ron,
took your advise, I did make my pattern a little taller, did not add much to it. and the dark rings are solved, just a little bit lead. going to pick up an another tc breech plug brush, only nylon brush I can find locally, and an 45cal mop (lost mine some where). maybe a lead remover.

I did an little cleaning on them. went to do a few more. ran them, with out lube. found out that way what was going on.

run an test one down the bore of my gun sized at 454, had to use all my weight (200lbs) to get them to start and go down the bore. end up sizing them to 451 and got the presser I like to set my bullets with, somewhere around 25 to 30 lbs. the lands are at 454 from where I slugged the barrel. makes me think I measured wrong.