45 cal minie

[Colorado Kooler]

I have an old Lyman .445 mould that casts a Minie type bullet with a hollow base. Anybody ever shoot one of these in a 1 in 60 rifle and if so were they accurate?

 

[hunter thompson]

Id love to try those in a 1/48 thompson center

 

[Billy-by-gosh]

Yes, I have used the combo, but results of minies in the 1:60 twist were mediocre at best. (however, they worked well in a 1:32 twist.)
About the only advantage to be gained from minies are increased energy at long range IF you get sufficient accuracy to actually harvest game. The slowness of a 1:60 twist made results too marginal to depend on, so I went back to the patched RB in that rifle and only hunted critters under 200 lbs. For truly big game, I switch up to larger bore. That old Robert Ruark quote of "Use enough gun" is a truism to keep in mind.
As an afterthought, with two patched .440 balls, a slow twist barrel actually delivers the same ejecta mass as a minie, and is considerably more accurate in slow twist. I would NOT recommend hunting game with such a load!!!!!
Fun to experiment with at punching paper! Just remember, anytime you double bullet weight, everything is boosted: recoil, barrel pressure, and of course, energy.
Be safe and have fun.

 

[hunter thompson]

Wow never heard of two roundballs in a barrel.HMMMM

 

[Billy-by-gosh]

Yes, just not legal for most hunting applications. Sure is fun to plink with though!

 

[Greg Blackburn]

My CVA Bobcat is a 1:48 and I did a lot of experimenting with it. I also borrowed a friend's CVA Hawken with 1:66 twist and tested it some too.

Mine would stabilize Hornady GPB well and PRB great. My friend's Hawken did fine with PRB but terrible with GPB. I learned that faster twist is better for bullets.

I also tested Ball-ets in mine....terrible groups.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Because the minie balls have the hollow base, a relatively small charge is required to expand the skirt. Large charges in the hope of gaining range will cause the skirt to open up and deform with the result of a loss of accuracy on target. If you use a minie ball limit your powder charge to 55 to 6g grains volume of powder. A slower powder such as 2fg would have better results than a fast powder such as 3fg.

 

[Rifleman1776]

IF you get sufficient accuracy to actually harvest game

Yes. And that is really a huge IF regarding accuracy. The minie/bullet has a big rainbow trajectory. Anything past 50 yards is really almost impossible to shoot accurately in the field. That bullet is (sorta) falling downwards towards the game and not at it as is the case with a flatter shooting roundball. And, if you are in a forest forget the "almost" part of not being able to shoot accurately. That rainbow trajectory will certainly hit branches way above your line of sight as it won't be going the direction you are looking. Needing bigger bullets for whitetail deer is not necessary. Within 100 yards, a round ball is an effective killer. BTW, loading two balls, if done improperly, can be dangerous. There are other reasons I don't like use of a minie in a tradition round ball rifle but I'll stop this rant here.