Shooting pistol bullets

[RedFeather]

Anybody try lead bullets designed for the .41 or .44 handgun cartidges? Just wondered if they would work like a conical. Seems, being on the short side, they might stabilize in a slower twist gun. Would you use a sabot, paper patch or just naked? Saw some .45 SWC's and they got me thinking about this.

 

[bigbore442001]

Hmm. I think that you would have to have some sort of lubrication grooves for them to work properly in a long arm. I suspect that you could also cause some problems with the jacketed bullets stripping off peices of copper in the bore. Maybe I am off on those assumptions.

 

[RedFeather]

Was thinking about lead, only. Some of the designs have cannalures which are like lube grooves. Or you could use a lubed patch.

 

[boar]

I have shot some . My buddy had them and we shot them in a TC. They were what I call a wad cutter, flat nose and they had groves on them, all lead. Can't remember what we lubed them with? We only shot them at targets, they shot good. Dilly

 

[Zonie]

Seems to me that there aren't very many pistol bullets that are the right diameter to use in a muzzleloader without using one of those plastic things around it.
The actual sizes of pistol bullets are:
9mm = .355
.38 = .357
10mm = .400
.41 = .410
.44 = .430
.45 = .451 or .452
.475 = .475
.50 = .500

If used bare (without a patch) it looks to me like a person would have to use a really big hammer to get one of these into the bore. If one used a smaller than bore size bullet there is so much difference between the actual bullet and the bore that a Really thick patch would be needed. Perhaps the one exception that meets my eye is a 9mm, patched for use in a .36 cal rifle.

Adding to this, IMO most of the lead pistol bullets I've loaded are way too hard to obturate in a muzzleloaders bore and all of them are too hard to load into a cap and ball pistol without breaking the ramming lever.

zonie

 

[tg]

In the past a bullet type called the sugar loaf was used, it was much like a solid lead bullit with no hollow base or lands, I do not know how well they worked but the RB probably was found to be a better choice due to the bullit technology of the time.

 

[Rifleball36]

I tryed .357 wad cutters in my .36 cal. It has a Montana Rifle Barrel 42" long with a 1 in 48 twist. It is button rifling. Shoots round balls good but you couldn't hit the side of a barn door with the wad cutters. :nono:

 

[RedFeather]

These would be cast from pure lead, not store bought (unless ordered that way). Haven't played with sabots, but they seem to be on the thick side if using .45 bullets in a .50 bore. You could take a lead bullet and paper patch it up. Supposedly works ok in some large game rifles when you don't have the correct bullet size available to reload. Of course, they are being driven a lot faster.

Isn't the sugarloaf the same a a picket bullet? I've seen pictures of them and agree that they don't look like they would load very straight. Maybe they used a special ramrod tip.

Have read posts about using .32 target wadcutters in a .32 rifle, though. Just a thought.

 

[ss1]

10mm = .400. In a 40cal ????

 

[cowpoke1955]

I have tried .452 200 grain SWC and 230 grain hollow point, .45 ACP, cast in pure lead, out of my .45 Blue Ridge. I couldn't get them to group. I read somewhere that their lube rings don't hold enough lube to be used in a rifle barrel. I also tried some .450 200 grain conicals made for .44 cal. 1858 Remingtons, with no luck. Like the old saying goes, "if it aint broke, don't fix it". My Blue Ridge shoots PRB just fine.

 

[Zonie]

According to my information, a "10mm" pistol shoots a .400 or .401 dia bullet.
:hmm:
zonie

 

[Tumblernotch]

A feller gave me some cast soft lead .41 Mag. semi-wadcutters a couple of years ago to use in my .40 flintlock. He had swaged them in a cut off section of a GM barrel (like mine). In doing this, he pre-engraved the rifling into the bullets. That made a mechanical fit similiar to the Whitworth or Brunswick rifles. I loaded without a patch, although I suppose it wouldn't hurt to use a WonderWad or something like that to help seal the gases. They weigh about 172 grains, nearly double that of a RB.

He asked me what charge I normally use and I said 50 grs. He said try 60 with these and you should be able to keep the same sighting that I normally use. I did and it worked. At least out to about 60-70 yds. Where I hunt, I rarely get a longer shot. Since I had so few, every time I came in without seeing any deer, I pulled the bullets and saved them, reloading them the next time I went out. The ball screw of course turned the bullet into a hollow point. When I got my deer that year, that little .40 tore a right sizable hole in him and he only took 2 steps before dropping.

 

[Pittsburghunter]

You would need to match the twist of your bore to the speed of the bullets to make sure you get the desired effects. For example a 1:48 will shoot conicals that are full bore sized well, but not smallerbore bullets made for fast twist bullets in a sabot. I can use my Plains Pistol for an example. It will not shoot most conicals at all and no saboted ones either but it will shoot the light REAL bullets ok but not enough to make me switch from round balls.

My .44 New Army will take bullets but I have not found a local supplier of them so I just shoot roundballs in it as well.

 

[Tumblernotch]

All I've ever tried were those short conicals. Or rather more of a flat nosed bullet. My bore is 1/48 and as these bullets were swaged through another 1/48 GM barrel, they worked real well. What I need to do is get a mold for this round and a short piece of barrel to make the swage out of. You can buy soft lead .41's from Hornady. I had a chance a good while back, but didn't. When I went back later, the shops in my area were out. I didn't have enough to hold a trial at longer ranges and different charges. But at 50-60 yds. they grouped well.