Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Lead conical in a 1-28

I've got a Lyman bullet mold for link here
and a buddy here on the 'fire is interested in buying it but his muzzleloader is a 1-28 twist.
I'm nervous that the rifle's quick twist will strip lead and not give workable accuracy.

Opinions, suggestions please!
I don't want to send him down a blind canyon on this one.

Faster twist is for heavier lead. Usually the 1/28 has shallow groves suitable for lead projectiles. Slower twist like 1/60 would have deeper groves to accommodate a patch. I think this is worth trying.

Thanks Terry, we'll give it a try.

I shoot 385 grain lead conicals with a 1:32 twist and get very good accuracy, wouldnt think 1:28 would be that much different.

Don't know, but suspect that in general, it will work fine as long as not pushed too hard and fast. Best accuracy in typical 1-48 guns is at about +-80 grains or so. Just remember that BH isn't recommended for lead, if that was your intention.

I bought a REAL mold a while back and also invested in a cap ignition setup for my Knight, just for grins. I seem to recall that lots of folks used lead in early Knights and especially Whites to good effect. I have most of a pound of FFG Goex and if it goes well, I'll pick up some Old Eynesford.

Pap: Why is Blackhorn 209 not recommended for lead? Thanks

BH needs a good "cork in the bottle" for proper ignition and burn. Lead conicals don't offer enough resistance. My lone experiment with this was with a Hornady PA Conical. It blooped downrange trailing smoke like a bottle rocket. My wife said it was "pretty".

No doubt it's possible to make it work under some circumstances with some bullets, but you might have trouble getting such a bullet down the barrel. Saboted lead should be fine, I'd think.

Those PA conicals are very light for caliber. Conicals work very well with mild amounts of Blackhorn. Powerbelts load super easy and people shoot them all the time.

Even the guys at shooting matches are tearing up the range shooting loose fitting jacketed bullets without sabots.

The problem is poor breach plug designs. A marginal plug will cause the fail to fire with loose fitting projectiles. Rifles like Omegas and Knights with a bare primer plug will ignite just fine with conicals.

Properly sized conicals, a fiber wad and you are good to go if the breach plug was made right.

As far as the 1-28 goes, just look at White's 50cals. They were 1-24 so a 1-28 is certainly not too fast for conicals. Just dont expect to push a soft lead conical nearly as fast as a sabot. Keep them to around 1300fps and you wont have any problems.

I made some Lee 340 gr 50 cal. lead conicals and they did not shoot very well in My 1/28 Encore. I decided to take my Lee 45/70 Gov. lead bullets and swage them down to .452 and use them in a black sabot. This works a lot better.

I shot 400-490gn conicals in my 1-28 guns (Omega and Renegade with GM LRH barrel) with good precision using 78-87gn of of black.

I think the affirmation is there, the Maxi Ball will be fine in the 28 twist, but best twist for that bullet is around 40-48. So don't try to push it too hard.

Simply anecdotal, but the formulas for determining twist are more based on length then weight (although weight is a function of the overall size)

Anyway, you may want to increase the length of the "total spinning body" by using an over powder wad. This may help on sealing as well and you may be able to bump your charge some.