My conical experience has always been at fairly short range. 75 yards and less. Easy slip fit with top bands that kinda pop in after moderate pressure has been what I have been used to with GPs and Maxiballs in a TC Hawken. The accuracy has been "acceptable" at 75 yards,but never really great like under 2".

My objective on getting the Sidekick was to achieve a load which was comparable to a 50-70 cartridge rifle, which in capable hands, are remarkably accurate with 400+ conicals to ranges I would have never considered in the past. I needed the 1:28 twist. So when one has the barrel to handle the big bullet and 70 grains to 90 grains black powder, its like an old cartridge rifle, except for one thing. The bullets in those rifles were groove diameter so the process of propelling them cut the grooves in the bullet so the bullet is always reliably stabilized.

With a muzzleloader, such a bullet, which were not typically pure lead, would be impractical andmaybe unsafe to load. So muzzleloading bullets have to be under groove diameter for most of there length or the difficulty in loading is unacceptable. As such we depend on obturation to get the kind of grip which would be necessary to sufficiently stabilize the bullet. A slip fit, obviously isn't enough, the bullet must obturate. In this sense, it would seem that the greatest the diameter, which in practice, can be consistently and reliably loaded from the muzzle, would be the best choice.

U. C. can comment on this, but I suspect in working out the sizing of the Bullshop bullets, he was trying to improveon thePower Punch's accuracy and I am convinced that there is an improvement,which, evenifsmall at ranges like 50 yards, could be considerable at ranges of 100 - 200 yards. Bullet instability effects on groupings grow exponentionally with range.

B. S., I think, has done considerable research on the "bore fit" aspect of conicals in muzzleloaders. He has gone as far as building a swage for swaging bullets to the precise dimensions of his barrel, to include its rifling, and as far as modifying his maxiball mold to produce bullets whose top band is groove diameter. From his comments, the results of doing these things are improvements in accuracy. From my experience with the tight fitting GP's, I have to say I think his comments are right on target. I do hope he comments here about it further.

Happy Hunting, Phil