Appropriate fit of bullet to bore.

I'm looking for someone with experience shooting lead conicals in muzzleloading double rifles. I have a Lang double in 18 gauge (about .635" across the lands). The barrels' twist rate is about 48-50" suggesting that it would shoot conicals well.

To do this I need to have a mold and bump die made to produce a bullet that will be small enough to load but large enough not to shift in the second barrel when the first barrel is fired.

So, can anyone give me first hand knowledge of bullet/land-diameter tolerances? I would greatly appreciate any data that you can provide.

Thanks,
Brent

Sorry only shoot patched round ball or shot from my 24ga (.577) flinltlock double but ...

You may want to give the folks at Track of the Wolf a call. Their employees are knowlegable and could at least provide a better referal. www.trackofthewolf.com

Might also try calling Dixie gunworks, or www.logcabinshop.com, or muzzleloadersbuilderssupply.com

Good luck

email wayne at
www.customcastbullets.com

I would make a mould along the lines of the Lee REAL type. Make the shank a push fit and the band up near the nose groove diameter. You could make one on a lathe by boring. To make the blocks get a piece of stock of leaded steel, bronze, or aluminum and mill the groove down the bar for the handles. Cut off a couple of chunks the right size fror the blocks. Drill them for the alignment pins. I use 1/4" pins. If you drill the hole all the way through both blocks a little undersized you can ream the other 1/4" for the pin. taper the end of the pin to make it align right. Ajust the pins by drifting them in and out to eliminate slop. Now chuck the blocks in a four jaw chuck and clean them up square. Find your center by using a sharp tip rod between the halves and held in the tailstock. Now for the fun part. Center drill it and open up the cavity, as much as you can, with a twist drill. Then make a little boring bar out of a piece of tool bit stock. Draw out the bullet and bore it using the measurements on the too rest feeds. Work slow and you will come up with a usable mould.

Or, send the dawing of what you want to someone that can make it for you.

Brent,

This sounds like s question for Ross Seyfried.

He isn't writing for Rifle anymore, but perhaps you can reach himn through Elk Song Ranch.

jim

I'd second a chat with Seyfried too, if you can. He still writes for Double Gun Journal BTW. Just a guess on my part but that sounds like a rather sedate twist rate for much of a conical. Almost sounds like a bore rifle, or maybe a Paradox kinda short stumpy bullet to me. Have you slugged or cast the bore? I seem to recall that Lang made a few bore rifles but you know more about that than me.

In lieu of any other input the first thing I'd try is a patched round ball just to see if it regulated with a reasonable charge. It would probably give you a clue at least...

DD and Jim, thanks for the suggestion about talking to Siegfried. I don't know how to reach him but I'll hunt around.

DD, yes the twist is not especially fast, but this is a large diameter as well. A 48" twist in a .635 caliber (18 bore) is effectively faster than a 48" twist in say a .54 caliber. So, it won't take a really long bullet but various bullet length estimation equations produce best guesses in the 0.92-1" range. These would equate to about 500 grs or a bit more depending on shape details.

Yes, I have slugged it. It measures .635 or .637" - I can't recall exactly - across the lands.

I have used patched roundballs quite a bit. They shoot great - with 45 grs of powder. Not exactly humpin' to be sure. They also shoot way below what is indicated on the labled leaf sights which are original to the gun and still aligned with their witness marks.

This will never be a cape buffalo rifle, but I think it will regulate a 500 gr bullet much better, using much more powder, than it does with the roundball. At least that is my hope. The barrels are in wonderful condition so whatever the gun used to do, it can be made to do it again, of that I'm sure. What I'm not so sure about is whether I can figure it out.

Brent

I did some looking and........nothing yet in the .635 range!
Odd size!