R.E.A.L. Conicals

[bigmike]

Anybody have any experience with the Lee R.E.A.L. conicals. I have a 250 gr. mold. Made some today but have not shot them yet.

 

[mooman76]

I have. They work well in the right gun with the right twist. Sometimes they don't do so well, it would seem some guns don't like them. There are some things you can do to improve their shooting sometimes. An over powder wad in a tight twist barrel helps improve accuracy.

 

[strato50]

I have them in .50 cal, haven't shot a terrible amount of them however.

I'm curious about lube options, or if it's ever a good idea to shoot them dry.

 

[Wes/Tex]

The above comments are about right. The bullet was originally designed for the T/C Hawken which has fairly shallow rifling. The R.E.A.L. slugs have trouble sealing a bore if the rifle has deep, cut-rifling. It'll work but accuracy may be a bit sketchy.

 

[mooman76]

Use whatever lube you want to or prefer. Just wipe it on with your fingers. A little messy so have a rag handy. I've used Crisco and bore butter and both worked ok. The REAL pretty much scrapes the fouling off as you run it down. Even deep grooved riling works but may not so well if your bore is slightly oversized for the REALs or if the REALs aren't filling out good. The Bands are tapered in size. First band is or should be the size of the bore for easy loading and each band after that slightly larger. Top band should be .017 over bore size. Heavy loads can strip the REAL bands and an over powder wad or patch can help there. I have them in 45, 50 and 54. They make them in each caliber in two sizes. The LG one has 4 bands and the SM one has 3. They sometimes work better in some guns with a slow twist because they are short and fat.

 

[10_point]

I tried them in both my TC Hawkens 50 cal. and they did not perform very well out past 50 yards, and they were worthless in my CVA Frontier and CVA Hawkens 50 cal. , they were key holeing at 25 yards , i am just sticking with RB and Maxi-ball for now on .

 

[Shotgun232]

They work good in my Cabelas Hawken, I shot about inch groups at 50 yards. They are relativity easy to load, however I did notice they would be harder to load after the 5th or 6th shot, which is normal. A quick patch down the barrel fixed that.
I used bore butter for lube.

 

[Rat Trapper]

I've shot them using bore butter for lube. shot ok with an over powder wad. The bore butter allowed me to keep shooting without wiping the bore. They shot best for me with a heavy charge.

 

[strato50]

I have the heavier 320 grain for my .50, but it's a 1-60 twist in the rifling. I haven't taken it target shooting but from everything I've read that twist isn't meant for conicals.. any input?

 

[gearheart]

The longer the conical is the faster it has to spin to stabilize. 1 turn in 60 inches is not going to get it spinning fast enough.

 

[Bob J]

I did not find them to be accurate in my Kodiak .58 s x s. It preferred .570 roundballs in wonder-lubed ticking or Black Widow Bullet Co.'s conicals.

 

[loco6725]

I have the molds from when I was younger, they seem to shoot OK, my neighbor likes them so I cast some for him every year. My opinion is they use too much lead when a patched ball does the job just as well without all the mess. Back when I used them T.C. made a tool that screws on to the bore butter tubes for lubing, it worked OK but I haven't seen the tools in years. They're probably still available somewhere though.

Tom

 

[bpd303]

They are easy to make. Take a piece of wood like 1 1/2 inch dowel, drill a hole the size of the R.E.A.L. or minie through it length ways. Then drill a small hole at one end half way through. Push the slug through until the bands align with the small hole and squeeze lube through it then push the lubed boolit out.