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Lee R.E.A.L. / 54 cal Nu Englander

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tom deinek

40 Cal.
Joined
Sep 14, 2007
Messages
487
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Considering buying a Lee REAL mould. Should I measure my bore somehow (in essence 'slugging' it)to determine if Lee cast bullet will work with my $41 TC beater rifle? Should I just drop the $25, buy the mould & see if it casts a bullet too large in diameter? Have always used Goex & patched rb in my other rifles, as I belonged to the 'mucho hombre' school of muzzlelading. tia
 
Measure the bore. The grooves are normally shallow in any T/C gun. You can look up the standard Rate of Twist for the New Englander .54 caliber guns. Bo to the T/C website. They have all that information listed there, inlcuding recommended loading data. I believe its 1:66, but it may be 1:48.

Either will shoot the bullet you are talking about, PROVIDED that you use some sort of base wad( felt lubed wads work) to seal the gases behind the bullet, and keep the gases from passing up the grooves and melting or cutting the sides of the bullet in the barrel.
 
Perhaps our aware of it but R.E.A.L. stands for Rifling Engraved At Loading.

Basically, these bullets are designed to be larger than the bore (but not the groove) diameter so they don't load easily.

Because they are larger than the bore diameter the rifling grooves cut grooves into the outside of the slug but this can take quite a bit of force to accomplish.

If the outside diameter of the slug is actually bore size they will load easier but they will have to rely on the bullet "bumping up" when it is fired to get it to engage the rifling grooves and be spun up to speed.
 
I shoot the 380 real out of my cva hawken with 90 grains of T7 FFFg shoots spot on at 100 yards. with no base wad. my barrel is 1:48 twist.
 
Man cowpoke that,s the cheapest I have ever seen
a Lee mould.I'm a retired tool & die maker &
I just can't see how Lee makes any money on his
stuff.

I support Lee every chance I can.It,s great to
see made in American stuff that can compete in
this market with all the goverment & EPA stuff
they have to go against.

Not only that Lee makes GOOD stuff!

Fly :thumbsup:
 
Well I kinda sorta agree but my own Lee round ball molds cast 002-005" out of round, haven't measured the REAL. Generally the REAL bullet has the bottom band or two well under bore size so that it starts OK then each band toward the nose is progressively larger so as to fill the grooves.
 
Joe when you hit your ball with your starter you
knock it out of round by doing that.The patch
make up for any deformation.

Fly :v
 
Fly said:
Joe when you hit your ball with your starter you
knock it out of round by doing that.The patch
make up for any deformation.

Fly :v
No sir, you are quite mistaken. With a very tight load the ball starter may at most somewhat distort the front of the ball. That will in no way affect accuracy so long as the distortion is reasonably centered, like the sprue of any cast ball. An "out of round" ball is not consistent in it's side to side dimension. The center of gravity is therefore not coincident with the center of form. Such a ball will wobble in flight, take on a corkscrew path and accuracy is out the window. Most "bag molds" cast out of round even when brand new and only get worse as the hinges wear loose. That a brand new bench mold should cast so far out of round is unacceptable.
I'm not one who slams Lee products, I use quite a few with full satisfaction but I don't include their molds as being among them.
 
Fly,
F&M has the best price on Lee molds I have ever found. I've been buying from F&M for almost 30 years. Before computers, they use to run a small ad in Shotgun News. I've never had any problems with the Lee molds. Finding new Lee molds at these prices is like finding a pot of gold. Just want to spread the wealth :thumbsup:
 
2571 said:
Considering buying a Lee REAL mould. Should I measure my bore somehow (in essence 'slugging' it)to determine if Lee cast bullet will work with my $41 TC beater rifle? Should I just drop the $25, buy the mould & see if it casts a bullet too large in diameter? Have always used Goex & patched rb in my other rifles, as I belonged to the 'mucho hombre' school of muzzlelading. tia

I had a .54 New Englander and finally gave up on it because of the counter bored muzzle (QLA system).

GGGAAAHHHH!!!!! Apologies but I didn't see a smilie for extreme frustration.

The NE never did do good enough with REAL's or anything else. It simply was not reliable. Now it is... something else.
 
I have one T/C barrel with the QLA recess and never had a complaint with it, even though I only shoot patched balls. Some have complained of the ball slipping out of the patch in the QLA recess. The simple and obvious solution to that is to use a thicker patch. With a .490" ball and .024" canvas patch it is snug enough even to permit cutting the patch at the muzzle. I've never gotten the accuracy some people claim from any T/C, and I've owned a few, but the QLA barrel was no worse than others.
 
I also have a QLA in a Renegade that shoots good with prb and all the conicals that I have tried. All but the Maxi hunter. Didn't have a problem loading but didn't group very well. :( Larry Wv
 
I have only one barrel with QLA, interesting enough on one of my two Big Boar 58's. That's been handy for comparisons.

Basically the complaints about cutting at the muzzle with "standard" patch thickness are accurate. Or at least the QLA will quickly tell you the knife is starting to dull a bit. After that the complaints seem kinda funky in my direct experience. No issues, and no loss of accuracy.

In truth I do a high proportion of my shooting with a loading block, and the QLA is a non-issue. Heck, the 58 cal bore is just big enough I can use my little finger as a "short starter" and just shove the ball out of the loading block and below flush in the barrel. Actually darned handy not to be fiddling with a short starter.

This is a whole long ways from the original question about REALs in a NE 54. No sweat whatsoever. They slip right into the bore of my 54 NE and stop at the top band just like they supposed to.

WHAP with the short starter or the side of a knife handle, and they're started and easy to finish seating with the rod. I tried "thumbing" a few past the top band, and I'm just not man enough. No need for a micrometer or a molecule of worry if your NE 54 has a standard bore.
 
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