SuperKirby

I certainly am not an expert on shooting conicals, I have been forced by the state of Idaho to do so during ML season. There are some real experts on here that can probably provide you with a much better picture, Cayugad, Underclocked, abd others.

I have chose to shoot primarily Bull Shop conicals because he will size then to your bore and there fore it is not much different than loading a sabot... Really then they become just like loading and shooting sabots. If you buy a conical off the shelf in the store it will most often come tapered - smaller diameter at the bottom getting larger as you go up the projectile. Most often these projectiles are going to require a short stater to get them started down the barrel. Often the store bought conical will already be lubed - but sometimes not.

The conical I shoot is a 460 grain pure lead conical that comes lubed and sized from Bull Shop for my particular bore. No Excuse conicals are also very good but he does not size to individual bores, his are .503 which is probably the most common size and they are lubed...

I choose to place a .125" thick x.510" diameter shot card under the bullet and isolate the bullet from the powder. I choose to do this for a couple of reasons... I shoot 90 grains of T7-3f and the heat that T7 generates could possible melt the bottom of the bullet so the card acts as an insulator. Another reason I believe the card also protects the powder from contamination bythe bullet lube especially on warm days - probably not a real concern, but I might leave a bullet in the barrel for weeks at a time and the gun is in and out of the house. A third thought is as you push the shot card and conical down the shot card does also wipe the bore a bit on the way down.