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Accurate Molds - 1851 Navy & 1860 Army

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ericb

45 Cal.
Joined
Sep 9, 2007
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Hi All - Working with Uberti .36 1851 Navy & .44 1860 Army - any thoughts/comments/experience with the Accurate Mold Cap and Ball Bullet offerings in these Calibers? Have worked so far with the Lee and Eras Gone Molds, and of course Round Ball - looking to extend my Research....

Eric
 
Hi All - Working with Uberti .36 1851 Navy & .44 1860 Army - any thoughts/comments/experience with the Accurate Mold Cap and Ball Bullet offerings in these Calibers? Have worked so far with the Lee and Eras Gone Molds, and of course Round Ball - looking to extend my Research....

Eric

I had Accurate make 5 designs for me, though I only ordered 3 of them. As my guns are for hunting with I wanted a wide meplat, and there wasn’t anything available at the time other than what a fellow who worked with Lee Molds, and he was charging $40 + shipping for 100 and upped it to $50. So I got into casting and ordered my own mold designs.
 
Thanx Rodwha - Am curious - which Designs were yours? I think he has almost every design he ever did in his catalog. How'd they work out?
 
I designed the 38-100B for the Uberti Colt Police which I don’t own yet and did not order, the 45-170C and 195C for my Pietta NMA and ROA (I figured my NMA would have the slow 1:30” twist which it does not), the 45-245C which I have not ordered and intend to modify, and the 45-285C meant for the ROA that can handle the increased pressures. We planned on moving to VA and I figured bears might be on the menu and wanted lots of penetration, though now I think it a bit too much unless I deepened the chambers or bought the ClassicBallistix cylinder.

The 170 and 195 both didn’t fit in the NMA loading window. I had to open it up. They work just as well as a ball in both the NMA and ROA out to 15 yds.
 
First of all those bullets don’t need to be that diameter, especially for a repro with smaller chambers. My NMA now sports .449” chambers after it was reamed and chamfered. It’s not difficult to seat them, but I see it as a waste of lead so one modification will be to reduce the diameter to .453-4”.

I also found that both pistols seem to have a favored powder charge (NMA is 30 grns and the ROA is 35 grns) despite the projectile used. I intend to lengthen the 195 to fill in most of the excess space. It will be a universal bullet for both revolvers so I’ll have it about 1/8” short of being flush with the chamber of the one with the least excess space to give it a little wiggle room if it happened to be slightly overloaded but also because it’s been shown that flush bullets get gas cut.

With the weight increase I will reduce the top band a bit so as to reduce some of the pressure that will be added due to the weight.

Another modification will be to lengthen the seating (lack of a better term) nub to make it sit better when loading. Usually all is well but sometimes they sort of tip a little, and so I’ll also widen it a touch to maybe .447” to still allow for fouling.

I find the small lube groove to be ideal for up to my 7.5” barrel, and I use Gatofeo’s #1 for this. I apply it like a crayon after pouring it into a soap mold and then cutting that into squares. It’s a little messy once it warms up in your fingers so I’ve been saving chapstick tubes and will try that. Might also try pan lubing.

I’ve been debating what to do with the wide meplat. At this point it is .375” which is ~83% of the diameter. This should create a nice sized permanent wound track even at low velocity, but some feel the really wide (over 78%?) meplats tend to destabilize after about 50 yds (I don’t shoot that far, but might if I get the Remington carbine or try paper patching them for a .45 cal rifle) and also that some say they’re known for veering once it smacks an animal. However others disagree with both, and there are plenty of overly wide meplat bullets in modern use so I’m inclined to believe they do just fine, and since expansion can’t be counted on I’d like to make the biggest hole I can.
 
Thanx Rodwa - Very interesting. Gonna look those patterns up, & will follow your progress with interest.

Also Interested in his .36 Patterns - anybody have comments on those?

EB
 
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