Lee Conical Bullets

[Cowboy45j]

Does anyone have any experience with Lee minne or improved minne balls. I read that the improved Mine balls were self cleaning (they help scrub fouling from previous shots.) Does this significantly reduce the life of your barrel? Do they actually do anything like that or is it just hype?

btw, I know I spelled the word wrong, I'm not smart enough to make my computer spell in french.

 

[jtmattison]

I have the Lee minie mould in .54. For me the are about as accurate as throwing a rock at 50 yards. As for the scraping action...it won't harm your barrel. Any minie or maxi bullet with grooves will perform the same action. It just gives the fouling a place to gather as the bullet travels up the bore. In my opinion you would be better off with their REAL bullet. Better off yet with Lyman's Plains Bullet.

HD

 

[Blizzard of '93]

right much as 'dawg' the Lee Mini's didn't do well in my .50cal 1-48 twist.
the REAL slug does do well however. that last ring is a bugger to load though. I dip them in lube while warm. these are the 250 gr (IIRC)

 

[Dphar]

Does anyone have any experience with Lee minne or improved minne balls. I read that the improved Mine balls were self cleaning (they help scrub fouling from previous shots.) Does this significantly reduce the life of your barrel? Do they actually do anything like that or is it just hype?

btw, I know I spelled the word wrong, I'm not smart enough to make my computer spell in french.

Note, all "expansive" bullets expand tight to the bore. They must to engage the rifling. The "self cleaning" thing sounds like BS some hack for a gun magazine would think up as filler for an article.

Most of this stuff is simply a way to cash in on people buying "new and improved".
The thick skirt minie will tolerate large powder charges. But thats the only "improved" Minie I know of that accomplishes much.
The US Military made a "scraper bullet" during the rifle musket days. It was a minie with a zinc scraper at the rear that was made so that it would expand tight to the bore and scrape the fouling out. They were issued something like 1:20 (?) to the standard cartridge.
Did not work very well IIRC.
IF the lubricant will soften the fouling it will help keep the rifle clean.
Claims made for the semi-magical properties of various bullets for MLs need to be viewed with skepticism.

Dan

 

[texcl]

generally speaking, minie balls don't work well in deep grooved barrels they were origionally designed to be shot out of shallow rifled barrels so they had an easier time sealing up, not to mention the rifling twist was different. Add to this to the fact that you need to size minies to just under bore size to extract the most out of them, and I can see why people don't get very good results. When I 1st got into NSSA my groups were very large until my unit showed me the ropes of shooting minies and when they were done with me I was shooting ragged holes in the targets, you wouldn't beleive how much the sizing of the bullet helps. I'm not a fan of the lee minie designs, I use the lyman and rapine models, but these are all .58 and shot out of rifled muskets.

 

[Bearbait2]

Mr. Cowboy45j,
The Lee Improved Minie shoots quite accurately in our rifles. Works great on Moose and Caribou. Those cast from wheel weights allowed us to use stronger powder chargers.
The Lee REALs do scrape some of the fouling from the bore as the bullet is seated. Also works fine on Moose and Caribou. However, those cast from wheel weights were not as accurate as those cast from soft lead; in our rifles.
Best Wishes

 

[longcruise]

The improved minie lost accuracy in my .50 when it got over about 60 grains of ff. The "target" minie in .58 shot very well in a faster twist .58 barrel and made a good hunting bullet. Never shot it with more than 70 gr of ff.