.54 Cal Grease Groove (520 Grain)

[Idaholewis]

Accurate Molds 54-510M, (These weigh 520 Grains) Pan lubed and sized to .542, I was playing around with bullet fit yesterday in my Green Mountain .54 Cal LRH Barrel (1:28 Twist) i ended up opening a .538 finish sizer die to .542 For my .54 Grease Groove bullets, I just don’t use the .538 anymore (i use a .539 finisher for my .54 PP bullets) I worked slowly opening the die, checking fit frequently, I have These running right on 541.5-.542, I went ahead and loaded the Rifle with 80 Grains of Swiss 2F, Bullet fit is ideal in my opinion, they start good, and hold good and tight all the way down, Alloy is Certified 40:1, I am hoping to try these soon (maybe tomorrow?)
When i had this mold made i decided to enlarge the bands a bit for a Tight fitting Hunting bullet, i went with .543 Bottom 2 bands, .545 3rd band, and .546-.547 Top band, After playing around with my .45 Bullets lubed and sized to .451.5-.452 i was impressed at how they loaded, and shot (THANK YOU for the tip Edmehlig!!) I have decided to run all 3 Calibers of my Grease Groove bullets this way, it is a really slick method! Pan lube them and slide them through the sizer, The end result is a perfectly lubed and sized bullet ready to go. Another neat thing about an oversize bullet like this, is I can always go back and shoot these full diameter if they don’t work to my liking sized, So far i am REALLY impressed with my whole array of .45 GG bullets sized to .451.5-.452 like Ed does. I will likely buy a Lee .501 Sizer for my .50 Cal GG bullets and polish it out to .501.5-.502

Here are the bullets lubed, sized, and ready for testing, Hopefully have a target to Ad to this tomorrow

 

[Harleysboss]

Thors hammer all polished up ready to strike!! I'm guessing that 40-1 lead is just the right compromise between to soft and to hard for these Green Mtn Barrels?

 

[Idaholewis]

Thors hammer all polished up ready to strike!! I'm guessing that 40-1 lead is just the right compromise between to soft and to hard for these Green Mtn Barrels?

I absolutely swear by it in these Muzzleloaders! The pure soft plumbers lead i had been using seemed to shoot ok, but in these Grease Groove bullets it gave up about halfway down the bore and got loose, to loose for my liking! Now sizing them like edmehlig does they hang on a bunch better, which makes absolutely no sense to me?? Take my bullet for 45 Cal as an example, that bullet is .454 bottom 2 bands, .456 3rd band, and .458 top band, With this pure soft plumbers lead they started good n tight (to be expected from the band diameters i just mention) But about halfway down the bore you could feel them get ‘Mooshy’ and by the time i hit the OP Wad they were loose! Now take that same exact bullet, lube it, and run it through a .452 sizer and it hangs on pretty darn good from start to finish?? But pour these exact same bullets from 40:1 Alloy and they Hang on good n tight from start to finish, with ZERO change of feel, And i have proven over n over now that this stuff shoots AWESOME! I will be sticking with this 40:1 in my Muzzleloaders, no more pure lead for me. Plus these pour/fill out better. It is amazing what a little bit of hardness to a bullet does!

 

[Idaholewis]

My results are in, Not the best shooting I’ve done, but for the conditions I am happy with the outcome, shooting over the hood of my Toyota is far less than ideal, there is a lot of flex in the center of my hood where the front bag is (nature of the beast) I have no doubt i can better this by a good measure from my shooting bench. But that isn’t an option right now, and won’t be til spring time, No way i would have been able to see over the Snow burm in front of me if i had been trying to shoot from my bench, plus the ground is solid ice, no way to level and sturdy my bench up, Part of living in North Idaho!

I shot my first shot, ran up and marked it, then started my 5 shot Group, These bullets load like a DREAM at .541.5-.542, i REALLY like the way they load!! I can start them down with my thumb no problem, and they have good steady resistance all the way to the powder. 40:1 Alloy is the Ticket for me, No way on earth these bullets would ever slip off the powder charge, NOT gonna happen! But they are also a pleasure to load

80 Grains of Swiss 2F by Weight Grains

 

[Idaholewis]

Remember me talking about holding my rifle straight up and down and popping a cap off straight through it WITHOUT a patched jag seated at the breech plug? After i shoot, and Swab good, then run my 2-3 dry patches through i cap the rifle and point it straight down and pop it off, The Dry Crud in the Snail/Fire channel is blown out and trickles out onto the ground. NOW with Pyrodex P i would leave my last dry patch seated against the Breech and pop 1-2 caps off against it (Learned From Mr. Idahoron) Pyrodex P leaves a TOTALLY different type of fouling, as Ron describes it in his Field shooting/Cleaning video The fouling from Pyro P is like a Goo/Tar type, by popping 2 caps off against a patched jag it blows that ‘Goo’ onto the patch, therefore when you pull the Rangerod you are removing it attached to the patch. But real Blackpowder is a WHOLE different deal, it leaves a Dry Crusty fouling, if i were to do Ron’s method with my Real Swiss Blackpowder the Dry Crud would not stick to the Patch, i feel it would stay in the Snail/Patented Breech? But by popping 1 Cap straight through the barrel pointed straight down, the Dry Crud trickles out on the Ground. With snow its easy to see, and there is more of it than you might think? I have found that 1 cap is all that is needed, i have popped 2 and 3 but found nothing else came out, It all happens with the 1st Cap. Then start your Reload.

 

[Idaholewis]

I have yet to have a Hangfire with the procedure above, it works flawless for me :yeah: