New, BIG .45 Greaser

Modern Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Modern Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Idaholewis

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2017
Messages
7,287
Reaction score
10,277
Figure I’ll try the exact opposite direction of the little bullet, these are BIG CHUNKY Gals here! :lol: This is the Lyman Whitworth bullet, they are weighing in at 379 Grains with my 40:1 Alloy, These dropped from my new mold at .454-.455, i will try this in my 1:30, but I really got it for the 1:18, This bullet was designed for a 1:20 Twist. Will be interesting to see how these do, I will shoot them out of both rifles and see what i get?

.451" nominal diameter, 475 grain, Flat Nose bullet. Designed for Navy Arms Parker-Hale Whitworth rifles with 1/20" twists. Casts a nominal .456"/.453" diameter in pure lead. Shoot as-cast, Lymnan recommends lube by hand. Approximate Bullet Dimensions: Bullet Length-1.25", Bottom of Crimp Groove to Bullet Nose-.479".
 
Those Lyman Whitworth bullet should shoot great. They shot great out of my White's. Unfortunately I had a soft heart and gave that mold away to a guy who was down on his luck. Wish I had that mold back. Of course I could always buy another one or have Accurate Molds make one up like my .465gr mold.
 
edmehlig said:
Those Lyman Whitworth bullet should shoot great. They shot great out of my White's. Unfortunately I had a soft heart and gave that mold away to a guy who was down on his luck. Wish I had that mold back. Of course I could always buy another one or have Accurate Molds make one up like my .465gr mold.

This pretty well rounds me out for 45 Cal bullet options, I really think my little 1:30 Twist Hawken will shoot these ok? About 80 Grains of Swiss 2F is my thinking, I’ll give these a try soon
 
Looks good, but shouldn't the weight be near 460gr.
Also, I have NO IDEA why they call this the Whitworth bullet when it's a .457ish diameter???
The Volunteer mold is the same with the correct diameter of .451
 
52Bore said:
Looks good, but shouldn't the weight be near 460gr.
Also, I have NO IDEA why they call this the Whitworth bullet when it's a .457ish diameter???
The Volunteer mold is the same with the correct diameter of .451

I often thought that myself. If I recall they weighed around 465-468 gr.
 
The Mold claims a weight of 475 Grains, mine actually throws right at 480 Grains with 40:1 Alloy, so probably 485 or there abouts with pure lead
 
Lewis, I shot a lot of those Whitworth bullets in a 1-18" Green Mountain Barrel I had about 15 years ago. The barrel was round that was 1 1/8" by 34" long that I had coupled to an old H& R shotgun receiver. I installed an old Buffington sight off an old trapdoor at the rear of the barrel using it as a peep. I only used 50 grains of T7 and shot several targets out to 250 yards. This gun was very heavy but was also very accurate and I should have never parted with it. I sized all these bullets to .450 but with your .458 barrel you should be able to shoot as cast or PP if necessary. In one of my old books there is a article where Gary "Doc" White was using this bullet long before White rifles existed and if I remember correctly he shot a Moose with it.
 
I found the article in the 1975 version of Lyman Black Powder Handbook, back then the bullet was 456121 and he was using an old English double rifle that he rebarreled to 45 caliber. In his own book "The White Muzzleloading System" he describes using the 457121 Gould bullet to harvest Moose and Black Bear.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20180207_170128_kindlephoto-217807504.jpg
    IMG_20180207_170128_kindlephoto-217807504.jpg
    206.6 KB · Views: 194
This is the bullet that I believe Doc pulled from the above Moose.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20180209_012252_kindlephoto-279689533.jpg
    IMG_20180209_012252_kindlephoto-279689533.jpg
    147.6 KB · Views: 173
Sax, That is NEAT stuff, Thanks for sharing it!

This GM 1:18 Twist Barrel of mine is .451 Bore, .458 Groove, I plan to try this Big 475 Grain Lyman Bullet Lubed and sized to .451, i might end up having to go .450? I really gotta get this 18 Twist out and work with it! But instead of shooting over the hood of my truck I’d rather wait til i can pull my Bench out and setup on it. We stil have about a Foot of Snow on the Ground here, Just enough to make it uncomfortable to drag everything out and setup in.

Gonna shoot with my Dad today, I’m taking the Little New Englander that he gave me (Same Rifle i did the trigger work to) Lyman Plains bullets that i poured, sized to .533, then Paper Patched, .28 Gauge Circle fly OP wads. Been wanting to try this! My last stock barrel and PP bullet outings were HORRID, I couldn’t even stay in a target? I hit the Ground in front of my target 1 time, I could literally see the Grass part! lol, that bullet bounced up and went through my target sideways, breaking the wooden frame, my other shots couldn’t be found? TOTAL DISASTER!
 
Lewis, I was sizing mine down to .450 with no problems. It was after I was doing this that I found out that Doc was sizing his to .451 about 30 years prior to that. In Docs article. In the 1975 article where he shot the Moose he said he was using 80 grains of FFg black.
In another article he describes sizing this bullet to .450 using 90 grains of FFg black for a friends .451 bore with a 1-22 twist. Bottom line is that this bullet has good history for both accuracy and game taken abilities.
 
Update on this BIG bullet, i just shot these this morning in my 1:30 Twist ‘Hotrod’ Hawken, Weather was miserable, we got another foot of snow night before last and it was about 16-18 Degrees this morning.

I tried sizing these bullets to .451 but that was to loose (they would fall down the bore) and i felt my .452 was a bit to tight (again i am using Certified 40:1 Alloy, and it makes a BIG difference in loading) my .452 is actually .452-.453 it’s not perfectly round. My cold clean bore was loaded with 1 of the .452-.453s, i used my solid brass range rod and it was a hard push, more than i liked! Since my .451 was to loose i opted to VERY slowly open it up, go a little bit, clean the die up good and push a bullet through, then test fit to my bore, i was using ultra fine 1500 grit paper paper and Flitz metal polish, so basically just polishing a half thou away (my die looks like a mirror inside) i finally felt a bullet snug up in my bore and it held the bullet, I measured that bullet at .451.5, i could probably go a tiny bit more, But There is a REALLY REALLY fine line here, i really like the way these loaded so I’m staying with this. If you were using pure soft lead you would be fine with .452-.453, But i feel this 40:1 Alloy is better stuff in my rifles.

I took my Leica rangefinder this morning and ranged the target, 74 yards on the dot. My first shot is a tiny bit high, not only was that my cold clean bore, it was also a tighter fitting bullet .452-.453, the other 4 shots were .451.5 and loaded VERY NOTICEABLY easier. I was shooting from Sand Bags, My shots felt very good and solid. My little 1:30 shot this big heavy 480 Grain bullet very well! Load details are written on my target
 
Wow Lewis, your really getting them new GG bullets dialed in I would say. Nothing wrong with that!
 
Magnum said:
Wow Lewis, your really getting them new GG bullets dialed in I would say. Nothing wrong with that!

This 1 kinda had me fooled, this is the heaviest bullet i have ever shot in this .45 (1:30 twist Green Mountain LRH barrel) I wasn’t expecting these to shoot as well as they did. This is my absolute favorite ‘Go To’ Rifle for pin point accuracy, and always has been, If this rifle decides it’s not gonna shoot a bullet, I would NEVER question it, i would be rid of that bullet/Mold in a HOT second! I have successfully shot bullets as light as 240 I believe? (TC Maxi Ball) And now this Big bullet at 480 Grains, So far to date i have yet to find a bullet this rifle won’t shoot well? Even the TC Maxi Ball shot reasonable in this Rifle

The bearing surface of this bullet is 0.830, this is a BIG LOOOOOONG bullet for a 1:30 Twist, There is no doubt there’s a point where this will start to tip over (Stability) No idea how long this bullet will stay stabilized? This bullet would be much better suited in my 1:18 Twist, But I’m not complaining! :) As to be expected, Recoil from this bullet was VERY different than I’ve ever experienced in this Rifle, it wasn’t horrible by any means, but DEFINITELY the hardest it’s ever kicked me.
 
And to think it’s NOT legal in the state of Idaho to Elk hunt with this 480 Grain bullet???

I just read the other day where Colorado changed their Rules on Roundball, they went to .54 Cal Minimum for Elk if you choose to hunt with Roundball :D
 
Back
Top