I was really surprised reading about the engineering that went into it.
 
Last edited:

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