One Bullet Five Rifles, Two Calibers, Two Methods, and Two Goals

And, ah yes, all that for $29.95... and like on TV But, Wait, order now and get an additional one free, just pay shipping and handling...

Ok enough for the attempted humor... What I am asking for here is experience from the group on using one mold for my muzzleloaders... they are in 50 and 45 caliber, inlines, flintlock, and caplock... twists of 1:48 to 1:28... My goals are to to have good accuracy and be very lethal on whitetails out to my self-imposed limit of 200 yards.. I currently paperpatch for them using 400-460 grain bullets... I would like to drop down to 330-350 grain and use something like the Gould 330 gr HP developed for hunting with the 45-70.

I was thinking that I should have this bullet sized to shoot in the 45 Knight Inlines and 45 TC Hawken with GM 1:28 as cast with a little over bore size to shoot as a lubed pure lead bullet or possible up to 1:30 alloy... then I would like to size down the same bullet to be able to paper patch it in the .45's(around .446)... then for the 50's I could use it in a sabot...

Some of the rationale for wanting to try a smaller bullet... less recoil, powder, and lead per shot... but need to keep both accuracy and lethality! I can't argue with accuracy or lethality of the bullets I now use... they are more than adequate for any whitetail within 200 yards... My male logic is saying that by adding to my mold inventory I can save enough $$ to pay for it if I shoot it enough...(I know this is faulty, but my wife is easy).

I had a Gould mold back when I had a Sharps 45-70, but had to sell the rifle and peddled the mold shortly after... not sure that would be a candidate for sizing down enough to paperpatch in my 45's.... I slugged two Knight .45's today and came up with .460-.461 with mic, but honestly can't figure out how to measure the depth of the grooves... tried calipers, but groove with was too narrow... anyone have experience with Knight's to have an idea?

I was thinking a custom mold the way to go, that way beside getting best size for bore, I could have it fit with both hollowpoint or flat pins for solid & hollowpoint from same mold... but struck out so far in finding someone who would make such a mold...

I know I have layed out a lot here... and please be patient with this old geezer... I have been shooting black powder and whitetails for a whole lot of years(forgot to mention reduced recoil, getting older big bullets hurt more!) and have shot them with everything from round balls to 500+gr postells... quit shooting pistol bullets in sabots the first year I killed a deer with em... went to plains style after that...

Thanks for your help.. Kindest regards,

TheMoose

I know I once tried the 330gr Gould bullet in my Lyman 50cal Deerstalker with a sabot. I Forget what sabot I used but I think it was the crush ribbed sabot. I didn’t experiment much for accuracy but was pleased with the results.

edmehlig said:

I know I once tried the 330gr Gould bullet in my Lyman 50cal Deerstalker with a sabot. I Forget what sabot I used but I think it was the crush ribbed sabot. I didn’t experiment much for accuracy but was pleased with the results.

Click to expand...

That's because you found a way to make a skwirl rifle out of a 50. :mrgreen:

Back in the day when I only had my first TC 50 Hawken I read something about one man one rifle...so I took my 50 to hunt Fox squirrels with in southern Indiana using a patched roundball and 62 grains FFg.... finally got a chance to try to "bark" one and took the shot...that was followed by a couple very loud crashes... as the smoke cleared the squirrel was just trying to reclimb the tree, shaking like an aspen... he got it together before I could reload... as I went back to the truck at the end of the day another hunter appeared and asked me how many squirrels I killed with that one shot... I told him none... and he said he heard at least three fall... again saying no, he asked me what kind of shotgun I had... I told him it was a rifle and he wanted to know the caliber... told him a half inch... what he heard was the squirrel and a golf ball sized limb getting blown off that oak tree... never took it again... but did kill several groundhogs with it :lol:

do you cast now? What are you looking for? I have several molds, and could loan molds or send bullets. I just got one today for a lighter .452 size ~350 grease groove and sent it off to hollow point one cavity. (one will stay flatnose) Should be a few weeks to get that one going. an accurate .452 300s sabot mold. I have greasers in 460, 500 in .45, and a 2 cavity .50 with a bunch of pins to do flat, or hollow base anywhere from about 330- 500ish grn I think, Id have to look it up. It was a group buy deal. One universal is a good start, but you cant just have one mold artyman:

That's because you found a way to make a skwirl rifle out of a 50. :mrgreen:

LOL

I honestly believe not many makers mess with HP mold because of TIME. It takes me 3x as long to make a HP; Drill, ream, make Pin, holding screws, wood handle, etc.. than it does to set up and cut a mold - I'd say many mold makers today are using CNC equipment. I usually bore out old RB molds instead of making the mold blank.

This is one I had Accurate copy (very close) from one I made. I have not gotten around to making a HP yet - but I believe it's what you're thinking.


Cast of pure lead - I have not shot it yet from this mold.
Same as Squeeze - I will be glad to mail you some or the mold.

Thanks guys, very kind offers... I do cast now. I cast for muzzleloaders, 44 mag rifle, 9x18 Makarov, 45ACP, 30-40 Krag and a couple of different style 12 gauge sabot slugs... I appreciate the offer to borrow a mold, but I hate to borrow things... always afraid I may drop or damage them somehow...not as sure handed or footed as I once was... maybe we could work out a trade for some bullets or i could out right buy some from you... thinking something like the .452's running near 350 may be a good place to start... I'll have to look at what else I have tomorrow night after work...

Thanks again,

TheMoose

I really like the looks of 52bores bullet! I would go with it at .452 all 3 bands, For Paper Patching a 45 Cal .451 bore there is a good reason bullet diameters of .442-.444 are the most commonly used, 2 wraps of 9# onion skin paper will ad 6-8 thou to the overall diameter depending on the paper used, at your mentioned .446 that would put you at .452-.454 leaving you no choice but to run the wrapped bullet through a sizer die, by doing this you are putting unnecessary stress on the paper, But If you size the above bullet to .443 first, and then wrap it, that puts your finished (wrapped) bullet diameter at .449-.451, it is these diameters that are winning world championship shoots