Dragoon, bullets, Swiss fffg

[mec]

Decided to try the .457 Buffalo 190 grain bullets in the dragoon today. Quite a squeeze into my .450 chambers but this seldom seems to matter. 40 grains of swiss fffg brought the chambers to just short of full.
I seem to be finding out that these Buffalo bullets are every bit as accurate as ball. Certainly are from the Ruger Old Army the .457 variety was made for and the unde 2" bench group seems very promising

I also checked out the 200 grain Lee bullet over the same 40 grains. Funky mould, If it doesnt close right, the bullet is hard to seat even when I've already run it through a .452 sizer just to be sure. Gets a bit more velocity with same charges and groups ok but not spectacular. When I got home, I found that I had already tried this load in the dragoon and was amazed that my previously chronographed loads averaged out at the exact same 1043 fps. The bullets hit a good many inches above my round ball sighting but are interesting anyway. The Buffalo is a modern hi-tech sort while the Lee looks a lot like some of the bullets you see in old colt revolver case sets.

Before checking out the bullets, I loaded with 40 grains and .454 ball just to make sure the chambers were clear of oil Pretty good off-hand group with that one.
Thank you, virus in a can.

 

[robert garner]

Say; I always admire your posts!
My interest is with the ROA however this post surely applies.
Seems the velocity spread was greater ,and accuracy better with the buffaloes? This goes against my preconcieved notions!Accuracy trumps power, guess I'll need to play with this! ty
robert

 

[mec]

Actually, even the 45 fps spread is pretty low. Pyrodex loads often have larger spreads than black powder but will turn in as good and sometimes better groups. Low extreme spread are nice and I like them. With center fire handguns and fast burning powders, spreads in the single digits outto 30 fps are so are good. I consider magnum loads with slower powder to be fine at 50-70 fps extreme spread.

I've had precision rifle shooters tell me that some of their most accurate loads will sometimes spread out across 200 fps - but I don't see how.