Anyone have good luck with Lee Molds

[paulvallandigham]

What was your powder charge behind that R.E.A.L. bullet in your .50? Most rifles will have a sweet spot, and the work is in finding it. Also, does the top band of the bullet score when shoved down the muzzle on the rifling? That is how the slug is suppose to work, with the lower bands sized under bore diameter, but that last, " Driving band " being 1 or 2 thousandths of an inch larger than your bore diameter. If the bullet's driving band is not scored by the lands, it probably will not shoot accurately. You have to size your bullets to the barrel shooting them. That means, you have to measure the bore and groove diameters, and then measure the diameters of the bullets you shoot. Otherwise, you are wasting your time at the range.

Also, try using an PO wad under that slug to seal the gases behind it. If the bullet is loose for that barrel, gases may be cutting the lead, and causing the larger groups.

 

[Runner]

The lighter shorter REALs shoot better in the slow twist barrels. The 320 50 caliber bullet can be made to go into 2 inches at 50 yards out of some of the barrels I have shot them out of. That is not using data from modern guns by the way.
The 45 250 is maybe the top Dragoon/Walker bullet ever created. Several folks say the 200 may be the same way. The multiple driving bands make the chance of a flash over pretty low. I used Liquid Alox but I know others that just smeared them with what ever they were using as lube that day.
The 50 320 is a strange duck. It needs to be cast a little harder than pure to keep it from stripping the rifling in a lot of guns. Add a wad or filler under it, and hunting accuracy is easy. In most traditional guns, this is not a long range accuracy bullet. It does better in 1-48 medium depth rifling than it does in the slower twists.
The Lee Target Minnie is kind of the same way. A little harder than pure and a wad under it. In a tight fifty barrel with medium depth rifling and a 1-48 twist, they can be devastating hunting bullets out to about 125 and they can provide target grade accuracy. I have a CVA Trapper 50 caliber octagon to round barrel with 1-48 twist. 90 grains of 2f under that flying ashtray provides a hammer at normal hunting ranges. Off the bench, they are terrible in several of my guns. In the Trapper barrel, you would think they were designed for it. It is the only normal breech CVA rifle barrel that I know of and it does not like a lot of things my Hawkens and the Mountain rifle do like. It would be my guess that a 320 bumped up a few thousanths would shoot a lot better in most barrels.
I have always been nervous about these kinds of bullets when hunting on the ground in the hills because they slide so easy down the barrel after they are started. So far I have not seen one move off the powder tho.

 

[longcruise]

1/70 is probably a bit slow for the REAL. Mine shot cloverleafs from the bench at 50 yards from my 1/48 TC and opened up to 12" at 100. :shocked2: Had similar results in .54 1/48 twist.

Some guys swear by em and others at em. I'm in the "at em" camp.

 

[FPDoc]

I have multiple Lee molds and just cast with several molds at the same time so they have time to cool with no wasted time for me.

 

[wvbuckbuster]

It has been a while since I tried the REAL bullets and I don't remember the amount of powder I used. Also didn't use wad under it. Learned about that since coming to this site. Might give it a try again since learning about them on this site. Will be using a .54 flinter for the first time in about 2 weeks. Really looking forward to hunting deer with a flintlock. Hope a prb finds it mark!