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Best alloy for long bullet

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I'm shooting a percussion underhammer with 1-15 twist in. 38 caliber. Have a custom bullet mold 340 grain.
Any suggestions on bullet alloy for this rifle.
Shoot a 1-55 tin lead alloy for the moment.
Not bad, but could better
 
I had a couple of singleshot 38s 1-16" and 1-15" twist, and used a similar weight bullet 1-25. You might look into what the guys were loading into the early schuetzen breechloaders where they used false muzzles rather than breech seating or fixed ammunition. I'm thinking 40-1.
 
When shooting Black Powder in unmentionable silhouette competitions most of the shooters that I knew were shooting 20-1.
Casts beautiful bullets, NO barrel leading using blow tubes or wiping between shots. Accuracy never dropped over many many shots.
 
I'm shooting a percussion underhammer with 1-15 twist in. 38 caliber. Have a custom bullet mold 340 grain.
Any suggestions on bullet alloy for this rifle.
Shoot a 1-55 tin lead alloy for the moment.
Not bad, but could better
Currently I'm using pure lead bullets and paper strips at just over bore diameter. Just enough tension on the lands to keep the strips in place as the bullet goes down the bore. Grease groove bullets , 40 -1 have often been extremely accurate. But as always only you can determine the proper alloy through experimentation. I have found that when shooting dirty a bore diameter bullet is best, when wiping squeeky clean before each shot a groove diameter alloy bullet is most accurate. There are so many many ways to load bullets. Always a kick in the pants.
 
I'm shooting a percussion underhammer with 1-15 twist in. 38 caliber. Have a custom bullet mold 340 grain.
Any suggestions on bullet alloy for this rifle.
Shoot a 1-55 tin lead alloy for the moment.
Not bad, but could better
Most of the folks who shoot long range cast bullets with black powder use 20-1, 25-1 and even 30-1 . Some complain of nose slump but I don't know that that can be proven from snow our trapped bullets. About the hardest I have heard used is 16-1.
I like a bit of antimony in my bullets and a hardness yield of about 10 Brinnell on C scale. Antimony makes a much stronger bullet but also tends to lead a bore more than tin and lead alloy.
You can only get to about a 8-10 BHN with tin/lead and no antimony if memory serves. With some heat treated tin/lead/antimony alloy mixes you can get over 40 BHN .
Also tin/lead alloys loose their hardness in about a years time if not kept in a freezer. Antimony alloys do not suffer from this fast decline in hardness. I have some bullets that were fifteen years old and were within 2 Bhn numbers of when they were cast.
 
16:1 was the alloy the Army settled on for the 45/70
Being cheep I tried 30:1, got trace leading so I tried 25/1 and finally settled on 20:1
If I recall correctly, the higher the tin content the more shrinkage you get, although very slight.
Oddly enough pert near everyone in my club shoots 20:1 also, which makes it easy: all my range pickups are 20:1
 
I see several references to hard alloys and breech loaders; keep in mind though that breech loaders may be loaded with groove diameter bullets, whereas muzzle loaders are generally bore diameter to aid loading. In the ML the bullet has to ’bump up’ to groove diameter on firing. The inertia of a 530-550 .45 muzzle loaded bullet may enable harder alloys to be used. Your .38 dia. 340 grain bullet may need a softer alloy to ensure expansion to groove diameter depending on the depth of rifling. Let us know how you get on with your chosen alloy.

David
 
That's what I was wondering, for the moment I shoot 1-55 tin / lead alloy and I make consistent groups from 2 inch at 110 yards, was just wondering to in prove it, with maybe a harder or softer alloy. But like you said, bullet has to expand
 
I load breechloaders, breechloading muzzleloaders and muzzleloaders with groove diameter alloy bullets at times. Depends on the setup. The false muzzle allows muzzleloading groove diameter bullets. In a clean bore that is, don't try in with a dirty fouled bore.
 

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