Lee 54 mold undersized

[rcscott30]

I tried lapping my 54 Lee with some compound my father gave me and after clean up and re-casting, they came out O.K. I would of liked them to come out a little larger but I'm just going to add some tin next and see how that works.

 

[Tenring]

That’s a good idea, it just might reduce in size a little after it cools.

 

[Tenring]

Sorry about that , I meant to say expand a little after adding tin And letting cool.

 

[Old Sparky]

I had that problem with the same mold. Turns out I did not have the mold hot enough. After that they were perfect

 

[rcscott30]

If I use Alox to coat them, do I still need to pan lube the greese grooves?

 

[stikshooter]

If I use Alox to coat them, do I still need to pan lube the greese grooves?

Let me put it this way (couldn't hurt) , I've been known to PC/lube and then Alox . PC adds diameter to a undersized conical and if undersized the other benefit is no leading ! /Ed

 

[gunpa]

I alox my Lee real bullets a second time after they dry. Seems to help.

 

[BP Addict]

My buddy has a Lee .490 mold that throws a .485 ball.

Walt

 

[Pirate's Son]

I bought the Lee .533, 410gr Minnie Ball mold 35 years ago. I already had the .530, 230gr Round Ball mold and had (and still have) great success with it.

But the .533 Minnie never did shoot worth a damn in my T/C .54 Renegade. I think I tried every suggestion promoted in this thread, but never could get it to group.

The closest I came to getting that .533 shoot was when I joined this forum a few years ago. I got 'so-so' groups after learning about under patching on this forum. 'So-so' was a great improvement over '-deleted--bad.'

Last year I purchased a Lee .540, 415gr Minnie Ball mold. Now I can shoot 'not-to-shabby' groups. And a BTW my T/C .54 barrel didn't work with store bought 'real' REAL bullets!

 

[rcscott30]

I bought the Lee .533, 410gr Minnie Ball mold 35 years ago. I already had the .530, 230gr Round Ball mold and had (and still have) great success with it.

But the .533 Minnie never did shoot worth a damn in my T/C .54 Renegade. I think I tried every suggestion promoted in this thread, but never could get it to group.

The closest I came to getting that .533 shoot was when I joined this forum a few years ago. I got 'so-so' groups after learning about under patching on this forum. 'So-so' was a great improvement over '-deleted--bad.'

Last year I purchased a Lee .540, 415gr Minnie Ball mold. Now I can shoot 'not-to-shabby' groups. And a BTW my T/C .54 barrel didn't work with store bought 'real' REAL bullets!

I got the .533 minie and paper patched them to size. Will try them when this southern Oklahoma weather allows me to. No luck with PRB. GPH with fast twist.

 

[Tenring]

If I use Alox to coat them, do I still need to pan lube the greese grooves?

I use Alox mixed with a little Mineral Spirits to thin it out and Johnson Past Wax , roll them around in a jar dump on a paper plate let dry overnight and size in the morning and what’s nice about the mix is nothing is tacky or sticky and does not come off. Been doing this method for a long long time and there is no leading in the barrel to speak of.

 

[William O.]

In my experience from shooting a .50 Investarms fast twist barrel, the Lyman Hunter barrel, is that the Lee REAL bullet was most accurate of all the conicals I tried. My groups improved as the weight went down. The 220 grain Lee REAL pushed by 90 grains of 3f and a lubed fiber wad would tear out the bullseye of the target at 75 yards all day long. Also, every conical I tried got a little more accurate when I added a lubed fiber wad. I've only cast RB bullets so I can't offer any advice in that regard.

 

[rcscott30]

In my experience from shooting a .50 Investarms fast twist barrel, the Lyman Hunter barrel, is that the Lee REAL bullet was most accurate of all the conicals I tried. My groups improved as the weight went down. The 220 grain Lee REAL pushed by 90 grains of 3f and a lubed fiber wad would tear out the bullseye of the target at 75 yards all day long. Also, every conical I tried got a little more accurate when I added a lubed fiber wad. I've only cast RB bullets so I can't offer any advice in that regard.

I have a 54. What powder load would you suggest? I do use lubed over powder wads

 

[Pirate's Son]

I got the .533 minie and paper patched them to size. Will try them when this southern Oklahoma weather allows me to. No luck with PRB. GPH with fast twist.

I've been a certified loon on Black Powder since receiving my T/C .54 Renegade Kit on Christmas Day 1981. From my studies on this forum and experience with a half dozen .54 caliber smoke pole barrels. I've concluded that there is a universal truth.

That truth is that there is no universal truth! .54 caliber Black Powder barrels will always operate in a realm we can't understand. "Anything we can't understand or explain we might as well attribute to Magic."

In my field of engineering there was and probably still is a whole 'heiny load' of Magic. When documenting a reason for problems and/solutions that appear and/or for no apparent reason it was given a code "FM." FM is an acronym for Ephing Magic. You can only have patience and hope that a solution and/or understanding might present itself.

Unless you have a "FM+OBI" code for the incident. There is no hope for "Ephing Magic and it's Operated By an Idiot!"

Curiosity got me to start a couple of decade long project. Over the years I scraped up all of the parts for a second .54 T/C Renegade. Kind of a Frankenloader or a Muzzlestein. I just needed a barrel but they are dear.

I received the impetus to get a barrel for my Frankenloader after a Pawnshop find last summer. A new, in the box, Lyman Great Plains .54 caliber percussion pistol. Way less then two bills. I think the Pawnshop owner just wanted me to leave!

Well this great big, better use two hands, pistol is an 'Any.' As in Any combination of;
.530 RB, .533 MB, .540 MB, 20gr - 80gr of ffg or fffg, Black Powder, Pyrodex or Seven, No. 11 or Musket percussion caps.

Didn't seem to matter, consistent 2 inch groups at twenty five yards. FM, right?

So I took the plunge and found a "deal" on eBay. T/C Renegade .54 barrel with ferrels and ramrod. Listed as "Good Condition." Since it was by far the cheapest price I'd seen in years.

It wasn't hard to figure out this barrels history when it arrived. Some below the intelligence curve schlep wanted to expand their hunting opportunities by participating in a Muzzleloaders only hunt.
They have or aquire a .54 Renegade. Can't hit bowel movement so decided, "I need a scope!" Buys a scope and tactical rail. Smokes some weed and gets the first twelve pack down for planning and layout purposes. After smoking more weed and starting the second twelve pack the execution phase begins.
The next morning project review is done. Self rating is a 'Not Bad' because rail is close to alignment. The 6 false starts for drilling and tapping mounting holes are covered and only 2 breached the barrel wall. There are 4 screws in the rails 4 mounting holes. Only 2 are cross threaded or tapped at an angle and you only remember maybe 2 of the final mounting screws holes penetrating the barrel wall. So, not bad.

Finally you are in the woods getting ready to shoot a deer with YOUR muzzleloader! Your day didn't start out very well. Hungover, late, teased by partners who have "real" muzzleloader's, the inline kind. You woke up soaking wet from rain but you didn't fall out of your tree stand. Positives waves!
Just when you say "Eph it" a Deer wanders by. And you're ready. Scope covers off, couldn't find them, rifle fully cocked, first thing you did when you got to your stand, cap in place. Ready. Aim, in the general direction. Squeeze the trigger, Click, damn! It's that screwy second trigger you couldn't figure out what it does! Hey the deer is still there! Make sure you're on the "Bang" trigger. Ready. Aim, general direction again. Squeeze the trigger, CLICK, damn!

By the time you've cocked your rifle and find a split cap the deer gets bored and wanders away. ******, you toss the POS out of your stand get down and retrieve it. When you get to your rig you toss it in the trunk. Where it sits for 6 months.

When you find the POS looking for a bottle opener it gets relegated to the back of your closet, for the next decade. Until the barrel finds its way to a eBay seller, looking for a chump!

Enter me! He's found his... Customer.

I've got no idea when T/C produced the barrel. It has a 6 digit serial number starting with 21x,xxxx. Compared to my entry rifle which was a T/C kit. It has a 4 digit serial number, K10xx. My 40+ year old barrel is pristine compared to my eBay sucker barrel.

I'm retired military and a Engineer. Depending on your perspective I'm either a "never say never" or a "certifiable idiot" with a touch of "hold my beer and watch this" thrown in. So this corroded, blessed (holed or holy) barrel is my current windmill I'm trying to tilt at. The barrel is winning on the cosmetic side.

I've finally knocked enough corrosion down to determine: yes it has rifling, yes there are burrs inside from the assault by an OBI with a drill, yes I have finally got all the extra "venting" plugged with Silver Solder.

No, I will not reveal how many attempts at applying silver solder it took. I will say that it is an existential experience to touch her off and have your sight picture interrupted by 3 jets of smoke and sparks. Eventually I was able to shoot and have the "normal" loss of my sight picture.

So being satisfied that the smoke was exiting where it should and that I still had most of the parts I was born with I wanted to see if I could hit anything in the area I aimed at. I reached this milestone with very little time left in my winter season in Arizona. I wouldn't be able to play with my Frankenloader during my summer season in Alaska. But I had to know, did I waste too much time and money on a hopeless project? Nine out of ten of my two friends would give it a big ephing yes.

So with only two range days, short days, its friggin hot in Arizona in April! I started the effort to punch holes in targets. My results didn't surprise me with the history I've had with "FM" and "OBI".

The best accuracy, which wasn't shabby, came from 40gr of fffg and the .533 Minnie Ball. This is a preliminary finding, I had hoped to pick up where I left off last spring. Unfortunately a health issue arose that is keeping me from further testing.

When I was discussing what I wanted to do with this winter season my bride, aka Red Headed Devil, indicated that my projected health issues (her projections) might keep me from my Black Powder hobby.

Her view is that I used up most of this seasons BP hobby time !ast season. Her fear is that my BP hobby would have a disastrous affect to my life expectancy. I'm paying attention to her fears!

I hope that her fears abate, I'd really like to ger rid of this ankle monitoring bracelet.

 

[nkbj]

Fine sand makes a dandy abrasive to put in a lapping compound.
Put a piece of cardboard on the garage floor in front of a box fan. Dribble the sand into the wind stream. It sorts itself down the length of the cardboard by size of grit.

 

[TechMoron]

Well...I finally got to fire some of my casted 54 LEE REAL bullets I casted earlier this month, and they shot terrible. I got a digital caliper to measure the bullets and the mold cavity, and to my surprise their undersized my .003! I know that's with in their specs, but not right. What's the best and safest way to lap them out a few thousands of a inch? Internet has too many directions with everyone being the expert. And I should note, I should only need to enlarge the top band.

Over on the castboolits site they do what they call Lee-menting them. put a strip of aluminum foil down the edge of the blocks to add a thousandth or two or three or whatever.

 

[William O.]

I have a 54. What powder load would you suggest? I do use lubed over powder wads.

Firstly, do not go beyond maximum, ever. My load was worked up from 50 grains of 3f Goex and incll