[mec]

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=32868&stc=1&d=1135211495
Bullet loads are interesting as they were an important feature of 19th Century revolver shooting. The modern trend is to deprecate their accuracy and shoot only round ball. While I see no advantage to shooting bullets instead of spheres, the do seem to hold more promise than generally admitted.
Another bullet mould- This one is one of the Dixie Scizzor moulds that they broach in their tool shop. It is of the profile of many 19th century bullets and weighs 180 grains or thereabout. I brought the weight of my pure lead bullets close to 180 on the average by filing down the sprue/stub to the point that they weighed what I thought they should.

In the past, I've had good luck with Lee cast bullets and Buffalo bullets both of which are configured with a rounded point to fit the seating levers of most replicas. In some revolvers, they shoot every bit as good as ball rounds. This particular bullet is sharp pointed with a reduced base to assist in alignment. I conned the loading levers on my Uberti 60 Army and Remington New Model Army to conform with the general shape and allow straight and repeatable seating. This worked pretty well but I still managed to seat a couple of them sideways in the army chambers.

What I seem to be finding with the various bullets is that they shoot almost as well as round ball when given special attention as above. The two groups pictured are both at 28 yards off-hand over the chronograph screens and are far from the best the revolvers would do from the bench. In fact, those were my best groups of the day and are about as good as I can do with round ball from that distance standing hind-legged.

I usually shoot better with the Colt styled revolvers as I have a tendency to drop the front sight with the Remington. I was satisfied with what I did with it today and can appreciate those of you who voice a preference for the design.
http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=32875&stc=1&d=1135212668

[Beartracker]

mec, A friend of mine sent me some of his casted conicals to try in my Remington .44 and I have to say they are very accurate out to 20 yards! They come from a Lee mould and weigh 200g. with two lube grooves and they are rebaited(spelling?) so that the bottom slides right in and keeps them straight as you ram it home. It shaves a little lead and he said he believes they are .454.
With 40g of fffg and no wad, just a little lube in the grooves and a little on top they seem to cause a lot more preasure and kick like a small mule but they sure shoot where I aim.
Over the years I have taken several deer at 25 yards and under with a .454 ball from this revolver with no problems. I'm thinking that these conicals would make a great hunting bullet with the above load.
I have tried conicals like the one's you have above or close to it but can't seem to get the accuracy that I get from these . I really never played around powders other than Goex in any of my gun's, pistols or revolvers and maybe would have done better with 777 or Pyrodex.

[mec]

Hard to say what will happen going from one propellant to the next. I suspect it will vary with every gun and shooter. The 200 grain Lee's Ive used have been as accurate as you say - I believe they are nominally .452 but mine have benefited from a trip through a Lyman .452 sizer. I now have th 220 grain dedicated Ruger Old Army Bullet and will try some of those. The reduction at the base is enough to make them sit level on the chamber mouts of an Old Army but not so on the smaller diameter Uberti replica chambers.

I believe the secret to my reasonably encouraging results with the scizzor mould replica bullets comes from their optimal diameter and the light coning job I did on the rammer.

[Manyirons]

Speaking of the Lee, tried ordering the 220 Hollow Point, no longer made, anyone have one for sale? Got the standard, want the h.p.!

[Beartracker]

Manyirons, Lee shows them on there site . It's the .456-220 Hollow point.
http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1134671703.2261=/html/catalog/blackpow.html

[Manyirons]

Hah! Was there a week ago, no h.p.! Ordered and THANKS!!

[MCgunner]

I've been casting the 200 grain Lee bullet for 30 years and have fired it in a Navy .44 and two Old Armies and I have nothing bad to say. I lube it with alox/beeswax in a Lee lube kit so I don't even have to carry crisco to the range like with balls. The lube grooves hold a good chunk of lube and I cut 'em out and don't resize 'em so there'll be an excess of lube when I press 'em in. Just wipe the excess off the cylinder mouth.

These bullets are very accurate and very convenient. I wish, though, they'd make a flat point mold. I bought a hollow point mold of this bullet. The cavity is quite small and I feel at the velocities a black powder pushes such a bullet, it would be a bit useless. Only thing I was thinking about when I bought that bullet was hunting with the Old Army. It'd be kind of a stun, I'll admit, but I just simply don't feel the gun produces enough velocity or energy and doesn't have a proper bullet shape available to warrant trying such a thing. I'll stick to my .45 colt if I wanna handgun deer with iron sights, or one of my .357s.

[Manyirons]

I've been casting the 200 grain Lee bullet for 30 years and have fired it in a Navy .44 and two Old Armies and I have nothing bad to say. I lube it with alox/beeswax in a Lee lube kit so I don't even have to carry crisco to the range like with balls. The lube grooves hold a good chunk of lube and I cut 'em out and don't resize 'em so there'll be an excess of lube when I press 'em in. Just wipe the excess off the cylinder mouth.

These bullets are very accurate and very convenient. I wish, though, they'd make a flat point mold. I bought a hollow point mold of this bullet. The cavity is quite small and I feel at the velocities a black powder pushes such a bullet, it would be a bit useless. Only thing I was thinking about when I bought that bullet was hunting with the Old Army. It'd be kind of a stun, I'll admit, but I just simply don't feel the gun produces enough velocity or energy and doesn't have a proper bullet shape available to warrant trying such a thing. I'll stick to my .45 colt if I wanna handgun deer with iron sights, or one of my .357s.


Please see Guns&Ammo, Gerry James, boar hunting with Ruger Old Army. George Nonte (Remember Him?) did boar in with Walker replicas.

When my Lee mold arrives, the hollow pointing stem will be replaced with larger one from local black powder smith, shall i have him make two?

[Beartracker]

Several of us on here have taken Deer with our Remington .44 with ball or conical. My longest shot was 25 yards and the Deer went less than 40 yards.The load was 40g of goex fffg, a wad and a .454 ball.
Some of the others have used the 200g conical with 40g of 777 and it just flat knocks a Deer on it's butt.
It seems to me that there would be no problem with the Ruger , holow point or not!:) I sure agree about the shallow hollow point and was wondering if a guy could drill them a little deeper?

[mec]

I've used the Lee shallow hps in .44 magnum loads. The nose expands and it leaves a long shank behind it. Course my velocities were 13-1400 fps.

[Beartracker]

Mec, Now that I'm useing this Pyrodex "P" I have a question. It looks to me like you have been loading the same amount by volume of Goex 3 F, Swiss,3 f and Pyrodex "P", Is that right?
In some articals I have read they say not to use the same amount of Pyrodex "P" as the black powders and others say load the same amount Of "P" as I did the Goex 3 f.
I noticed in your book that you were loading the same volume per volume but just wanted to make sure that you found this to be a good rule to follow.
We can't even get Swiss around here but it sure is a great powder with a nice wallop:) I could find it in Ohio all the time years ago.

[mec]

The hogdons instructions have it as a direct volume to volume substitue for 3fg. I've found with some projectiles, that I can get just a little more pyrodex in than black but generally, I try to stick with loads that will allow the same volume of 3f in the chamber.

[MCgunner]

Please see Guns&Ammo, Gerry James, boar hunting with Ruger Old Army. George Nonte (Remember Him?) did boar in with Walker replicas.

When my Lee mold arrives, the hollow pointing stem will be replaced with larger one from local black powder smith, shall i have him make two?

Hey, would ya do that???? That'd be cool! PM me, I can pay you pay pal or how ever. That little tiny hole just don't look like much in the original. :D I'd give up 10 grains of weight to open it up to a useful dimension. I could very easily get inspired again to try hunting with it. I just got sorta off the idea when working the numbers and then casting those hollow points with the little tiny hole in the front.

A round nose like that is pretty poor for hunting, but I'm sure it could well kill deer/hog sized game. The gun makes over 400 ft/lbs with the bullet pushing 200 grains of what is really a .45 caliber bullet. It should be as effective within fifty yards, theoretically, as a warmish .45 colt if only for a decent bullet.

[Beartracker]

Thanks Mec.

[Manyirons]

Mec, Now that I'm useing this Pyrodex "P" I have a question. It looks to me like you have been loading the same amount by volume of Goex 3 F, Swiss,3 f and Pyrodex "P", Is that right?
In some articals I have read they say not to use the same amount of Pyrodex "P" as the black powders and others say load the same amount Of "P" as I did the Goex 3 f.
I noticed in your book that you were loading the same volume per volume but just wanted to make sure that you found this to be a good rule to follow.
We can't even get Swiss around here but it sure is a great powder with a nice wallop:) I could find it in Ohio all the time years ago.

Hell, i AM in Ohio, and import (Shipping) no problem! See your pm re; mold.

[Beartracker]

Manyirons, Don't see anything in my PM's.Your welcome to email me if you want:
mgemind@frontiernet.net

[Manyirons]

Mec, Now that I'm useing this Pyrodex "P" I have a question. It looks to me like you have been loading the same amount by volume of Goex 3 F, Swiss,3 f and Pyrodex "P", Is that right?
In some articals I have read they say not to use the same amount of Pyrodex "P" as the black powders and others say load the same amount Of "P" as I did the Goex 3 f.
I noticed in your book that you were loading the same volume per volume but just wanted to make sure that you found this to be a good rule to follow.
We can't even get Swiss around here but it sure is a great powder with a nice wallop:) I could find it in Ohio all the time years ago.

Hell, i AM in Ohio, and import (Shipping) no problem! See your pm re; mold.

[Beartracker]

Manyirons, Still nothing in my PM from you,Lol. Mike

[Manyirons]

Manyirons, Don't see anything in my PM's.Your welcome to email me if you want:
mgemind@frontiernet.net

Uuummm Would you believe too much Irish Mist And Egg Nog? Lesson learned! "Don't play on net if celebrating you are NOT competent!!!!".

[Beartracker]

Been there , done that:) Got tired of pissing money down the drain so I quit about 15 years ago.

[Manyirons]

GAH!!!!!!

Letter from Lee Precision, here; I quote; "90493 HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED AND IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE" This is the Ruger .456diam. Hollow Point Mold.

BAD LANGUAGE!!!!:cuss:

Now order a plain mold, and HOPE gunsmith will tolerate me long enough to make it work!

[Beartracker]

As you may know there are a lot od distributors that carry Lee molds. have you tried any of them to see if they have one in stock? How about Midway?

[Manyirons]

Not yet, will work on it, really disgusted, why list the item AND acknowledge the order?

GRRR! (I'll get over it, venting!)