.54 Hornady Great Plains Bullets

[Walks with fire]

Would anyone know what the length of the Hornady Great Plains .54 425 grain bullet is? I wanted to run it thru a calculator to see what the stability output is. Interested in shooting them in a Lyman .54 1/48 twist with .008 groove depths.

 

[BrownBear]

Interested in shooting them in a Lyman .54 1/48 twist with .008 groove depths.

Dunno the length and nowhere that I can measure right now. But I can tell you that no calculations are needed. I've shot it through an array of 1:48 guns and it's stellar in all of them. Better in fact than any other conical I've tried.

There's one proviso however. You really need to put a lubed felt wad between it and the powder for best accuracy. The difference with and without the wad is startling.

 

[will5a1]

As best as I can measure it, the 425grs .54 GP Bullet, laying alongside my metal ruler, has an OAL of 13/16" and the bearing surface is about 9/16".

I had no trouble using these .54's in my T-C New Englander or T-C WMC, both with 1-48" barrels.

Added: I've had the same experience as BB notes, GP bullets outperformed the other conical's I tried and felt wads help significantly.

 

[Spikebuck]

Per my measurement the length is .8305. The bottom band is .5385 for easy entry into the bore. The top band is .5490.

I shot these extensively in both my Pedersoli Frontier and Pedersoli Rocky Mountain Hawken with 1-65 twist barrels and they cut paper perfectly at 100 yards...no wobble. Surprising for slow-twist barrel performance with a conical like that.

I did not require a wad of any kind for excellent accuracy at 100 yards. That was one reason I chose the GP over the TC Hunter, which required a wad for any kind of accuracy in my guns. I attributed this to a solid base on the TC's vs the hollow skirt on the Hornady GP's.

I used 90 grs of Triple 7 when shooting these.

I would never hesitate to recommend them to someone who wants a conical. Great results on every deer I shot with them. If you search for my post from December 2013...Ten Below and Ol Moe...there is a picture of one that I used to kill a 200+ # dressed 7 1/2 yr old buck at 89 yards. Perfectly mushroomed...if I recall, it was a grain or two less in weight after the kill.

 

[Walks with fire]

Thanks to all. I will give them a chance to see what it will do in my .54 Deerstalker and a spare Trade rifle barrel for it. Hoping it hold decent accuracy out to 100. Running them on a ballistic program they hold some energy and the trajectory isn't too bad. Hoping for a decent fit in the barrel and group at 100 yards.