Surrounded by Enablers

[Shorty]

And bitten by the casting bug. ………. I would like anyone’s input on casting a .40 cal bullet to shoot out of my .45 cal 1/18 twist barrel, woodman patriot. I would like to use the light blue sabots from harvester.. It would be used for whitetail and black bears. Max range would be up to 300 yds. Definitely using smokeless powder and 209 primers. What shape of bullet? What weight of bullet? Should it be knurled up or not to help spin? Should it be cast of soft lead? Should it be a hollow point or not? What mold and mold number would be your choice and why? Thank you for any input, shorty.

 

[Half-Cocked]

Enjoy your journey! I unfortunately have no answers I can share that I have also wanted to get into the casting business. My concerns were and are lead hardness for a given velocity. Temperature of the molten lead. Finding bullets with voids and what the heck do I do to lube em up. Also do I need to run through a sizer. Finally is all of that worth the effort? For those reasons casting has taken a back seat to other endeavors. I wish you luck on your journey and will follow the thread. Any qualified muzzle loader casters here? If not i believe cast bullits is a forum that may have general information. Sorry I wasn't much help.

 

[Shorty]

well you were, cast bullits is a place i will visit for answers. I just like the idea of casting my own bullets. I will use them bullet to bore and in a sabot. I will try using soft lead as i have killed deer with a 50 cal. Flinter, they really flatten out and do a nice job. My idea is to use a bullet instead of a ball for more thump and a bigger wound channel. Ty and have a great night….

 

[Decay]

So, herein I publicly admit my failure.
I have a 40 cal mould made by Accurate moulds that I bought for shooting in my 45 Paramount. I used the Harvester Crush light blue sabot and from 85 to 105 grains of Blackhorn in 5 shot "groups". At 100 yds I couldn't even find where most of the bullets impacted on a 3' square piece of cardboard. I sent my Paramount away to have a Brux barrel installed, so my testing has ended. I still think this bullet and sabot has great potential. I cast the bullet of scrap lead, it may have a bit of tin and antimony in it . Brinnell hardness was about 9 iirc.
My range is kinda overgrown so I didn't use my 25 or 65 yard bunker, I went straight to the 100. That's a mistake. I use an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper as a target with a 1/2" square aiming dot. Some bullets hit the paper, most weren't found so I put the 3' x 3' cardboard sheet behind the target stand. I never found where some hit the ground. They completely missed the 3' x 3' cardboard. I found about half of the sabots fell off the bullets about 20 ft from the muzzle. I found 2 at about 70 ft where I know they went through the skyscreens of my Oehler. I dug into the dirt of my bunker at 100 yds to search for bullets, expecting to find the sabot still attached, but my digging turned up no bullets, so I didn't confirm my thought that the sabots stayed attached.

Whenever my Paramount returns, I'll continue this testing, with smokeless VVN120.

 

[white eagle]

these bullets are cast from wheel weights and powder coated
I believe they are 225 gr., but not remembering at the moment.
I have a single cav mold that I can make a h.p if I wish
I shoot them out of my Peregrine/ with around 100-110 gr of Blackhorn 209 get decent accuracy but it goes south when I put more coal in the furnace. Also a full bore application no sabot involved sized to .4016

 

[Decay]

Shorty if you send me a pm, I will send you a photo of the bullets.

 

[Harleysboss]

Shorty, My way of thinking, you are basically shooting a 45-70 (45 cal 1-18 twist). I would think that a bullet in the neighborhood of 400 grains with a decent meplat pushed in the 1200-1400 fps range will put the lights out on anything that moves. You don't have to and really shouldn't push a cast bullet much faster, especially a soft cast one. Go back through the past posts and look at what other 45 cal shooters are casting and what powder charges they use. Idaholewis doesn't post anymore but he was very knowledgeable on the subject but a lot of his posts are still here. He and several other members have a custom rice barrel 1-18 twist and shoot fantastic groups. Accurate molds are a good place to start for a custom mold without the custom price. You do need to determine your barrel bore size. There are also threads on how to order one. I have no experience shooting smokeless ML or powder coating cast. I do cast for my fast twist 50 cal White rifles.

 

[Shorty]

Hi Harleysboss, good to hear from you. My way of thinking now was to use a sabot and a .40 cast bullet. That would shoot decent out of mr .45 cal mcgowen, 1/18 twist from woodman arms. I just order a lyman mold that would give me a 300 grain bullet. Good or bad i would like to use n120 and push it 2200-2300 fps. This is what i will try and will post results.

 

[Harleysboss]

I don't have any real experience with cast in a sabot. I tinkered a bit but never really put any effort into it. Now if you want to get fancy, explore paper patch bullets. Good luck with your testing. Maybe a harder cast lead for the speeds?

 

[Decay]

Send me your address and I’ll mail 60 of my .402 , 240 grain cast to you

 

[bronko220002]

Joe I believe i would recommend a harder alloy if you're going to shoot a .40 cal in a sabot. Using pure lead may have been the reason Decay was having the sabot staying on the bullet too long which affected his accuracy. A 20:1 mix might work.
If you want to go full bore conical the .45 cal I-bullet from Accurate Molds is hard to beat.
Second best IMO is his 11 mm 340 gr bullet mold paper patched.
Have you tried any I sent you with the rifle?

 

[Shorty]

Joe I believe i would recommend a harder alloy if you're going to shoot a .40 cal in a sabot. Using pure lead may have been the reason Decay was having the sabot staying on the bullet too long which affected his accuracy. A 20:1 mix might work.
If you want to go full bore conical the .45 cal I-bullet from Accurate Molds is hard to beat.
Second best IMO is his 11 mm 340 gr bullet mold paper patched.
Have you tried any I sent you with the rifle?

No Clem i have not. I just bought a new stock that the gorillas from ups broke in half. It will have to be fitted and finished before i can shoot any bullets in it. It was $180.00 for the new old stock hawkins .50 cal stock, with shipping, taxes, and fees it came to $223.20. Now i have to fit and finish it. I only have to say i will not ship a muzzleloader ups anymore as they are very anti-American. Now when a claim needs taken care of they instantly become very Asian oriented, so you will give up on your claim..they make me sick for their values the way they treat the people that feed them….

 

[white eagle]

Joe I believe i would recommend a harder alloy if you're going to shoot a .40 cal in a sabot. Using pure lead may have been the reason Decay was having the sabot staying on the bullet too long which affected his accuracy. A 20:1 mix might work.
If you want to go full bore conical the .45 cal I-bullet from Accurate Molds is hard to beat.
Second best IMO is his 11 mm 340 gr bullet mold paper patched.
Have you tried any I sent you with the rifle?

I wonder if the bullet was melting to the sabot causing it to adhere and remain stuck longer or it might have comperssed into the boolit

 

[bronko220002]

I wonder if the bullet was melting to the sabot causing it to adhere and remain stuck longer or it might have comperssed into the boolit

Highly unlikely. But what is more likely is the pure lead was orbritrating (spelling) and pressing tightly against the base of the sabot petals causing them to hold on longer. That would seem the most logical consideration.