54cal Lee real

[wildmanpaul]

I just cast up a bunch of 380 grn and was wondering if anyone has any tipps on loads.I have allways used hornadys greatplains with great results in my renagade but I would rather cast my own.I did read somewere that many use a wad under em and I am not familar with this and hopefuly someone could expand on it.Thanks Paul

 

[Semisane]

Here's a 5-shot target with 300 grain REALs out of my .54 Great Plains flintlock.

I don't know if you will be able to read my notes on the target, so I'll repeat them here.

The load was 70 grains FFFg GOEX with a wonder wad under the bullet. Target at 50 yards. Shot from a solid bench. Bullets were lubed with my favorite home made mixture (25% beeswax, 25% Crisco, 50% olive oil).

Shot #1 hit off the target about one inch below the lower left hand corner. When I loaded that bullet it slipped into the bore without cutting any of the driving bands. Only the top driving band of the bullet for shot #3 cut into the rifling. On shots #2, 4 and 5 the bullet loaded as it should. The bottom band fit snug to the lands, the middle band was cut by the rifling, and the top band was fully cut by the rifling and filled the grooves.

Just goes to show how important it is to sort your bullets. I wiped the bore with one dry patch between shots, but it wasn't really necessary.

The three good shots hit about 2" below where patched balls group.

 

[BrownBear]

You heard right about the wads, at least in my experience. I used the prelubed ones on this page. You can get them plain and lube them yourself, or you can cut your own.

Wherever you get them, they often make a whale of a difference in accuracy. They sure did in both my 54's.

If you have a powder scale, it's worth weighing some of your new ones. If your mold wasn't really hot along with the lead, you can get a fair bit of wrinkling along the side ridges. They may not look like much, but in my experience they can really affect accuracy when you get them on only one side of the bullet for example.

You probably don't need the scale, except to convince yourself that the sum total of the wrinkles and add up to a fair bit of weight variation. If you simply set a hard standard on visual exams, that will pretty much take care of it too. At that point the only thing the scale really does is help you keep an eye out for voids in the bases.

You can spot most of the voids, but sometimes the sprue cutter can smear across a void and you'll miss it. When casting, if you're careful to pur a decent puddle on top of the sprue plate to serve as a "reservoir" of lead to continue filling the base as the lead hardens, you can just eliminate the scale too. Just by watching the puddle harden I can usually tell when there's a chance of a void.

Do you need to go to all that trouble? Depends on what you're going to do with the bullets. For target shooting, yeah, carry on with the weighing. Otherwise, nah. I usually dumped the worst wrinkles back into the pot, but if the wrinkling was slight, I'd let them live. After everything cooled, I just use the wrinkled ones for plinking and the perfect ones for hunting.

Lubing is a big "it depends" situation. Smearing Wonderlube into the grooves is usually enough, but I've been messing with my own lube. So far it's a tossup which is best, but Wonderlube should give you a fine place to start.

Carrying prelubed conicals is a problem, or should I say a mess, unless you figure out some way of holding them in place and not letting them rattle around.

Loads?

Both my 54'w are happiest with 80 grains of either 3f black or Pyrodex P. Frankly the Pyro P is both more accurate and cleaner burning.

 

[wildmanpaul]

Thanks guys !Brown Bear were those 380 grn? I do have a scale and am kinda anal you should see my reloading bench.By the way I'm in Houston AK where might you be?

 

[cowpoke1955]

I've tried both the 300 and 380 grain Lee REAL in my .54 GPRs with no luck. Now my T/C Hawkens with it's 1 in 48" twist barrel is a different story. It just loves the 380 grain REAL, lubed wonder wads and 80-90 grains of Pyrodex RS. I have read here about melting down some Bore Butter and dipping some chilled REALs in it. The melted Bore Butter will adhere to the chilled REAL. Place them on wax paper and let them set. I then place them in a plastic storage box with a snap top lid.

 

[silverfox]

Brownbear have you tried to carry your conicals in a cigar tube. A couple of tubes should be enough for a short hunting trip. The plastic ones don't rattle or make noise. I use clear tubes and can see what bullets are in them and what shape they are in without haveing to take them out. works great.
Fox :thumbsup:

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I've been casting and shooting .50 REAL slugs w/good results in a 1-48 twist. I use a felt overpowder (made a noticeable difference) wad and 70gr 3F. it is important to have the mold hot for casting best slugs, this makes a big diff.

 

[BrownBear]

Thanks guys !Brown Bear were those 380 grn? I do have a scale and am kinda anal you should see my reloading bench.By the way I'm in Houston AK where might you be?

I've got both the 380 and 300. The 300 almost stabilized in my GPR. At least it gave decent groups at 50, but opened up a lot at 100. The 380 was hopeless at either range. In a 54 cal unmetionable I owned, but shot like crazy. My hunting pard has the GPH with a 1:32 twist (as I recall) and both do well in his.

I'm on the Emerald Isle.

 

[BrownBear]

Brownbear have you tried to carry your conicals in a cigar tube. A couple of tubes should be enough for a short hunting trip. The plastic ones don't rattle or make noise. I use clear tubes and can see what bullets are in them and what shape they are in without haveing to take them out. works great.
Fox :thumbsup:

Great idea! Sounds perfect, and I happen to have some around. Thanks!

 

[BriR]

I shoot the same bullet out of my T/C Hawken, which has the same twist as your Renegade. It shoots 110 grains of Goex FFg or Pyrodex RS really well.

 

[bingo1952]

My Dixie Jaeger with a 1-24 twist really lkes the 380 grain REAL with 90 grains of 2F powder.

 

[buttonbuck]

Renegade 54 cal, 380 real, wonder wad between powder and REAL, 80 grains goex 3f. It groups the same at 30 yards as 530 roundball with 60 gr goex 3f, Use a lube of 2 part deer tallow, 1 part bee wax, 1 part olive oil. Good groups good luck.