.54 caliber conicals

[Howie1968]

with my Lyman .54 on the way ive been looking for conicals to try in this rifle. i havent found much i seen where thompson center dont make there .54 maxi hunters or maxi balls any longer. i found the hornady 425 which i will try. other then casting your own i havent found alot. A friend is giving me his spare casting pot, At this point im not ready to get into that venture yet, does anyone know of any other .54 caliber conicals that are on the commercial market? At some point i will get some molds study casting and cast my own. Ive got both sizes of balls coming the 530 and 535 along with lubed .10 patches and .15 patches for now

 

[azmntman]

Hornady great plains have worked better than all other in all guns I have tried em on. I would say shoot those. If yer getting a 1-2" group at 50-75 yds I'd guess you can stop looking?

Obviously some guns will like another bullet better....I have not seen one. And the few elk I shot with em died (Not any deader than the many more I have shot with PRB tho)

 

[Howie1968]

Thank you. Being a bowhunter the last 30 years i set maximum effective shooting distances for myself. while im sure the .54 is capable of farther ill shoot to a max of 60 yards if 1-2 inch groups are attainable id be more then happy. ive shot around 15 elk with a bow and only 1 was farther then 30 yards. here where i live in deep east texas a 50 yard shot is long because of the thorns briars and vegetation

 

[necchi]

There's a couple more here; https://www.trackofthewolf.com/List/Item.aspx/129/1

But I don't know why you need a bullet :idunno:

FWIW, the .010 patch will be too thin and the .015 marginal at best, but you do have to experiment.

 

[BrownBear]

Track of the Wolf lists both the Hornady and a hand-cast TC Maxi-Ball. I'd try both, but in my experience the bets are on for the Hornaidy. With either, put a lubed felt wad for best accuracy most of the time.

 

[Howie1968]

ill put those on my order list mr.Brownbear on those TC maxi do i need to lube them? if so would wonder lube work or would i need a special lube? ive read alot about the felt wads the last couple of hours so the ox youke lubricated 54-56 cal is what i would need? sorry for all the questions i just want to make sure im on the right path. I can see how the felt pad would work on a conical. im really enjoying re learning some of this stuff, i think that is 90% of the fun. then other 10 percent is going to test and come up with a suitable load for 60 yards. i appreciate all the advice you all are giving me.

 

[Howie1968]

Mr. necchi on the maxis do i need a special tool to lube the maxis it says to use spg bullet lube?

 

[BrownBear]

ill put those on my order list mr.Brownbear on those TC maxi do i need to lube them? if so would wonder lube work or would i need a special lube? ive read alot about the felt wads the last couple of hours so the ox youke lubricated 54-56 cal is what i would need? sorry for all the questions i just want to make sure im on the right path. I can see how the felt pad would work on a conical. im really enjoying re learning some of this stuff, i think that is 90% of the fun. then other 10 percent is going to test and come up with a suitable load for 60 yards. i appreciate all the advice you all are giving me.

Yup. Lube em. Can't recall the concoctions some folks recommend on here. Lately I've been just smearing the mink grease from Track of the Wolf into the grooves. The Ox Yoke prelubes will be just fine. I have plain ones and just melt some of the mink grease into them, but that's just cuzz it was an awfully big bag in the first place.

 

[nkbj]

Hey Howie.
Which Lyman are you gonna be shooting?

Side talk: Used to live just down 59 from you, in Liberty County. Now we're about a thousand miles north. :haha:

 

[Howie1968]

I bought the Lyman deerstalker in .54 while i have my own land i spend alot of time in the Davy crockett Angelina national forest. so you know how thick those places are. i bought the .54 to mainly hunt hogs at Alazan Bayou WMA its south border is the Angelina river its a beautiful bottom land and has a beautiful wetland with some huge hogs. its known as a deer and birding area. its bowhunting ponly for deer and for hogs its archery shotgun or muzzleloading. ive killed alot of hogs down there. as i get older i want to have the advantage so i bought the lyman .54 i almost bought the longer barrel great plains but i was thinking how much id be fighting thorns and brush

 

[Patocazador]

I have recently acquired a T-C New Englander in .54. Twist is 1:48. It shoots Maxi-balls very accurately at 75 yards (farthest that I shot). I did not use a felt wad under them.

I'm unfamiliar with the type of rifling or the twist in a Lyman. If it's close, try a few and see.

 

[uno676]

Lee real bullets work well also. I molded some last year and took a white tail with it.

 

[Spikebuck]

Howie,

I've used the .54 Hornady GP on a number of deer. They work great. See hunting story from Dec 2013 I posted as it has some pictures of what the bullet looked like after shooting a large buck and shows the internal results.

As a side note, I had one of Ol' Moe's molars sent to a lab to perform analysis for age and he was 7 1/2 years old, so the name we had given him was well deserved.

Link to Deer Hunt Post

 

[Howie1968]

Thanks spikebuck, thats what im hoping for that my .54 likes them because im gonna set it up as my hog gun out to 6o yards. i have a .50 renegade coming next week

 

[Billnpatti]

If you find that felt wads help, and I have found that to be so, it is a lot cheaper to make your own felt wads. You can buy good wool felt from this source http://www.durofelt.com/image_26.html. Never use a felt that is made using synthetics because they will melt in your bore and make a gooey mess that is hard to get out. Use only real wool felt. To cut the wads, all you need is a hollow punch. You can find them at several sources but the cheapest source is one of our own members who goes by the name "ohio ramrod" [email protected]. He will make one for you any size that you want and his prices are far more than reasonable. I have a couple of his punches and they are excellent.

It is easy to make the pre-lubed wads yourself. Just take a sheet of the Durofelt, spread your favorite lube on it like buttering toast and then put it in the microwave for a few seconds to melt the lube into the felt. Then start punching out your wads.

 

[Howie1968]

Thanks Billnpatti, here im ready to buy all the pre made stuff when you can make stuff yourself. ive got to start thinking more traditional minded, now when it comes to longbows recurves i make mine own everything. hanging around this forumn ill leqarn to be more self sufficient and rely less on commercial stuff.

 

[BrownBear]

...you can make stuff yourself.

In that spirit, if you decide you like the Hornady Great Plains bullet check this out. Virtually identical, and your gun won't know the difference.

 

[Billnpatti]

No doubt, Lyman makes a good product. Some may say an excellent product. But, at a pretty hefty price. $75 for the mold and than another $47 for handles. That's $122 to get started making these bullets. For my money, which I have to watch pretty closely, I'd look for a Lee mold which will run you just a bit over $30 with the handles. Even less if you buy from Track of The Wolf https://www.trackofthewolf.com/List/Item.aspx/1201/1 $30 (or less) VS $122 :shocked2: .....I know where I'd be looking for a bullet mold that would work for me. But, that's just old tightwad me.

 

[amcmullen]

I don't know if they do the same for .54, but Lee makes a mold that casts one REAL and one.490 ball for 50 cals. I got one and it is great! My T/C seams to like conicals and my Traditions love the .490 PRB.

If I had the 54 REAL I would gladly send you some to try.

 

[Mad Professor]

Hornady GP have worked great for me, so have Buffalo bullets. The former are a bit easier to load.