Dz,
As a general rule of thumb, solid ball loads are generally a tad under bore size, to allow for the thickness of the patch, .490, .495. Mini-Balls (Concave hollow based conicals, the base exands to fill the rifling when the charge ignites.) are generally sized to the exact caliber, .500, and conical solids, just a teency smidgen oversized, .510 or .520. The nice thing about conicals are that they have lubrication grooves on the sides, and are pre-lubbed, saving you the messy step of lubing the bullet in the field, which tends to get all over your hands, and, handling black powder, and black powder residue, you tend to end up pretty grimy, pretty quick. Obviously, the nice thing about the mini-balls, is that they fit down the barrel easily, because they are sized to the exact diameter, and, are wonderfully accurate and deadly, comming in many different grainage weights.
As far as all your accessories are concerned. Well, we call them varmits "possibles" in our neck of the woods !!! They are available from most major distributors like CVA (Conecticut Valley Arms), The Possibles Shop, Dixie Gun Works, Cabela's Sporting Goods, just all major BP supplies carry a wide range of possibles. Obviously, you will be toting around alot of possibles with you, our guns love attention and proper care and feeding. SO, first on your list, is a possibles bag, a handy over shoulder bag to keep all your toys in and drag around with you. Alot of people complain that they look like some kind of "man purse", well, they pre-date man purses by several hundred years, and nobody in their right mind would call an armed man in a suede fringe jacket a sissy boy because of his possibles bag.
When I was a kid, and didn't have much money for my passtimes and hobbies, I acutally gutted several old womens bags and used them as my possibles bags. I just replaced the purse strap handles with a length of plain leather, that had a belt buckle at one end, and looped the thin leather belt through the fastening ring on the purse. Of course, I chose to use women's purses that were plain and simple, in subdued colors, so the guys wouldn't razz me too bad out rabbit or duck hunting. They look fine actually, no "pursier" than the expensive possible bags out there, and are alot cheaper, In some ways I liked them better, because they are generally set up with several sub compartments, and dividers in them, some even have a snap lock change pouch sewn in, which is PERFECT for a couple of tins of caps !!! So, I didn't mind the guys razzing me too bad, I spent exactly ZERO bucks on my possibles bags, and they all spent outrageous prices for theirs !!! LOL !!!
In addition to the other items specified here, having a corkscrew bullet remover that threads into your ramrod or break down pocket cleaning rod, is a good idea. Sometimes a ball or conical is malformed, and gets stuck somewhere down the barrel and needs to be removed. It sure is handy, to have one of those around, saving you having to pack up the gun until you get it back home again.
Other accessories, that you don't carry around with you, are fun too. Casting your own balls and conicals is easy as pie, and very rewarding for alot of BP shooters. The Lee molds are very inexpensive, comming in at around $20.00 at some suppliers, and up to about $30.00 or so for a double cavity ball or conical, or single cavity mini-ball. Lee has a very good selection of diameters, grainage weights, and styles. There are other manufacturers of molds out there, such as lyman, etc, and they do tend to offer a wide range of products as well. You can go with a simple stove top melting pot for around $17/$20 or invest a little more in an electric lead furnace, some of the less expensive home hobbyist ones start at around $40, for around $100 you can get a really nice, 20lb capacity, production style of electric melting pot, that is elevated up a bit, and has a dispensing spigot, and long handled lever for dispensing the melted lead, into the molds, under the base of the pot.
As far as powders are concerned, Cabela's is a good source for the BP substitutes, for actual real BP, there are several online distributors out there that will ship you BP through the mail, but be forewarned, you have to pay a $20.00 hazmat fee for each shipment. Most people, when ordering BP through mail order, bulk order it, buying buying 25 or up to 50 lbs of powder in one order, many places will cover the Hazmat Fee and shipping for you, if you order 25 or more pounds in one order.
A good BP supplier that I like to order from is called "The Maine Powder House", they have very good prices on Goex, and other brands of real BP. Their link follows,
http://mainepowderhouse.com/
I hope you found some of this helpful to you, and, welcome to the BP Forum !!!
Sincerely,
ElvinWarrior... aka... David, "EW"
