LEE

[navaman]

has anyone out there ever cast and shot the lee REAL bullet? i'm talking about the .50 320 grain type. also does anyone know if it would be long enough to shoot in my white mountain carbine with a 1:20 twist? i can buy this particular mould for a lot less than the lyman 370 grain maxi lyman mould. just wonderering. :hmm:

 

[elbanma1]

I have cast them and shot them from my CVA hawken 1:48. They were a bear to load, had to hammer them in with a mallet to get them started and then after a point they went down pretty well. I am guessing that is just a funtion of the upper rings engaging the rifling as it goes down. The accuracy was reasonable at 50 yds but what a pain to load.

 

[navaman]

the 250 grains are a bear to start also. by the way, you wouldn't remember the length on those would you?

 

[jtmattison]

I have them. Easy to load but not accurate out of my 1:28. Not accurate out of my buddies 1:48 either.
In .54 caliber it's a different story. Out of my 1:32 they are tack drivers in the 380 grain weight.

HD

 

[navaman]

from what i've heard the 1:32 handles just about anything with great accuracy. this 1:20 i've got has proven to be a big pain in the backside

 

[eelclam]

I have a .45 cal. 1 in 20 twist and it took a long time to find a projectile that shot consistently. Finaly I settled on a voluteer bullet .452 dia. 450 grn. The length is 1 1/8". The problem is that you need the length to have enough surface to grab the rifling without stripping through the bore. Loading through the muzzle the projectile must be only land to land diameter or just slighly more. We then rely on the exploding charge to upset or obturate the bullet expanding it into the grooves so it gets a good bite on the rifleing. The shorter bullets won't stablize becase they don't hold the rifleing. Fortunately there are long .50 cal bullets cast soft lead that can be sized to the bore. Sorry for the long post

Eelspike

 

[navaman]

no need to apologize. i'm learning here and i'm soaking everything you guys post like a sponge. i'm going to call Lee and see if they can tell me how long those 320 grains are.

 

[eelclam]

Not long enough i think

Eelspike

 

[LittleMoe430]

I tried the 250-grain REAL last winter in my GreyHawk 1:48. Worked OK, but greasing the buggers was a pain and accuracy wasn't spectacular so I went back to PRB's. Didn't work at all in another 1:28 barrel.

Two days ago, I bought a LEE Modern Minie, 50-cal, 354-grain mould. I cast 50 of them and tried them, stuffed with Crisco, with a homemade bore button underneath it, over 50 grains of fffg. It's the most accurate bullet yet out of that gun! Yesterday, I shot a 1-inch group at 25 yards, then backed off to 50. That 3-shot group was about 1-1/4 inch, shooting off my knees from a 5-gallon bucket. Can't wait to get my bench set up to see how they really shoot.

 

[navaman]

i talked to Lee reloading and he recommended that modern minnie. he also told me that they adjust the mold for a flat bottom. did you shoot that out of the 1:28 ? needless to say i'm pretty excited here.

 

[rice1817]

I shoot them in my 50 underhammer. I have tried both weights, but the lighter wt seems to shoot better for me, maybe because of the rate of twist. Blue Grouse and[url] Underhammers.com[/url] recommends putting a greased felt wad under them for better accuracy. It helped me, for sure. The go down easily, too, still have to short start them but after that they go down easier than a round ball for me.

 

[eelclam]

If you want to try something get some 450gn 50-70 bullets cast in soft lead and and sized to your bore. I started by casting 45-70 .458 dia and crudly sizing them when they shot well then I found a guy to who cast the voluteer bullets .452 dia. and they shot great. Check out the development of Scheutzen rifles for info on fast twist shoot long conicals.
greenhill formula
bullet length = (150 * bullet diameter squared)/ twist rate

so your 1 in 20 .50 cal barrel will stabalize a bullet up to 1.8 inches long thats huge the thing is how much shorter can you get away with until the bullet strips the rifleing

 

[navaman]

the bullet i'm going to go with is just under one inch. about 1/32. anyway, i got another question pertaining to stripping away the rifling. when i first went to the range with this rifle i shot about 30 to 40 of those short REAL bullets. do you think i ruined my rifle?

 

[eelclam]

No by stripping I meant the bullet not twisting with the grooves but running over them the lead is soft and it doesn't damage the rifleing. When the bullet rides over the rifleing instead of spinning with it it doesn't get enough spin on it to stabalize it. Or to use the football analogy a crappy spiral that wobbles to the target instead of a tight perfect spiral like a bullet. The trick is to find the bullet, powder charge and loading technique the will give you that perfect spiral each time. That the cool thing about muzzleloading is you get to figure it all out for your self. Fast twists are fussy but those big conicals fly true when you get it right, and they bring lots of energy down range with them.
eelspike

 

[LittleMoe430]

Navaman,

I haven't yet tried the modern minie in the 1:28 gun. It's an i****e T/C that shoots well with another type :redface: of load. This afternoon, I plan to try the minie in an old CVA Blazer that I shortened (for my daughter, hopefully) and installed new sights. The Blazer has a 1:32 bbl. with rounded, not square or sharp, rifling. I have my doubts whether the rifling will hold that soft slug.

 

[navaman]

thanks for the reply. now i just got to find a place to buy the black powder because you all have convinced that that's the way to go. once i get this load and my new bullets cast i've got a lot of hogs to kill for a lady here in town who's property is being overrun by the dern things. can you order bp over the internet?

 

[Mad Professor]

Don't put the cart in front of the horse.

Buy yourself a box or two of the bullets before investing in the mould and see if they'll shoot well. If so, then get the mould.

P.S. 370 gr Buffalo Bullet Co. conicals are tack drivers out of my 1-28 GM barrel. Your 1-20 is even faster so something in the 400-450 gr range may do better.

 

[LittleMoe430]

Powderinc.com for the BP. I bought 25 lbs. for $271.50, delivered. Enough to last a while...

 

[CrackStock]

Actually, I was going to try to buy a few of these bullets years ago and found that the cost of the bullets and shipping was about the same as buying the mould. I could own the mould and make all that I wanted.

Maybe it was just me, but sadly, I found the results less than satisfying. I went back to roundball only in my .50 and that mould is collecting dust.

CS

 

[windwalker_au]

the lee real bullet is intended to be shot out of a slow twist barrel. i have seen a few very fast twist guns shoot them but alot that wont, go with the lee modern minithey are very good .
bernie :grin: