OK all you 54 cal fans I have some questions. You all know that I've been shooting 50 and 45 cals for years but I have a hankerin for a 54.
I have an old barrel laying around in 50 that I am planning on getting reamed and sleeved to 54 cal and want to shoot big conicals out of it. I can also cast bullets cause I have lots of lead. So you can recommend a mould. I was leaning toward a big 380 gr Lee REAL or 410 gr Minnie.
So my question is: What is a good big conical bullet or bullet/sabot combo and what rate of twist would you recommend for it? (I can get any twist rate I want)

1-28 should be fine with those weights. A 1-24 will handle larger ones better without sacrificing accuracy with the lighter conicals if they are not pushed too fast. My 1-28 has shot 400gr Maxis just fine and will even handle the big Parker conicals within "minute of deer".

Usually shooting a 54cal conical too fast isnt a problem after you get tired of the extra recoil.

Can't help you there Bronko. All of my .54 shooting has been with slow twist rifling and round balls. I'm just guessing here, but I would think something like 1:30 twist with fairly shallow rifling.

The minnie ball ... I would not recommend unless you get the rifle barrel. I have a LEE minnie ball mold in both .50 and .54 I would part with. That is how much I dislike the minnie. Now if you were shooting a military rifle that might be different. The minnie is under sized and so until your rifle is filthy the accuracy for me in a 1-48 twist, never happened. Perhaps a slow twist they would shoot well.

If I were going after a conical shooter it would be a 1-24 twist. And for conicals, I would shoot the maxiball (not the maxi hunter), the Great Plains Conical by Lyman, or a custom slip fit conical might work real well also. If you ever see Lyman Shocker Conicals... run away fast. I have yet to find a rifle that shoots them. Also the Buffalo Bullet is normally a good conical but they are hard to find.

bronko22000

Number one thing to know - I do not know much about conicals!!! What i do know is that Bull Shop Dan makes some of the best conicals you can get and sizes them to most any bore. I believe some of his best bullets come from a mold built by Mountain Molds....

http://mountainmolds.com/home.htm

http://mountainmolds.com/menu.htm

I think one of the better styles is 'MTNEx' style mold.



The one that i shoot here is the .503/460 grain MTNEx. It shoots very well from my 1/48 Renegades and is outstanding from my 1/28 GM - LRH barrels.

I have a couple of 54's that i did try to shoot Some of Dan's 54 conicals out of, but they are 1/48 twist. I really could not get the heavier - therefor longer coniclas to shoot that well from it. So for the 1/48 they will need to be short style I think.

The 1/28 twist will work for the longer heavier lead conicals but I am thinking if I had my choice I would go for the 1/24 twist that Doc White used... one his favorite bullets to shoot was a 600 grain lead concical and the 1/24 handled the length of that bullet just fine. I have shot a lot of Dan's short 400 grain conicals from my White, even the 1/48's, the shot great. The UC short is probably the better all around... for all bores...

Remember - I am not even close to any type of conical shooter...

mike

What is the cost to have a barrel sleeved? i would love to have a dedicated conical shooter. i have a old .54 cal barrel laying around and would like a .50 cal conical shooter with long range sights. Ray

I have a gentleman here in PA that reamed out an old T/C 50 cal Hawken barrel and put in a 50 cal sleeve and rifled it to 1:28. I haven't got a chance to shoot it yet cause everywhere is iced up and deep snow so I can't get to my shooting area.
Anyway, you can't even tell there is a sleeve there as I assume he welded it in place (or silver solder) and reground the muzzle and put a slight crown on it. All I did was cold blue the muzzle and it looks as good as new.
When I asked how much and if he wanted the money up front he told me $150 and he would bill me when he sent the barrel back (trusting soul). Well he had the barrel for about a month and shipped it to me at a cost of $100 + $10 shipping.
Send me a pm and I will give you his name and address and phone number.