Roskoe

My only thoughts Roskoe, is that the powerbelts are a very soft lead that will easily obturate out to fit the bore. The .50 cal jacketed bullets - I believe the lead is harder and WILL not obturate out enough to grab the riflings equally on all sides OR will not obturate at all just come flying out the barrel on some random course. The worst case senario that I see is if the bullet does obturate un-equally COULD it cause an OBSTRUCTION in the barrel.

If there was a gas check made for the 50 that would engage the riflings for a given distance 360 degrees around the barrel it should certainly work.

The 320 grain lead REAL conical's that I have here slip down my 50 barrels really easy just barely touching the riflings. I have shot a lot of them without any problems - but again I believe they obturate enough to grab the riflings.

Be careful - be wise....

I have thought about this at length. One of my suggestions to the Powerbelt folks when I saw them at the SHOT show was to make a little tougher version - either add some antimony to the lead or to electroplate more copper over the lead core -to make the bullet more resistant to heat and pressure - and allow a heavier charge at the expense of the bullet potentially not obturating sufficiently at lower charges. They seemed uninterested .. . .

I am also considering machining a little dimple in the base of one of these bullets and inserting a Powerbelt skirt. But first I want to see how they will shoot "as is". I am more concerned about the jacketed Hornady bullets than I am with the Gold Dot or Ranierplated lead bullets, in terms of uneven obturation and a potential barrel obstruction. Will let you know tomorrow night how this all worked out. Regards. Roskoe.

Remember to take a good length of strong string.

Well, todays test went pretty well. First shot was done remote - with the rifle in the Caldwell Lead Sled and a pull cord attached to the trigger. Looked OK - musket cap was mangled up about the same as what I normally see with a three Pyrodex pellet sabot load. After that, I fired two shots at a 100 yd. target. Given the wind (25 - 30 mph) and open sights, I was pretty encouraged that the shots were only about 2" apart. Nice round bullet holes through the plywood. Seating was a little firmer after the first fouling shot and appears to, at least in this particular gun, be sufficient to keep the bullet from creeping forward.

I used 120 grains of 2F Triple 7 - reasoning that the heat and pressure from a maximum load of this black powder substitute would have about the best chance of causing sufficient obturation. Recoil was not real bad - for such a heavy load behind a 335 grain bullet. Only had three of these bullets. Am going to pick of box of the 300 grain Gold Dots and do some more extensive testing. This is encouraging . . . . .

Wow...didn't realize that this would have so much interest. Thanks for the imput guys.

Good info Roskoe. Please let us know future results and any problems you might encounter (like copper deposits in bore).

Roskoe,

Bull Shop Dan posted some thoughts on this over at DWBs that might be more applicable to true jacketed bullets. Or may not.

"I read a little on the jacketed bullet stuff. If I were going to try it I would first anneal the entire bullet. I have done this to increase expansion of some of the old thick copper jacket Barns bullets for impact velocities lower than they were intended for. It worked extreamly well though I was trying to get expansion of the opossite end of the bullet. Its very easy to do with a jacketed bullet that has no lead extending past the jacket. I simply stood the bullets up on a wood stove until the cores melted then let them air cool. After that the jackets were very soft. Some of the guys at castboolits do the same thing with thier gas checks to soften them. Again if I were to use a gas check bullet in a ML I would anneal the check also.
BIC/BS"

Before I got hooked really bad by m/l I had got into reloading and thought about .50 bullets for my m/l a lot. Everything in my background says "no it won't work" but if you guys want to experiment with your rifles and post results please do

My problem has been with the gas check and lack of retention at the bottom of the bore. If someone could design a skirt that would seperate like on the powerbelt problem solved. A thin jacketed bullet would be best for sure.

If gas seal proves to be the only problem... you could add an overpowder 1/8" nitro card wad. I use 'em anyway. The wad makes the seal and pushes the bullet. Track of the Wolf has 'em for cheap.

I thought about this annealing thing as well. Expansion characteristics of the annealed bullet are certainly going to be affected. Among the various .50 caliber bullets out there made for the .500 S&W, I was thinking the ones where the thin jacket is electroplated over a lead core would have the best chance of obturating sufficiently to make this work. Regular jacketed, like the Hornady XTP, would be tougher to make it work. Worst of all would probably be the Barnes X 275 gr. handgun bullet.

I'm thinking, at this point, about trying the Jim Shockey Gold in conjunction with the 300 gr.Gold Dot bullet. If I need a fouled bore to retain the bullet securely against the powder charge, I would be the most comfortable leaving the JSG (or APP) powder residue in the bore for a couple of weeks. If this doesn't work, some sort of skirt or attached wad to facilitate retention is going to be necessary.