I tried this today, wrapping some teflon tape around a Lee 452-255-RF, loaded 'em up in 45-70 cases over 13.6 grains of Unique, and I was amazed at how well it shot. I only did a test of five rounds from a distance of 30 yards, but 4 of the 5 were in one hole. Wow!!! Report and recoil were quite mild. This could turn into a lot of fun. I didn't do any thing fancy wrapping "em, just wrapped 'em up and loaded 'em. Diameters ran from .457-.465 I didn't lube the bullets either, but will try that in future. What this really makes me want is a .458 mold that drops a 260 grain or so bullet. Anyone know of such a mold????

How many wraps did it take to get mid-range in that diameter, say .459 or .460? Did you stretch the tape as you wrapped it? I have been paper-patching .452 bullets for my 45-70 for some time and if the teflon is self-lubricating, it will simplify my plinking loads.

Sorry, I didn't count, just wrapped. As you note, the tape can be streached, which kinda defeats the purpose of counting wraps to achieve a uniform diameter. Didn't seem to me to matter. The bullets shot very well. I am going to try some more of these, but know that I consider this a plinking and playing project, nothing about serious work. It does make me wonder though about the usefulness of a 260-270 grain mold that is proper to the 45-70 nominal .457-.458 diameter.

There is another discussion going on bullet shape, but it could be fun to have a light weight wad cutter or semi wad cutter for the 45-70.

I use to have a Mark X Mauser in 7x57 Mauser in the Mannlicher model with 20 in. barrel. I use to shoot the Lyman 150 gr Loverin gascheck out of it. I lubed with javenlina and the rifle was scoped and it would shoot consistant 3/4 inch group. Then I started playing around with teflon tape. I taped it up tight and they shot very well. I also experiemented with paper wrapping those same bullets. After I wrapped them and they dried I sprayed them with teflon spray. They shot just as good as the regular lubed bullets. I thought the paper patched ones shot better then the teflon taped ones. The bore stayed pretty damn clean with the paper patch loads. I forgot to mention that I sized the paper patched bullets after patching them because if you don't the bullet, being a normal cast bullet not meant to paper patch, would be too larger to chamber.
Joe

Yes , the teflon can do very good. I have been considering "hogging out" a Lee 6 cavity tumble lube mold to make .458 tumble lube bullets. But I assume that TL bullets would have to be lower velocity than Teflon ones. Lack of enough grease is my guess. Maybe someone will try it and tell us all. here is a chance to have a "small" business. Make an oversize cherry to eat out .452 molds to .458. I know I would ship you a mold to be modified. Dale

Handloader #86 -July Aug 1980 had a three page article on patching cast bullets with Teflon tape. The ran up to 2,690 fps with good accuracy. They wrapped them and sized them. None of them looked to tidy in the pics but the targets were impresive. Neck tension with no crimp was where the tweaking came in to play. Excellent results came with mild friction from the case neck an no distortion or tearing when seating the bullet. JB