Mike, have you measured this conical? Went to Mountainmolds.com and calculated the shortest length of a .504 pure-lead, paper-patched conical(havingpractically no nose.007in.) to be over an inch at 600 grains.The program may be calculating things incorrectly, but I suspect it is probably calculating pretty close to the mark.

Give it a ballistically acceptable nose (with the program), and it is considerably longer than an inch. Longer enough, anyway, there won't be any game wardens agreeing that its approximately one inch long. 500 grains seems to bethe limit for a "functional" .50 cal projectile if it can't be longer than 1". Give it a hollow base, andaround 460 seems to be the limit. But then, 460 or 500 grains are heavyweights to many folks, myself included, at least regarding 50 cal projectiles.

Regards, Phil