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Maybe you should let me build you a "Mallard", Jim.

Let's brainstorm combining all of the best features of the Maynard and Ballard.

A project of this magnitude might inspire me to dig out my last billet of Unobtanium, and those rarest of Stock Blanks I brought back from Lower Revoltum.

GTC

Don

And...as usual you guys are freezing ya azzes off and dodging rain and other whatnot!

What in the heck has the guy got wrapped around his ankles?? Looks like plastic baggies!!

Bags of lead shot to prevent blowing away.

If I am able to develop a pure lead 550 gn PP load at 1500 fps and 2" iron sight groups at 100 yds, what am I missing that it wont be a good hunting and target practice load?

Gunner

Quite possibly, you'd be missing nothing.

Again, it depends on your goals and criteria. You said target "practice". It is always a good idea to practice shooting with your hunting rifle under approximated field conditions. OTOH, a hunting load with a soft bullet is unlikely to maintain accuracy at typical competition ranges. Nose slump with soft bullets in part of the problem. You might have seen my post in which I mentioned that serious competitive ranges begin at the outer limits of practical hunting distances. That is the main difference Brent was referring to.

Hunting and informal target shooting are pretty much the same ballgame; serious BPCR competition is something altogether different.

Happy Easter to all!

Paul

Thanks for the clarification Paul, that is what I was missing, I now see, serious BPCR shooting, and hunting loads are a horse of a different color.

On the subject of nose slump, can I not have, or learn to cast my hunting loads 20 or 30 to 1 and still paper patch, and therefore avoid nose slump and still get adequate expansion on game animals?

Gunner

Also, when the charge of BP kicks the PP bullet in the tail on ignition, will it remove enough of the gentle crimp so it wont tear the patch?

Looking at some sort of easy crimp so the bullets wont fall out of the cases of my cartridge belt while on and off horses or mules and walking in the woods and such.

Gunner

Depends on several things, you got to try your ideas and go. 1-20 in my 50 shoots well but just gives a 50 cal hole in antelope and deer. 1-40 in my 45 punched holes in antelope without much evidence of expansion. You gotta keep it in mind though that 45 and 50 cal holes thru the boiler room are nothing to snear at .Magnum Man

Thanks MM, yes, 45 and 50 cals. do cause much leakage .

And safe to say on larger animals like elk, moose, and buffler, expansion and penetration will be present?

Gunner

Basically, that's correct. However, I have no experience with patched BP hunting loads. I'll defer to others on that subject. At least with my shallow-seated PP match loads, the slight crimp is just enough to keep the bullet in the case. They must be handled, and transported, very gently. Wouldn't work for hunting. At a minimum, I'd assume that hunting bullets would need to be seated more deeply, as with original Sharps cartridges. Come to think of it, attempting to duplicate those historic rounds would seem to be a good approach.

Paul

10-4, will do just that , dinner table is 4'X10', Wifey has got me set up with a S/S scalpel and some sort of self healing block to cut my paper patches out on.

Gunner

I have found that the slight flatnose profile that comes with nose pour pp bullets and 30:1 alloy do seem to initiate the bullet to expand quite nicely. I seat 1/4" or a bit deeper. The comp shooters don't seem to use any patch lube but they are mostly in the dry West where it is a mite wetter around here so I use the Rooster Jacket lube. It does a very fair job of protecting the patch and has given me no probs that I can define.

Thanks ET, i want to use the rooster lube as well as an over powder gasket wad, grease cookie, and another two gasket wads over the lube disc.

This is gonna be a fun test in patience and resolve, oh, and dead animals

Gunner

Yep, and having just returned from AZ, I can testify that match shooters there wipe the heck out of their bores between shots, whether shooting paper patched or grease grooved bullets. Not at all pratical for hunting. If you can't chamber a round, or have to extract it, you're going to be needing a rod through the muzzle.

Speaking of hard-to-seat seating rounds, a seater, also called a safety seater, is a good tool to have in your kit.

Paul

It seems that the old buffler hunters' slugs were nose pour TAPERED pp slugs while the oldtime match shooters used straight shanked slugs. Even the old sharps Company described passing tight fitting corks then a wet rag down the bore between shots at matches. Not much has changed actually. I read where buff hunters generally would run a wet patch down the pipe after about 5 shots or so. Fouling would frig up accuracy if they didn't.

Been doing a little re-vestigating on the PP process and it seems a dab of Sprite on the patch adds enough sticky so the patch will roll on well and stay in place while it dries.

Wish they would hurry up with my order so i can begin patching bullets, and stop asking so many ignorant questions.

Gunner

Sprite?? IIRC,Brent uses egg whites. I just use water. I wouldn't want for the sugar in the sprite to actually do a real sticky (as in bond) the patch to the slug. When the water dampened patch dries out, it tends to stay rolled. I leave 'em sit for a few days before I put on the Rooster. Keep in mind that the Rooster Jacket lube is exterior,NOT bullet to patch contact.

Thanks again Jim, duly noted

Gunner

Yeah, keep in mind how the patches turned to confetti when they cleared the muzzle of the rifle. You want the patch to give complete and clean separation from the slug.

Gack! Sprite! Egg whites! No way.

I used to use plain water. Now I use plain nothing. Just roll on dry. Stay away from sticky stuff.

If you think you really must have a patch preservative there are some spray-on art fixatives that can be used (avoid Krylon) but I quit that 12-15 yrs ago.

I haven't used pure lead paper patched bullets in a long time but they do work fine with short nosed bullets. I like flat points most definitely and I cast them as hard as 30:1 sometimes, but 40:1 makes me happier.

I do want expansion. I insist on it. So, here's what the end result is like:

This is a buck antelope shot on from the front left shoulder, exit left belly, DRT. This was closer to head on than quartering. Bullet was 475 grs 40:1 paper patched, .45-70.



This deer was shot using the identical bullet, but this time, dead broadside, shattering both shoulders. Shot was right at 200 yds and a titch using a muzzleloader and 100 grs of Swiss 1.5 fg. This is the exit. This deer ran 150=200 yds flat out like a Kentucky Derby colt. And then piled up. There is a pencil in the exit hole.



Same deer entrance side after the shoulder has been removed.