LEE Molds make a aluminum mold in .490 and it is a double mold. Get the two ball mold or you will be standing there all day. If a person were going to make ball for thousands of rounds, you might want a Lyman Steel mold, but for the amount we shoot that LEE is all you need. I have used the same mold for over twenty five years and it still throws a good ball.

If you ever want Minnie ball molds, I have the .50 and .54 caliber and would let them good cheap. As I said, I have shot a lot of them and they are fun to shoot but I never got the accuracy I wanted out of them.

I get my lead from a friend who's a roofer. He gives me the a dozen old roof jacks every two or three months. They are pure soft lead and need to be melted in a batch to burn/skim off the tar and grit. This is an outside job for sure because of the smoke and smell. Well worth the trouble though. I do about twenty at one time and pour the clean lead into ingots for later use.

Thanks for the welcome and thanks everybody for the info.

anybody think a gun repair shop would charge to simply look a gun over?

I use 60 grains 3FFF for a target load in my Lyman Great Plains .50 flinter. 80 for hunting.

50 grains of FFF is more than enough powder for target shooting. Your POI will be a little lower but at the end of the session your shoulder will thank you. Going over 90 grains will just beat you black and blue.