I skipped the lubrication of these bullets solely because I was going to use them with Wonder wads, which do contain some kind of lubricant. They are essentially the same wads as we use in cap & ball revolvers over the powder when skipping the use of grease on top of the bullet. So actually I'd been shooting "naked balls" in revolvers for a long time with a Wonder wad under them, and thought "if you can shoot a revolver with a naked ball when using a Wonder Wad, why couldn't you do the same with a conical in a rifle?" I've used those Wonder Wads in .45, .50, .54, and .58 calibers........

Yes, groups were shot in the .50 with a peep rear, but the .45 had an old Weaver J 2.5 scope on it...... I have these two sidelock rifles set up so that I can use a peep or a scope on either of them, and have a regular folding open rear sight on the .45 as well. The .50 doen't have an open sight.