fg-

Find a plumbing supply store, they carry ingots of pure lead. We use them to mold flexible decoy anchors.

Where they are tearing down old buildings that have sheet lead roofs, I took my back hoe overan offered tohelp and ask about the lead roof and he told me I could have it all. Lee

Frontier...i get my lead for free..from my dentist...That plastic thing they put in your mouth when they x-ray your teeth has a sheet of lead in it...I just take them apart and melt down for my round balls....

FG, wheelweights make HORRIBLE conicals and you willrue the day you ever tried to shoot one made from such hard alloy. You will want the purest lead you can find and scrounging is absolutely the best, cheapest way to accumulate it. Good suggestions already made for possible sources. Leave the wheelweights for the cartridge boys (or trade them if they have pure - it happens).

I know how that goes with the 8 inch groups.I get some myself. It does seem to me that those Powerbelts will shoot well out of any gun. I don't know what it is. I've never gotten a bad group with them(except for out of the Apex). I won't buy those anymore though. I'm not gonna spend a dollar to shoot once.

I still wonder ifI could find a bullet thatI could shoot 1.5 inch groups with. Maybe I'm not a bad shot all along---it could be that I don't have the right load......

That's the fun of it!

It's 25 degrees today....time for some more plinking for me

Roskoe, before changing powders,would it make sense totry shooting the Keith bullets with 130 grains of Shockley and the Powerbelts with 100 grains? Better yet, shoot the Keiths at 110, 120, 130 and the Powerbelts at 120, 110, 100. Even if you only shoot one round at each charge it sounds like you could learn a lot about what the gun likes. Sure would be nice if you get it figured out at those prices!

The only reason I'm so discouraged with such a limited amount of testing is that I have useda number of other 300 grain .451 bullets (Shockwave, Barnes Expander, Speer Gold Dot) with the same charge and the same sabot - and gotten real good groups. I'm also a little stumped at why this bullet starts so hard. It's almost like there is a crud ring just inside the crown. I have shot this particular rifle more than any other I own - never has done this before with any other bullet. All fingers are pointing at the bullet here. And I'm wondering if it isn't the bevel base of the bullet. Or the overall softness of the lead. They shot great out of a .454 Casull. I tried to go back out the range this afternoon. It is mother of all mud bowls. I'm staying out of there for awhile - until it gets a lot warmer, or a lot colder

Just thought of something. You mention "hard starting" and "softer lead". I'll bet your efforts to start the bullets deformed the nose. You think?

I used a brass short starter witha flat end - to correspond to the flat nose. The place where the it started hard seemed to correspond with the bottom of the sabot petals - ie. base of the bullet.