Old style conicals in an inline?

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PapaG

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I have been a traditionalist since getting bit by the bp bug as a kid when I read an exerpt from Ned Robert's book, The Muzzle Loading Caplock Rifle, in one of the first (early 40s) Gun Digests. Still hunt a little with either my flinter I built in '72, a Navy Arms double, or a parts built Renegade. Moulds, I have 'em. A bunch. My question is: Has anyone tried the TC Maxiballs or the REAL conicals from Lee in a newer inline. My nephew has a CVA Optima and wondered how they would work. From many years of experimentation I learned long ago that, with some exceptions, conicals don't do too well in slow twists as round balls don't in fast twists. (An exception to that is my 1 in 66 flinter with Douglas premium barrel put three maxis in two inches at 100 yards using 100 grains ffg).
If anyone has had some success, please advise and I'll cast some up for my nephew to try. Don't get to see him often but could give him some at the next reunion along with suggested loads. We're talking hunting loads. Thanks.
stan
 
They should. It’s certainly worth a try... I’m using bullets designed for an inline rifle in my sidelock so...
 
Maxi-balls worked well in mine. Maxi-hunters did not.
Accuracy really falls off after 125 yards compared to my 300 gr cast bullets in a sabot.
 
I’ve seen that a lot of people have excellent results with the Lee .500 pistol bullet paper patched in fast twists.
 
I used to have inlines and I swapped to caplocks a few years ago. I was shooting a few different .50 bullets, mainly the Buffalo soft lead bullets I bought on clearance when Kmart went out where I grew up. The twist rates were vastly different, and I decided to play with charge weights to see if a load workup would do anything for me. In my online I was shooting 120gr volumetric measurement of pyrodex. In my side lock .50 with slow twist I found a charge it liked at 80gr with the buffalo bullet. I didn’t care for the gun though, so it became a toy to mess with...and it’s now my “buckboard special” with about a 12” barrel.

I did the same thing with the .45 TC Hawken, but I ended up finding a patched roundball load it liked at 70gr. It’s light for a lot of hunting purposes, but a PRB over 70gr is nothing I want to get hit with in thick woods at 50 yards or less. It’s not been to the shopsaw, but I have considered dropping it to about 18” just to shed some weight. It’s awful in the woods. Way too heavy, and too stinking long to swing at a moving deer.
 
I tried the REAL maxi's by Lee in my fast twist barrel with mixed results, tried at 50 yds and accuracy was good, not as good as sabot rounds, but upon cleaning found leading in the bore, which is surprising as all my rifles have lapped bores, after finding that it improved accuracy and made cleaning much easier and seriously reduced leading.
 
I did the same thing with the .45 TC Hawken, but I ended up finding a patched roundball load it liked at 70gr. It’s light for a lot of hunting purposes, but a PRB over 70gr is nothing I want to get hit with in thick woods at 50 yards or less. It’s not been to the shopsaw, but I have considered dropping it to about 18” just to shed some weight. It’s awful in the woods. Way too heavy, and too stinking long to swing at a moving deer.

I sure hope you don't chop the barrel on a 45 caliber TC Hawken. Those are hard to find like it is. Look for a shorter lighter or more common gun to shorten please. All CVA's and Traditions are fair game. I still see some of the Cabelas sold Modern Hawkens with 24" barrels on GB ever once in a while. Even a 50 cal Cabelas Hawken with 28" barrel chopped wouldn't be too bad. And probably be even lighter in weight. And you could build a pistol with the barrel drop off.
 
Well, I've dug around in the basement and found the following for kid to try: Lee REAL, TC Maxiball, TC Maxihunter, TC Cheapshots, along with some Hornady and Powerbelt stuff. Got into my old stash of black and pulled out some DuPont, GOI, Curtiss and Harvey, Elephant, and a few others along with 777 loose and pellet, and Pyrodex in both forms. Should be an interesting day. I better pack a lot of patches and solvent.
 
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I have been a traditionalist since getting bit by the bp bug as a kid when I read an exerpt from Ned Robert's book, The Muzzle Loading Caplock Rifle, in one of the first (early 40s) Gun Digests. Still hunt a little with either my flinter I built in '72, a Navy Arms double, or a parts built Renegade. Moulds, I have 'em. A bunch. My question is: Has anyone tried the TC Maxiballs or the REAL conicals from Lee in a newer inline. My nephew has a CVA Optima and wondered how they would work. From many years of experimentation I learned long ago that, with some exceptions, conicals don't do too well in slow twists as round balls don't in fast twists. (An exception to that is my 1 in 66 flinter with Douglas premium barrel put three maxis in two inches at 100 yards using 100 grains ffg).
If anyone has had some success, please advise and I'll cast some up for my nephew to try. Don't get to see him often but could give him some at the next reunion along with suggested loads. We're talking hunting loads. Thanks.
stan
I have a CVA Buckhorn magnum 50 cal. I use the Lee 250 gr Realbullet. Sense this in a 1 in 28 twist it should prefer a longer bullet however with 80gr 777 and the 250 gr Real I get about 1500 fps and near 1 1/2 group @ 100yd. Fairly light recoil too. Trying the longer 320gr Real is on my to do list as I have that mold also. I lube with Youngcountry bore butter which is slow and messy but have some Lee tumble lube ordered which should let me lube by the bagfull and as the tumble lube dries should be a lot less messy when loading.
 
The Tumble lube is geared for smokeless loads and won't do the job of keeping the fouling soft. I just use Crisco or a lube I made many years ago with toilet wax ring and equal parts of Crisco and Parrafin wax. Worked for me.

Now I would use Bee's Wax instead of the wax ring.
 
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