I posted in another thread the ordeal I recently had loading a Hornady Great Plains .50 385 gr bullet into my Pedersoli Hawken Hunter with a 1:24 twist. That rifle is advertised as being .500 land-to-land and .510 groove to grove. I've tried to measure it myself but the inside diameter part of my calipers won't go down far enough to give me an accurate reading, so I need a longer tool. In the meantime, I want to get some advice.

So far, I've been shooting sabot rounds with great accuracy. But I want to develope a lead bullet load. The Hornady Great Plains .50 is measuring .510-.511 across the top driving band. No problem. The bore is .510 groove to groove. I literally had to use a solid aluminum ram rod capped by a spent .45 ACP shell and a ball peen hammer to seat that bullet. It fired fine, but I didn't attempt a second. It is simply not a viable hunting load given the effort it take to seat the bullet.

I've been refered to No Excuses bullets. .50 calibers run from .500 to .504. Pedersoli chart recommends a .500 bullet.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

I notice for some of their other front loading .50s, they recommend a .504. So I guess when they are recommending a .500, they mean .500.

I'm wondering if anyone else has run into a situation where they need to use a .500 in a .50? How does it fill the grooves? Did you have to use a felt wad? If I use a soild base bullet, will I need to go up in size?

Just want to know some other perspectives.

Thanks.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
https://vcdl.org/