Bullets are a tight fit

[Cullie]

The Hawken Hunter I have is a .54. I have measured and slugged the bore. Yours may vary but mine came in at .533". I've polished the bore and such as others have mentioned but the thing is closer to a .53 cal than a .54, hence the loading hard. As Loyalist Dave mentioned the LEE REAL bullets work in mine, the lower bands ride the bore, and the top one goes in with a hard rap on the starter. Everything else in .54 cal loads pretty hard and RB need a thinner patch or they're a bear to load. Patching between shots is almost a must.

Haven’t slugged it yet but just with caliper my bore is .530-.533. My mould is dropping bullets with the top band measuring .545 “some larger around.547” and the bottom band fairly consistent at .539. They are horrible to load! I size all my bpcr cast bullets is that an option here?

 

[Indy Durtdigger]

Haven’t slugged it yet but just with caliper my bore is .530-.533. My mould is dropping bullets with the top band measuring .545 “some larger around.547” and the bottom band fairly consistent at .539. They are horrible to load! I size all my bpcr cast bullets is that an option here?

Absolutely. It's a muzzleloader, the options are much more open and forgiving than cartridge arms so long as the projectile remains seated. Can be as simple or complicated as one likes and it's surprising sometimes what the guys on these forums do. The REAL bullets load in mine okay and the LEE molds are affordable so that's the route I went.

 

[Bad Karma]

Haven’t slugged it yet but just with caliper my bore is .530-.533. My mould is dropping bullets with the top band measuring .545 “some larger around.547” and the bottom band fairly consistent at .539. They are horrible to load! I size all my bpcr cast bullets is that an option here?

I wouldn’t like to size them down that much or if I did, I’d do it in a couple of steps. I have a mold for the Gould bullets that drops at .458” and I have 45’s that like bullets ranging from .448-451” so I do size them that much but it’s not ideal.

 

[Grenadier1758]

@Cullie, what is the groove diameter? The REAL (or the T/C Maxi-Ball) use the top band to engrave on the rifling and fill the grooves to minimize gas blow by. Sizing to the land-to-land diameter is likely to induce gas blow by with the resulting degradation of on target accuracy.

The top band should be no greater than the groove diameter.

Maybe this barrel is not compatible with the REAL conical. Pure lead shrinks the most in the mold. What mix of lead alloy are you using?