idahoron

I took both my Hot Rod Renegade .458 and my Hot Rod Hawken .451 out to shoot my new bullets.
First up the .458. I shot the New Pedersoli .446 paper patched first.



I didn't have any luck with it. I was shooting three shots and cleaning. I tried 70, 80, and 90 grains of Pyrodex P. I used wads and no wads. After about 20 rounds I moved on.
Next up were the RCBS 11 MM bullets.



I tried all the same stuff that I did with the first bullet. No luck. Nothing seems to work. SO I tried the Lee 459-405-HB
Still no luck. All of these bullets were wrapped and sized to .451

Time to move on. I got out the Hot Rod Hawken and decided to try the Pedersoli first. These were wrapped and sized to .446 for this barrel.
I used the same methods for loading as before. No luck. I was worried that the 1-30 twist would not be enough for these bullets. They were flying through the paper straight but just not grouping no matter what I did. On to the RCBS.

I cleaned it up and loaded up the rifle with 80 gr of pyrodex P. FIrst up was using wads. I shot one round and looked at it with the spotting scope. I shot another and thought cool. I shot another and I thought FANTASTIC. I shot the fourth and thought not too bad.




Then I decided to only change one thing, the wad. I didn't use wads on this group. Since the 4th shot was a little off I went for a 3 shot group. After this group I was jumping for joy.



I shot it several more times. All were three shots and clean. This load was just,, dependable. I loaded it and took it out to 150 yards. I wanted to see if they were still stable at 150 yards. I adjusted my sight WAG. I shot the first one and it hit at the bottom of the paper. I looked it over and the hole was round. I adjusted the sight again on a WAG and let it fly. Both shots were off hand and on paper. I am impressed with this bullet. After I got done I was heading out and saw a man with a chronograph. I asked him if I could shoot through it. He was interested in the paper patching and liked the big old bullets. I got 1421 FPS with this load. I will have to do some more experimenting with this load. For now I am happy. Ron

Nimrodder

Good shooting Ron! Always enjoy reading about your paper patched bullets.

cayugad

That is real interesting post. I paper patched bullets once. I was shooting minnie ball, and they were too loose so I gave them a double wrap of teflon tape. It helped a little. I tried that with some other bullets and on some it helped some it did not.

idahoron

I have had some success with the lee improved minie in this Hawken. I had to boost the lead hardness a pinch. When I did that I got some good groups. Not quite as good as this 11mm bullet.
When the right combo works life is good. I have never tried the Teflon. Ron

1874sharpsshooter

I never tried Teflon either. my 451 does best with linen paper.

idahoron

I was using 9# onion skin. Cotton paper is starting to get tough to find. Ron