I am relatively new to hunting with the old smokepole, and have only ever used powerbelt bullets to shoot out of my gun, a Traditions PA Pellet Flintlock. As everyone knows the powerbelts are pretty pricey, but work great, but I am looking for a cheaper alternative. I recently purchased A pack of the 270grain Maxi Ball-et's of the Buffalo Bullet Company and plan on giving them a try. But my question is do I need to use a fiber wad behind them when shooting them or can I just have them right up against the powder since they have a concave base. Iam posting a picture of something very close to what I bought, The only difference seems to be that the ones I bought are hollopoint and the ones in the pic are not. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. By the way what everyone says about muzzleloading is true, it is addicting.

I found with conicals the general rule of thumb is if they are flat based put a wonder wad under them. It creates a better gas seal and you get a better uniform load. If they are hollow or concave as you say, they would not need the wonderwad. Usually when they are hollow in the back, as the charge expells them up the barrel the back end of the conical will engage the rifling.

The hollow point ballets and conicals work real good on deer. If you hit bone you get a massive wound channel. I have shot almost every brand out there on the market. My Renegade with 1-48 twist shot all of them real well. As you state, to save money I began casting my own conicals from the LEE R.E.A.L. molds. I shoot a .54 caliber so I cast a 300 grain and a 380 grain flat based conical. I use a wonderwad. I get real good accuracy out of them and they will take a deer off their feet.

They make nice big holes too.....

Well duh now I feel stupid, I remember hearing the information about the base being concave and the gasses expand the base and engage the rifling, I new the answer to my own question, In fact I saw this information on the history channel just the other night during a "Tales of the Gun episode" talking about bullets and projectiles. Thanks again for reminding of it.

PA Hardwoods I myself do not cast lead bullets but I did find this guy on the web that cast his own ,seems his prices are not bad.
50CAL. R.E.A.L. 320 GRAIN CONICAL $10.00 THAT INCLUDES SHIPPING
that is for 50 rounds (10bin extra hard )
I am sure cayugad can explain that to you better then I undestand it,he does cast his own
BLACK JACK HILL PHONE #352 473 0380
E MAIL [email protected]

He is on vaction I think they will return 15 of JAN.2004