I build custom flintlocks and traditionally shoot round balls only. That being said, I did cast up some pure lead Lee REAL bullets and am a milk jug killing fool at 100 yards with my 42” 1-66 swamped .54 caliber Early Virginia rifle with 100 grains of 2F Swiss and mutton tallow for Lube. I shot Great Plains bullets in a .54 caliber plains rifle years ago and in 1-48 it shot them fine. I built a .62 caliber transitional pattern flintlock rifle a few years ago and with round ball, it kills cow elk dead. I am not being over critical… but watch your tendency to lift your head after each shot to see where you hit was over the smoke. I shoot 1000 yard center fire matches and you will see new guys not following through and snap their head up after the shot… it will cost you accuracy because we inherently start moving as we “pull” the trigger. Just a suggestion.
Hornady NEEDS to make the Great Plains bullet for the .54 caliber again , even a short run . I'll take 500rds please that should hold me the rest of my life . My .54 T/C shoots the 425gr in 1-1/2 at 100 yrds with 110gr pyrodex P
Good video. I hear some Clifton Hicks playing in the background. You got a good taste in music. I love all that old time music and old style muzzleloaders.
I have taken deer with the Lee Real bullets and they shoot fine from both my encore and lyman deerstalker. I do put a felt pad between bullet and powder. Idaho Lewis on youtube showed this on his videos and it really made a big difference in my groups.
I've had very good results with the Hornady Great Plains 385 grain lead hollow point bullets in my Traditions Hawken Woodsmen 50 caliber at approximately 75 yards. My rifle has a 1:48 twist rifling and my best results were using Goex ffg 80 grains. My grouping were about 1 in. and that's shooting from the bench with a shooting pillow. I also have shot them in my Thompson Center Impact inline muzzloader with a fast twist rifling and the accuracy was not as good out at around 75 yards. Thanks for another great video, hey, it's been freezing cold here too in my area where I live and shoot. Thanks
Thanks for the information and review. 👍 I'm a patched round ball guy myself. The only long gun ML I have now is a TC .50 cal Hawken kit rifle I got for my father to build in 1980. But he took ill and passed away before he ever started on it. Thus, I built it and browned the barrel and sights. Typical 1:48 bore. But I also have a 1:66 rifled barrel that I use. Browned as well. Naturally, the 1:66 barrel is great for RB shooting. Anyway, thanks for braving the cold to test those high dollar conicals.
No problem brother glade to help. Kind of interesting to think of things like bullet lube and other problems that might come from shooting in the cold. Things that the mountain men would have experienced. 🤔
When hunting with patched round balls in northern MI, I use some stale peanut oil that I have on hand as a winter grade patch lube. Pure Crisco shortening is also a very good winter grade chamber grease for revolvers.
The lee bullets my buddy tried...no gd... I tried in my thompson 50 hawken...barrel 1:48... No gd...tried the lee mini ball bullet Wasnt bad as long as powder charge wasnt steep and blew skirts off... Only bullet we got to shoot were the maxi bullets ..our guns were 50 cals. His was a lyman trade gun...mine a thompson hawken... Now...i just aquired a 54 cal. Percussion cap built fr a kit . 24" rice barrel. L&R Lock and L&R Triggers. Im uncertain of the twist but rifling is very deep. Looking forward to try it
Looking good. Stay warm friends. I am about to head to the woodshed with the wheelbarrow so I feel your pain :) Bless Snapper for helpping with caps; they are indeed worth their weight in gold of late. Locally the Sportsmans Warehouse had a box of #10 CC come in a while back but they had a 2 can limit on purchase. DRAT! and I was by myself that day. Handy to have a wife, kids, neighbor, drunk off the street ANYONE with ya on days like that....
Looks a lot like my Hawken Renegade, except my hammer is on the correct side. Hahaha I haven't tried conical bullets yet. Guess I should keep my eye out for those Hornadays. Thanks for the video.
I use the lee real bullets in my 54cal Early American Jaeger rifle, 1:22 twist with good results. i just need to get more comfortable shooting a flintlock rifle to tighten up the group sizes a bit, about 2 to 3 inch groups 50 meters.
No Excuse bullets 420 grain 50 cal, I have 5, 50 cal muzzleloader. 1 lyman lefty , two thompson renegades two traditions they all like the bullet, load 80 grain 3f
tried the lee real bullet in my 1in 22 twist hawken match barrel kinda ok is at 25 but beyond that just everywhere with a 70 g swiss no 4 load,moved to lee undersize .45 minnie good results in my .451 with 70g of no 4
That twist might be a bit fast for the Lee rounds, what weight did you try? So far the 320 grain was good in my 1:48 Traditions barrel, I recently bought the 250gr version to try too. The 320 was with 60 grains by volume of 2fg 777 powder and CCI #11 cap. At 50 yards I was getting around a 3 inch group, but the plastic sights are garbage and my old eyes are trouble. Changed to a peep rear and iron blade but haven't been back out yet. One thing people say on the forums is that when the REAL are not working, put an oversize lubed felt wad between powder and bullet. Seems like more trouble than finding a different design that works, but a bunch of people use this and claim it went from several inch groups to inch groups all the way out at 100 yards. I also bought the 200 grain REAL in 45, but don't have that rifle in service yet. It was minute of milk jug with round ball about 40 years ago and hasn't been used since. I haven't cast these 45 yet, but it's a Lee mold so I'm sure they will drop fine. I'll probably try to get these cast and get this rifle back into service this week. This is a 1:60 barrel, and Lee suggests they will work at such a slow twist... I guess I'll find out. I doubt your 50 mold is bad, but if you have a PO box or some other way to get you some, I can send both weights of the 50 to you for testing. Can send the 45 too if you have a 45, just not sure when I'll actually sit down to make them. Trying to build a temperature controller for my lead pot, probably won't cast until I have that built and working.
i was useing the 320s might be my mold idk but i have tried without success in a 1 in 28 a 1 in 32 a 1in 48 and a 1 in 60 with no success while the Hornady p.a. conical has actually worked well in all of them
Great video, I have a 1in66 twist which shoots PRB in 2-3 inch groups at 100 from the bench. And a 1in 48 and shoots PA conical at about 3 inches at 100 from the bench. Never tried Great Plains, You should get a powder horn or a flask. Show much easier than pouring from the can.
@11BangBang Isn't that the Investarms Gemmer Hawken or Lymen GPR? I thought that rifle already has a Round Ball 1-60 twist barrel. I was going to buy one last week, but I went with the 50cal Investarms Bridger Hawken instead it's a great rifle. I bought a Lymen 57sml peep sight for it & ordered a pedersoli ghost tang peep sight for the 54cal Gemmer Hawken I plan on buying next month.
I get good accuracy with the NOE 502-572-RF bullet. It's made for the 500 S&W Magnum but will lube and size perfectly in my 50cal inline. I have video of me shooting it. I don't think any store bought bullets will be economical. Invest in a good mold. I will mail you some bullets if you tell me how. Tell me what you're bore is and I can size them correctly.
yes i have about 15 conical molds i have collected over the years for 50s but i couldn't seem to find a mold for this bullet. i just find round balls less trouble unless its the Hornady p.a. conical those things are great
So this bullet has been around every since the early 1980's, and originally was sold as the Lyman great plains. Not sure how or who gave the idea this bullet was designed for the Lyman great plains hunter, because it has been around nearly 40 years. Remember at the time many sidelock muzzleloaders of the time back then was produced with a 1 in 48" twist. Including all Thompson center rifles, lyman trade rifle and even many of the other various Italian, Spanish rifles came with a 1 in 48" twist. A poor choice, because it wasn't a good rate for conical or round ball. Very few production rifles that reignited the muzzleloading trend of the 1970,s came with a 1 in 60 sh" twist. That's why at the time I jump on a CVA big bore mountain kit even though it wasn't historically accurate, it did come with a .54 caliber 1 n 60" twist. Now back to the bullet. This was Lyman's answer to the Thomson center Maxi ball bullet. Another bullet that has been for at least 50 years. It too was supposed to be a bullet designed for the 1 in 48" twist. A poor design of to hard of a lead alloy, with a weird pinkish hue in the core of the bullet. The only thing TC got right at the time was it wasn't prelubed from the factory. The great plains bullet lube has always been a mess. Now as for a 1 in 60 barrel, lyman has made it easy to buy replacement barrels. My flintlock great plains has both a .50, and .54 caliber 1 in 60" twist barrel. The .54 barrel was purchased from the log cabin shop, and I know track of the wolf carries them as well. And lastly I love a great round ball rifle, but I am going to have to slightly disagree with you on this one. Bertha and I have been a many a mile together. She has only been feed round ball and laid across between a pommel and myself many years in grizzly country, but nothing says more that I maybe under gunned the a well hit lung shot on an elk that leaves no blood trail. Today I don't move so very well, and hind sight is 20/20. This is my experiences. I could go on all day with them, but I think you get my point. This is also my inspiration for the WHAT WOULD ASHLEY DO build of .62 caliber combo. It is also why I acquired a pedersoli jaeger flintlock that comes with a 1 in 27" twist shooting a 525 grain bullet, just cause I don't run so pretty well no more. Sorry for the rambling but it's my wheel house. Mountain man
thanks for the info. i got that this bullet was for the lyman from my uncle in the mid 90s as that wasent that much info back then that is probably just what he thought because of the name. he was a bigtime t.c. shooter we have spent a few years trying to collect 1 of every factory produced hawken style rifles or as i call them h.l.o's hawken like objects lol we have 7 different onesnow and i think we are close. as far as conicals go i agree in a 54 or below you need them for possibly moose but i think our investarms 58 with a round ball and 120 grain charge will certainly take anything i will ever run into in ks or Oklahoma haha
@@Real11BangBang there's nothing that puts an old mountain on alert more than a grizzly watching you finish gutting your elk. That year I harvested said elk under the watchful eye of the sow, two days later I harvested a moose less than 300 yards from the elk location. Grizzly Tracks in the drag Mark's of the moose the next morning. I think Everyone who slides into skins should experience
I don't know if they are a better bullet but they just don't shoot good in your gun and some guns a picky like 5hat my T/C Hawken is the opposite the hornady great plains are super tight I mean beat them all the way down and that made it not fun to shoot! Great vid!
I believe that bear is wearing people's clothes ....... lol love ya Garrett. And have you watched garand thumbs vid on 54 cal versus human torso .. it's pretty impressive I'd hate to see what a 69 or up would do
I went and bought a box of no excuse bullets 50 caliber and they're actually 503 and a box of 504 they shoot wonderful out of my 1:48 twist Renegade, I use 80 g of triple f great great groups, should give them a try , and he does in a 542 and a 543 I believe
that real tight fit is a big hinderance to accuracy, & wind in your face is prone to vertical stringing too. an over powder wad wouldn't hurt either. i've never had luck with "tight" fitting bullets.
The Lee bullets failed because your lead casting was incorrect. Your bullet lubing process was absent. You had no gas check between your Lee real bullet and your charge. Each one of these things have a great probability that it's not going to hit your point of aim.....all of them in combination is a recipe for a tumbling bullet.....P.S swabbing between shots (even every few shots) will allow better accuracy and much easier loading. I will also add I cast Lyman .54 cal 450gr Great plains Conicals. At the price of 1$ at the highest end if I were to buy lead for 1$ per LB I'd get 15 Conicals per 1$
i have to disagree with the above stament as i have videos on casting and shooting all kinds of conicals with the exact same lead and process used here and as you have stated i have the best results with the great plains 450s in a 54 cal thompson center renegade with less then a 2" group at 100 yards useing 100 gr loads. since i have put out this video i have spoken to probably over 100 experienced shooters on the subject and it seems to be 50-50 some people have great success while about half get 3 foot groups at 50yards useing the lee real bullets.
@@Real11BangBang real bullets need to be cast from purer lead (unless you have fill out issues with the diameter of the bore) then you want a bit of tin to a 40:1 alloy. Your band edges need to be shared not round. You need to have the proper bullet lube (I find pan lube with a beeswax and high flash point fat works best) Now what's even more important is your gas check preventing the bands from tearing on your rifling. I cast these in 6 different molds with the same results. Are they my go to long range bullets....well no. Have they been consistent within 300 yards(though I only have hunted with them within 225 yards tops)...that they have been .
By seeing you shoot, you are anticipating the trigger pull and you are already pulling back. I don't think it's as much which bullet is being used as much as your shooting.
I will not buy any hornaday day muzzleloader bullets again. They would get stuck in my knight rifle barrel about four inches down when loading hornaday bring my rifle what they didn't know I was only about an hour away from Centerville Iowa when knight rifle was still in business so I took my rifle down I'm had them check it out and the Hornady bullets to and they was oversized Knight rifles gave me a bunch of bullets that work just fine the gunsmith at knight said he would call hornaday to and they still said it was my rifle
Really? No glasses? That took you out of the running for any real credit as a shooter. If you put a tight fitting lubricated felt wad over powder on Lee or any conical bullet it will act as a gas check and improve your accuracy drastically.
well im glad you noticed. I guess jim bridger, davy crockett, daniel boone, wild bill, wyatt earp, alvin york, and elmer keith dont get your credit as shooters. One thing all those guys had in common....no glasses
If your using a inline. Muzzleloader that is 90%of you problem if your using a actual muzzleloader side hammer part of your problem is the rifling might not be cut for a conical bullet might be cut for a round ball a round ball the twist is a slower twist for a conical it's a much faster twist. Try uping your powder charge to
Tell you what! You have my email address send me a shipping address I'll send a sample of rifle bullets I have and tested in the past. Currently I have a shipment of bullets from a new source. The .50 caliber are at 495 and 600 grains. The .54 caliber is 485 grain. Mountain man
