.40 question

[roundball]

Is it possible to get a conical mold for a 40

Yes, contact MLF member 'oldnamvet' for info...he had one made last year, was kind enough to make / sell me a supply of the .40cal x 200grn REAL conicals. It range tested just fine, then took that buck with it in the fall.

 

[nkbj]

Is it possible to get a conical mold for a 40

Short answer, yes.
Long answer, the rifling form in any given barrel determines to a great degree how well you can get a bullet to shoot in it. Zonie on this forum has posted photos of his .40 target rifle with very shallow rifling that is made for elongated bullets that he paper patches. I shoot a .40 rifle with deeper grooves that is designed to shoot elongated bullets that are pre-engraved with the narrow rifling lands so that the bullet enters the barrel like gears engaged before the turning begins. That minimizes the expansion needed to fill the rifling grooves. It will also shoot round ball and paper patched bullets well enough to be used out to around a hundred yards but it does not shoot them as well as a rifle built to be best with paper patched bullets or a rifle built to be best with round ball. I also shoot .40 barrels that have twist so slow and grooves so deep that it is very difficult to get anything but round ball to shoot with accuracy.
Said all that to say this. There are rifling forms (wide groove versus narrow groove), rifling depths and twists to be considered when figuring out what may work in any given barrel.
Concerning what it takes to get a .40 bullet to expand and fill the rifling, if one considers the depth of rifling grooves as a percentage of bore diameter, it is obvious that as the bore diameter decreases then the ratio represented by groove depth goes up very quickly and makes filling the grooves a proportionally greater amount of expansion. More expansion being required introduces more shot to shot variations that can make accuracy hard to achieve. Zonie's target rifle reduces expansion by having very shallow grooves. My fast twist .40 reduces expansion by using pre-engraved bullets.
If you have a given rifling form, twist and groove depth then folks here would probably be more than happy to point you in the right directions on what would be likely to work for you.

 

[roundball]

Additional information for my specific example:
My .40cal Late Lancaster has Green Mountain's normal standard 38" x 1:48" twist, square bottom, deep groove round ball barrel on it. And it shoots the little .40cal REAL conicals 'oldnamvet' made for me like a house afire to the 50yds I tested them.

 

[roundball]

Is it possible to get a conical mold for a 40

I found the main thread about it from last summer...'oldnamvet' had Lee Precision make the custom .40cal x 200grn REAL mold.
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...680/fromsearch/1/hl/\.40cal|REAL|conical/tp/1/

 

[nkbj]

Yall got me thinking around the 28" .40 GM drop-in and the little hollow based maxi type mold. Dug around and found a bag of the bullets. Maybe that'll be the cure for the fox I've been assigned to take care of.

 

[Billnpatti]

This is just my opinion but I would recommend a caplock rather than a flintlock for your first BP rifle. A caplock is just easier to learn to shoot than a flintlock. A flintlock is a beautiful rifle and once you master the caplock, you will likely want to own a flintlock. Flintlock rifles are addictive once you master a caplock but they can be more demanding than you would feel comfortable with as a first BP rifle. Some folks will disagree and that is okay because like I said in the beginning, this is just my personal opinion based on something over 40 years of BP shooting. :hatsoff:

 

[roundball]

I agree...there's definitely a tremendous learning curve starting out with a first sidelock muzzleloader.
And the caplock at least sets aside a whole subset of ignition related things so more attention can be applied to all the equipment, load development, shooting, cleaning sorts of things.

 

[Leatherbark]

"...so here's my qeustion would it be fair to compare a forty to a rossi 410 single shot..."

"...might come close to a forty In power..."

Projectile wise, the .40cal PRB and a little .410 slug are similar, as examples:

.40cal ball is .395" diameter, and weighs 92grns;

.410 slug is only an eyelash larger diameter and at 1/5oz weighs 87.5grns.
(slightly hollow base accounts for the difference even though larger diameter)

A .40cal PRB can be pushed faster than a factory .410 slug.

:thumbsup: Agreed 100%

 

[stinkyfeet]

Thanks for the info this might be a dumb qeustion but would a 40 be able to accurately reach past 50 yards for target shooting the 410 I owned could not reach 50 yards even with a pretty high elevation also recoil is not a problem just wondering I would be able to do the same with a 40 that I was able to do with a 410 or more accurately are the limitations of the 40 simalar to that of a 410 with a short barrel length

My buddy whoops up on everyone and shoots nothing but a 40 caliber flinter. He connects on shots out to 120 yards (farthest target) with no issue. He just ups his powder to around 70 grains of 3f and no issues with any range throughout the woods walks

 

[don hepler]

Is there someone in your family, that shoots, and or, hunts? It seems to me, that you need to get around some people or club members who shoot black powder rifles to get the opportunity to fire a rifle. A 40 cal. is not legal to hunt deer and large game in my state, but laws may differ in the area that you live. So, this might be something to consider. People in the black powder community are usually very friendly and would be glad to help a 16 year old, who has an interest in keeping the sport alive. The future of muzzleloading is in the hands of people like you.

 

[bubba15301]

what area of the country are you in,maybe one of the members here would let you shoot one

 

[LeadDownRange]

Sorry I haven't been on lately schools just started for me my grandfather and I both hunt just not with Bp rifles I want a flintlock mainly because when I took my hunters education I got to watch a video on how to handle one safely I live at the tip of wv's northern panhandle

 

[bubba15301]

how far are you from washington pa?

 

[LeadDownRange]

I live in between New Cumberland and Weirton wv

 

[bubba15301]

you are about 45 miles from me