Lee REAL black powder bullets?

[Greg_E]

Anyone using any of the Lee REAL black powder bullets in their big bores? I have a 3xx grain mold coming for a new rifle (that's also coming) and a sizing die to hopefully be the right diameter, just wondering if anyone else is using them or tried them?

Any other 50 cal (.510 or slightly larger) I should look at? I am also tracking some 50-70 molds that are 450 and 5xx grains, not sure I want/need that heavy, I'll probably buy some ammo that weight and see how they perform (need to weigh cost of box of ammo vs cost of mold, might be the same to try casting heavier).

[maraudinglizard]

Casting will save you a lot of money in the long run. Accurate Molds has lots of designs to choose from. Anything with air gun under the picture will be the ones to look at. I am using the 51-350A mold, single cavity, aluminum block. You can specify the body size when building the mold.

https://accuratemolds.com/catalog.php?page=26#catalog-anchor

[Greg_E]

Got it yesterday, but still no rifle to use it in so no casting yet. First one that has a lot of oil all over it, wondering if it was used. Cavities look fine and sprue plate looks fine.

Guessing that no one has used these yet, 45 or 50cal owners are probably much fewer than even 357.

[Pellethuntr]

I have a .50 REAL mold but I have never used it for airguns. Are you planning to use them in an AEA .50?

If so I am very interested in how it shoot. I was considering doing the same thing if I end up getting a .50 instead of a .45 as I am undecided right now.

[maraudinglizard]

The reason I don't use the real bullet, it's a tapered slug made to go down a muzzleloader barrel easier. The driving bands are different sizes.  The base band is .502, the other bands .507,  .512, .517. Even after sizing you still have some tapering. I have shot the .45 cal style bullet with my SY 909 and they went everywhere. I went with accurate molds and no more shot scatter.

[Greg_E]

Sizing to .510 should be fine, three bands and a bore riding fourth is my guess.

Not in an AEA, I believe all AEA are .495 (50cal) and .457 (45cal), you'd need to size down to .495 with another die and that's a lot of squeeze. I would not really recommend this (yet) to anyone that needed .495, need to cast and measure some and see what the real diameter would be.

And since I still haven't got shipping info on the new gun, we'll see if this even gets used. Might turn up in the classified real soon.

[Greg_E]

The rifle is here, so I better cast some stuff soon. 10 freedom degrees out their right now with a cor at of similar all week. Need to go to the club and help fix the target rails in the indoor pistol range at the end of the month. Some idiot has been shooting them so 4 out of 8 lanes are down.

[Greg_E]

Think Indeed to turn up the temperature a bit, everything cone out a little under size, tossed about half of them back in the pot for another try. But got a few I'm going to powder coat and run through sizing again .

Also tossed 100 357 back in the pot, I must have run them through sizing slightly off angle, the bevel tails got wiped out for almost all of them. Again have to try again.

REAL pictured with the monster Umarex 550 grain rounds, these were all the cast rounds that were within -2 grains, the lighter ones were rejected.

[Pellethuntr]

Can't wait to see how they perform

[Greg_E]

I should probably mention that I'm also waiting for a Lee 50-70 in 450 grain mold to arrive, this might fit the rifle better. I'm concerned about the taper as mentioned above. Going by the design specs I should have had more rings to locate this round in the magazine, and right now with them being a little under size, I only have a single ring at the .510 from sizing. Hoping the powder coat will pick up enough slack to make these work. If not I need to find another light weight design that has straight sides, probably something from Accurate Molds because they have a bunch of designs and weights. Just not as cheap as a Lee mold, and 8 weeks out from time of order.

Links to LEE molds:

https://leeprecision.com/mold-d-c-50cal-320.html Bands .517, .512, .507 (with powder coat close to .510), and .502 for a slight boat tail effect

https://leeprecision.com/mold-dc-515-450f.html

Ultimately I have a feeling the 50-70 round is going to be more accurate, but I want something similar in around 350 grains.

I should also mention that if trying the REAL in an AEA gun, you need to size down to .495, you will definitely crush them enough for all 4 bands to be at the .495 and it should be a decent round. Lee does sell a .495 die, one of the small "cartridge" style for like $16 and something I'll probably pick up just to have on hand in case I want to send any ammo to someone with a Seneca or AEA and need .495. I would not try squeezing the 50-70 down to this size in one go! I'd start at .510, then .502, then .495 and it may wreck the flight characteristics going that small. Again Accurate Molds has a bunch of .495 designs that should work fine (but not cheap).

[Blacktalon6]

I have a 340 grain .457 one I use for my  Texan. I just pore and shoot no sizing. I can hit a 3" circle standing just about every time at 35 yards. I am happy with that for playing in the backyard. I hand pick the better ones for hunting.

[Greg_E]

Thanks, that gives me a bit more hope.

I did another run with higher temp. and got better consistency, weight swings from 319 to 321 grains. What didn't really change was the size, and I bet they have incorrect info on the website. Very common was .512, .508, .504, .495 which is really what most black powder 50 cal are going to need. Going to still powder coat and size again to see where I'm at, and chuck at least a few down range.

At Umarex SLA prices, I have $100 worth of the 320gr sitting here.

[Greg_E]

After powder coat I think this is going to be a poor performer. I still only have the first ring at .510, the second is close. Third and fourth will not be providing any stability until they get in the rifling, and then it may be too late. I'm expecting the round to go in slightly angled and mess with accuracy. I'll fling a few, but I'm expecting to thrown most of them back in the melt. I may try to polish one cavity to increase the diameter of the rings, haven't really decided yet.

[rkr]

It would be relatively easy to make the last drive band a bit larger in diameter and that should be enough to make them bullets go in straight. You could use conical drill bit or lathe or drillbit that matches the size you want.

[Greg_E]

Yeah, I've been thinking about scraping out the last drive band, it doesn't have that far to go and it doesn't need to be perfect since I'm going to send it through a sizing die. If I only scrape one cavity, I can still use the other if I buy a muzzle loader in the same size (which is fairly likely to happen). And this mold is cheap enough when you can find them that I shouldn't be too concerned.

[Pellethuntr]

Yeah, I've been thinking about scraping out the last drive band, it doesn't have that far to go and it doesn't need to be perfect since I'm going to send it through a sizing die. If I only scrape one cavity, I can still use the other if I buy a muzzle loader in the same size (which is fairly likely to happen). And this mold is cheap enough when you can find them that I shouldn't be too concerned.

I can probably put that mold block in the lathe and open that groove up for you Greg

[Greg_E]

I found some posts on some muzzle loader forums about this REAL design, and they said it mostly doesn't work, or worst bullet they have ever used. One person suggested that maybe the 1:48 twist might be the issue and it wanted a faster twist. That might push me to mod one cavity and see what it will do.

I'll probably just take a rotary tool and buzz out a couple of groves with some kind of polishing bit, 0.0075 on each side is not very much material to remove.