Tested the Hornady Great Plains bullets today.........

Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Modern Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Modern Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
drpatton said:
I didn't think the Hornady, Great Plains bullets were made or designed for accuracy. My guess is 50 yrd shots on deer.
Click to expand...
A few days ago I had 3 of them touching from 50 yards. 80 grains of 3F black powder. The group opened up substantially at 100. Some of that could have been me. Didn't have the right size target for my old eyes, plus my eye glass prescription is way out of date. Hope to get that corrected soon.
 
Okay guys. Went to the range for a short while this morning. Here's what I came up with.

Before I heading out to the range I weighed out all the Maxi Balls I had just cast a few days ago. They were all within a couple grains of each other and they averaged 365 grains. Most were within .5 to .7 grains.

Next I weighed out 80 grains of 3F BP and put them into small tubes.

I dug out some .50 caliber TC 240 grain bullets with break-away sabots. Those were left over from my late dad so I do not know how old they are. They had what appeared to be wool wads on the aft of them. I removed the wads and stuck them to the bases of the Maxi Balls with a tad of the same lube I lubed the first groove with. The wads did have a somewhat smaller hole in the center of them. There is a small tab that sticks out of the back of the Break-Away sabots. The hole in the wads go over those tabs. So there may have been leakage from the center outward.

Then to the range.

I took a larger target with me this time. It helped but my old eyes are still a bit fuzzy. Between that and the sun coming up directly in my face, the only group I shot was a 5 shot group. 3 were in a 3 inch circle with a couple of fliers off another couple of inches. That concluded my range session for today.

My finding are this.

First off the Maxi Balls I cast from pure lead started nice and easy. So much so that I was concerned about it at first. Didn't really need a ball starter but I used one anyway on all but one shot. So that is a big improvement from what I have been seeing with hard cast.

The 5 shot group was much tighter than with the HGP bullets, as well as the hard cast Maxi Balls. I am satisfied that the old smoke pole is shooting more accurately than I am. If I had to guess, I would think the group was every bit as good as with the 240 XTP's I tried last week, perhaps better. I plan on doing a comparison between the two the next trip to the range.

Lastly, I did a quick clean at the range. When I got home I inspected the rifle closer and cleaned it more. For the first time I got out a bore scope I use for mechanic work and gave that a try. Not the best but it gives somewhat of a picture of what things look like down in a barrel. I was concerned about possible lead build up but I was not able to determine if there is any. I am concerned about this due to shooting pure lead. I have read on here that wool wads will help clean out lead, and I hope that is true. I put in an order for some lubed .54 caliber wads to use in this .50 caliber a little while ago so perhaps I will see an improvement with those.

So, this brings me to this question. Can a person coat conical bullets with something like A-Lox or other popular bullet coating to help reduce lead build up?
 
Last edited:
Fastleo said:
I went through the checkout process and they wanted 23.00 shipping for 10 boxes. I thought that was high so I just gave up on ordering them.
Click to expand...
When you add $23 shipping to 7.37 a box times 10, which equals $96.70 and divide by 10 boxes, you get $9.67 a box. That is still a great price. Divide that by 20 and it's about .48 cents a bullet.

I didn't buy any myself. I stumbled on to this price, but $9.67 a box, which has shipping already added to it, is still a great price.
Their regular price per box was or about $9.67 a box. They just about sold them for their old price and free shipping.
 
Last edited:
ETipp said:
Can a person coat conical bullets with something like A-Lox or other popular bullet coating to help reduce lead build up?
Click to expand...
This is part of my quest. Make a lube for bullets like the the Maxi-Balls or GP Bullets. One has huge grease grooves the other, checkered lead. I read that ALOX is basically Aluminum Oxide. So, how do you suspend it in a grease to apply to bullets?

Maybe try making a paste with it and Crisco or Tallow and apply it to the bullets. Just so you know, Aluminum Oxide is an abrasive. The link I placed below, is for nano-particles, so it would be the least abrasive, if at all. Perhaps you can polish your bore while you shoot.

https://www.amazon.com/Research-150...681337&sprefix=aluminium+oxide+,aps,84&sr=8-6
 
drpatton said:
This is part of my quest. Make a lube for bullets like the the Maxi-Balls or GP Bullets. One has huge grease grooves the other, checkered lead. I read that ALOX is basically Aluminum Oxide. So, how do you suspend it in a grease to apply to bullets?

Maybe try making a paste with it and Crisco or Tallow and apply it to the bullets. Just so you know, Aluminum Oxide is an abrasive. The link I placed below, is for nano-particles, so it would be the least abrasive, if at all. Perhaps you can polish your bore while you shoot.

https://www.amazon.com/Research-150...681337&sprefix=aluminium+oxide+,aps,84&sr=8-6
Click to expand...
The "NRA formula" for alox was supposed to be 50% beeswax and 50% alox. The only thing I could ever find was that alox was a railroad lubricant. Presumably some type of grease. No body in their right mind would put an abrasive in a bullet lube. I have used alox to lube some of my BP CTG. bullets and still use alox to lube the GG bullets I use in my Gibbs. No trace of leading in either. No trace of the dreaded "tar" buildup from using petroleum products in a M/L. Accuracy in my rifles was excellent. X
 
X-ring said:
No body in their right mind would put an abrasive in a bullet lube.
Click to expand...
I agree.
I read two articles on Alox which said it was Aluminum Oxide. Which made sense. Al-Ox. Also, the term Alox has been used for Aluminum Oxide since it was discovered.
Since Aluminum Oxide is an abrasive, I was trying to figure out why it would be used on bullets. My only answer at the time was, nano particles, which may have different properties when suspended in an oil. Or, someone discovered it has a lubricating property when ground in to a powder as fine as flour.
Now, in reflection, either there is a different substance called Alox used by the RR or it's the same substance gound into a flour. My guess is, just as I did, the writers of the articles confused one substance for another.
I have to ask the question, why was a lubricant labeled after a chemical? As I stated before, the term Alox has been used for Aluminum Oxide since it was discovered.
Dan
 
Fastleo said:
I went through the checkout process and they wanted 23.00 shipping for 10 boxes. I thought that was high so I just gave up on ordering them.
Click to expand...
Natchez currently has free shipping for orders over $99.99. So... I just bought 10 boxes of Hornady Great Plains for $7.39 per box, along with a sling and some sling swivels that I needed to push me over $99.99. The cost of the lead alloy in these bullets is about $4 per box, so that's a pretty good deal! I haven't completely decided whether the HGP is the bullet I want to hunt with, but figure that if I end up not using them, at the very least I can melt them down and use them to cast other bullets.
 
Last edited:
ETipp said:
Okay guys. Went to the range for a short while this morning. Here's what I came up with.

Before I heading out to the range I weighed out all the Maxi Balls I had just cast a few days ago. They were all within a couple grains of each other and they averaged 365 grains. Most were within .5 to .7 grains.

Next I weighed out 80 grains of 3F BP and put them into small tubes.

I dug out some .50 caliber TC 240 grain bullets with break-away sabots. Those were left over from my late dad so I do not know how old they are. They had what appeared to be wool wads on the aft of them. I removed the wads and stuck them to the bases of the Maxi Balls with a tad of the same lube I lubed the first groove with. The wads did have a somewhat smaller hole in the center of them. There is a small tab that sticks out of the back of the Break-Away sabots. The hole in the wads go over those tabs. So there may have been leakage from the center outward.

Then to the range.

I took a larger target with me this time. It helped but my old eyes are still a bit fuzzy. Between that and the sun coming up directly in my face, the only group I shot was a 5 shot group. 3 were in a 3 inch circle with a couple of fliers off another couple of inches. That concluded my range session for today.

My finding are this.

First off the Maxi Balls I cast from pure lead started nice and easy. So much so that I was concerned about it at first. Didn't really need a ball starter but I used one anyway on all but one shot. So that is a big improvement from what I have been seeing with hard cast.

The 5 shot group was much tighter than with the HGP bullets, as well as the hard cast Maxi Balls. I am satisfied that the old smoke pole is shooting more accurately than I am. If I had to guess, I would think the group was every bit as good as with the 240 XTP's I tried last week, perhaps better. I plan on doing a comparison between the two the next trip to the range.

Lastly, I did a quick clean at the range. When I got home I inspected the rifle closer and cleaned it more. For the first time I got out a bore scope I use for mechanic work and gave that a try. Not the best but it gives somewhat of a picture of what things look like down in a barrel. I was concerned about possible lead build up but I was not able to determine if there is any. I am concerned about this due to shooting pure lead. I have read on here that wool wads will help clean out lead, and I hope that is true. I put in an order for some lubed .54 caliber wads to use in this .50 caliber a little while ago so perhaps I will see an improvement with those.

So, this brings me to this question. Can a person coat conical bullets with something like A-Lox or other popular bullet coating to help reduce lead build up?
Click to expand...
1st lead only happens with an undersized conical and as cast from mold get (SIZED) by the bore , and if pushed too fast will also lead .My Lyman Plains as cast shoot well in 54 /50 cal to 200 ranged yds using a Dry wad ! Like a paper patch you don't want hitch hikers ,paper or wads . Both are meant to separate from the bullet ,why you use a dry wad ! I actually when finger lubing my conical I use a rag to wipe the base and on paper patching I use a .060 poly wad to compress 82.5 grains into my 45/70 Sharps cartridge (1874) so try as suggested for starters and your targets (will improve)/Ed
 
WP79Vet said:
Natchez currently has free shipping for orders over $99.99. So... I just bought 10 boxes of Hornady Great Plains for $7.39 per box, along with a sling and some sling swivels that I needed to push me over $99.99. The cost of the lead alloy in these bullets is about $4 per box, so that's a pretty good deal! I haven't completely decided whether the HGP is the bullet I want to hunt with, but figure that if I end up not using them, at the very least I can melt them down and use them to cast other bullets.
Click to expand...
That free shipping helps alot
 
I'm new to muzxleloading and appreciate all of the discussions on bullets and charges. I am going to need to do some research on all the abbreviated bullet types so I know what you are discussing.
Deermanok, does Thompson Center still make and sell the maxihunters?
 
Trapper53 said:
I'm new to muzxleloading and appreciate all of the discussions on bullets and charges. I am going to need to do some research on all the abbreviated bullet types so I know what you are discussing.
Deermanok, does Thompson Center still make and sell the maxihunters?
Click to expand...
Here are a couple of abbreviations that I've used:

HGP = Hornady Great Plains, a 385 grain .50 caliber pure lead conical with hollow point and hollow base
H PA = Hornady PA Conical, a 240 grain .50 caliber pure lead conical with a hollow base
 
Trapper53 said:
I'm new to muzxleloading and appreciate all of the discussions on bullets and charges. I am going to need to do some research on all the abbreviated bullet types so I know what you are discussing.
Deermanok, does Thompson Center still make and sell the maxihunters?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if Thompson Center actually makes them or they're contacted out but yes, they are still available.
Muzzle-Loaders.com, Track of the Wolf Muzzleloading are a couple places I can think of where you can find them.
 
Might I suggest using an 8" target on a piece of white poster board. Place it nearer to one edge and use a 6 O'Clock hold rather than covering the target with the front bead. It will give you a more consistent sight picture at 100 yards.
 

Similar threads

W
Range Report: .50 Renegade with sized Hornady Great Plains bullets
2
Replies
34
Views
1K
Bad Karma
Bad Karma
W
Range Report 2.0: .50 Renegade with sized Hornady Great Plains Bullets
Replies
8
Views
567
edmehlig
edmehlig
W
Range Report 3.0: .50 Renegade with Sized Hornady Great Plains Bullets
2
Replies
22
Views
1K
trickyricky
trickyricky
W
Hornady Great Plains Lube, and Prep for Elk Hunting
Replies
5
Views
477
anonymouscowherd
A
Ode1891
Ballistics trajectory and other geometry
2
Replies
37
Views
830
LBAhunter
L

Latest posts

Back
Top