Lee REALs in a Slow Twist - Bewildering
 

I had a short session Saturday morning with the big gal in the Sinful Sister lineup.



And some home cast Lee REALs.



The mission was to see how well these conicals would shoot in the slow twist round ball barrel. The bullets were lubed with a fairly stiff mixture of Bees Wax, Crisco, and Olive Oil.

I didn't have time for a long session, so started with a stiff load of 95 grains GOEX FFFg. I chose that load because it did so well with Devil's .50 caliber MaxiBalls on Friday evening. I probably should have taken Cayugad's advice and started around 70 grains. But time was short and I was just playing around anyway.

Anyway, here's the first target shot at 50 yards with the 95 grain load.



Pretty poor, but about what I expected. No one would want to hunt with that load.

I decided to try again with the same load and a 1/8" felt wad under the bullet. As you can see, it helped considerably - reducing the group from 7" to 3".



That surprised me after having totally different results with wads under the Maxis. It just goes to show you just never know with muzzleloaders. Each gun is a world of its own.

Well, I was out of FFFg GOEX. But I had a full can of FFg. So I got bold and loaded her up with 115 grains of FFg and a felt wad under the bullet. Here's that target.



WOW! A 2 & 1/2" group with conicals from a slow twist barrel. I really didn't expect that.

Well, there's bold and there's BOLD. Lets try 125 grains.



Are your eyes bugging out? Mine did.

My wife was waiting for me to take her to dinner, and I wanted to clean the gun before I hit the road for the hour+ drive home. But DANGIT, I've got to try at least one target with that load at 100 yards.

Here's what I got.



Now you tell me. How the hell can a load that puts five shots into a half-inch group at 50 yards scatter like a shotgun blast at 100?


.

'Ah think you missed the other 3 shots LOL.

I shoot the 250s in my ten mtn rifle .50cal with 80gr pyrodex rs. 90gr goex 2f shoots better but i prefer to stick with RS since i can get it locally. Lubed Veg wad as well.

oooh yeah ohhh yeah!! 80gr RS, lubed wad, 250 REAL gave me a 1" group at 50 yards just now. Going back out to try those 370 maxiballs with 70gr RS. That 4oz trigger is so freakin sweet.

Ron, that's the first time I've seen the Duke speechless. :s2:

That's just plain crazy! I wold have been stupified too with the results you got at 100 yds. But I would take Cayugad's advice and try a lighter load.

What's the grove depth???

"My wife was waiting for me to take her to dinner"
There is your answer. It was HER fault.:s4::s4:

As near as I can tell nchawkeye, it's about .013.

All I can tell you is when I shoot them out of my Renegade, my standard load is 60-70 grains of powder. Depending on what Renegade I shoot. My friend that shoots a .54 T/C Hawkens shoots 70 grains of Pyrodex RS. I never had much luck with REAL conicals out of slow twist barrels.

I think that could be the problem...Rifling on a true round ball barrel is deeper than what the Lee's like...Barrels with button rifling will be about .006 deep, or shallow...I'm thinking the deeper rifling allows gasses to get by the bullet, causing erratic behavior...

I have seen that happen many times. I have seen tight 100 yard groups fall apart at 150. When I was doing the load development for my 460 gr paper patch bullets I was getting 2" groups at 100 yards. I went to 150 and I didn't even hit paper. I moved my load down from 90 to 80 grains and I was back on track. I shot a couple groups at 200 that were sub 5" and I stayed with that load. Ron

With that twist rate a conical would never have the ability to stabilize properly. Though with enough powder and a distance of only 50 yds., those targets would make sense.

However, when you lengthened the distance the bullets were in such a state of unstability and I am surprised they didn't keyhole. Just my thoughts though.

Don't hunt past 50yds. :biggrin: