Ruger Old Army bullets.

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I've sized a few for my .45s, but I have a Lee 200 grain TL bullet I prefer. I have an old Lee alox pan and cutter in .45 I lube with for the black powder stuff. Ain't very technical, slow as hell, but it works. I've found I can just as easily just grab the bullet with needle nose pliers and dip it in the hot lube and just let it dry on a paper towel. It's faster than letting the lube dry and cutting the bullet out with the cutter. The loading procedure trims the excess.

I don't know if liquid alox would work. I trust the alox/beeswax mix to stop any possibility of chain firing along with the fact that the conical has a lot of bullet surface area to seal the powder. I don't use crisco on the bullets and have never had a problem.
 
My .456 220gr. Lee mold is relatively newer than Bigbadgun's mold & I believe that Lee discontinued that model because it was not as popular or something because out side of like on GB or maybe at a show is the only places I've found to still have a few.

That 222gr. .456 w/ 30gr. FFFG Goex out of my custom Pietta NMA w/ 5.5" barrel really packs a punch.
 
Don't rule out shooting .454-457 roundballs. My experiences with Ruger's C&B Old Army was that cast/swaged roundballs were the most accurate.

If you do try conicals, seek out the soft cast/swaged ones, not hard cast. Hard cast conicals don't shoot as well. You want them soft enough that they can easily be scratched with a fingernail.

Again, personally, I haven't found conicals to be worth it. The roundballs shot better for me, and the ballistic advantage of the conicals isn't anything to write home about.

The Old Army is a remarkably accurate C&B revolver. There is nothing like letting a friend shoot one, and have him get better groups than he got with his $1500 1911 on the first try.

Me, I prefer .457 roundbals over Swiss FFFg.
 
I shoot the Lee mold conical slugs in my ROA over 32gr 3F and a felt button with good results. much more penetration judging by shooting into small jack pines, I use as soft lead as can be got for casting, and dip them into a 2-1 mix of toilet bowl ring and vaseline ti fill the lube grooves. so far after 1000's of shots no additional lube seems to be neccesary, but cleaning is needed after about 5 cylinders - takedown and clean/lube the pin is all.
 
That brings up a question Marlin,where can i get the felt buttons. No stores 'round here have 'em.
Toilet bowl rings...good inexpensive sourse for wax.
 
I have never fired black powder in mine and likely never will. I've not seen a can of black powder in 30 years. I have half a can I got 35 years ago I just keep to remember with, might not even burn anymore. Black powder is good history. No one in this part of the state stocks it, too much a PITA. Maybe I'll start making my own. Don't have a good source of sieves, though, yet.
 
Folks - I've struck out on finding the dealer that I purchased my mold from. Had I only known these were discontinued. The next show is in June and I have marked my calendar with a reminder to look up this dealer. I paid $26.95 for the one I picked up and willing to pick up any others he has if anyone is interested. I will post a reminder as the the date approaches.
 
I have never fired black powder in mine and likely never will. I've not seen a can of black powder in 30 years. I have half a can I got 35 years ago I just keep to remember with, might not even burn anymore. Black powder is good history. No one in this part of the state stocks it, too much a PITA. Maybe I'll start making my own. Don't have a good source of sieves, though, yet.
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MCgunner, that sounds really sad. Have you considered getting any of the real stuff via mail order? Jack's Powder Keg and Coonie's are probably your closest suppliers and both will ship to you.
 
here is what to look for on the end of the flap of the lee box, LEE BULLET MOLD, DIAMETER .456, WEIGHT 220 gr., 456-220-1R, RECOMMENDED FOR RUGER OLD ARMY USE PURE LEAD, HOLLOW POINT, the scew # is 34307 90493, there is a lower case number 7 on each side of the scew or product number. I don't think that the 7 means anything, but it's there.
 
kanook said:
here is what to look for on the end of the flap of the lee box, LEE BULLET MOLD, DIAMETER .456, WEIGHT 220 gr., 456-220-1R, RECOMMENDED FOR RUGER OLD ARMY USE PURE LEAD, HOLLOW POINT, the scew # is 34307 90493, there is a lower case number 7 on each side of the scew or product number. I don't think that the 7 means anything, but it's there.
Click to expand...

Yeah, my mold is:
LEE BULLET MOLD, DIAMETER .456, WEIGHT 220 gr., 456-220-1R, RECOMMENDED FOR RUGER OLD ARMY USE PURE LEAD #90383

But being that your mold also indicates that it is 220gr. & mine actually drops a 222gr. bullet makes me wonder if they are exactly the same dimentions excepting ofcorse the hollow point.

Oh & by the way when these .456 222gr slugs hit wet news print as a penetration test they penetrated a full 9" from 10 yards distance & expanded to an average of .543 retaining an average weight of 211gr. I would wonder if the hollow point would increase the expansion any.
 
if a person had the time, the cavity is approximately 3/16" to a 1/4" deep and a 9/64" drill bit wide. if you are already making your own regular round point, you could try to make some hollow points. not saying it would work for everybody, but if you had a drill press and the time
 
do not attempt to make a hollow point while the chonicle is already loaded in the cylinder. (just so no mistakes are made)
 
Folks, just a word about the Lee hollow point molds, I've cast a fair amount of bullets from lee molds and think their a great mold for the money, however I had one of their hollow point molds for my .44 special years ago (a different caliber, I know) I hated it, what was usually an easy task of casting, became a pain in the butt. The newly cast bullets would not just fall from the mold like the same non-hollowpoint versions, I had to smack the the mold handles repeatedly to get them to release from the pin that created the hollow point in the nose of the bullet, also I found no extra expansion from the hollow point version even when cast of pure lead. Just my experience, maybe I just had a bad one, but it was enough to sour me on them.
 
Folks - the gun show I mentioned is this weekend. If anyone is interested if I find this dealer with the molds, I'll gladly pick them up. Let me know.
 
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