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Help picking a 54 conical mold

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Oregononeshot

36 Cal.
Joined
Oct 28, 2017
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Hey guys. Last year I worked up a great round ball load for my 54 GPR. This year I'm interested in trying conicals out of it to see how they shoot. I understand the rifling is designed for round ball, but from my research guys have gotten good accuracy with some conicals with the 1/60 rifling. Sometimes they have to include a overpowder card or wad to get the accuracy, so I'm open to suggestions on those as well. I also read that conicals with hollow bases sometimes provide better accuracy. I'm also curious as to how you guys lubed the conicals, and what you used? Im hoping to narrow the choices down to 1 mold, as I don't want to invest allot of money for something that might not work out. I'm going to be hunting mule deer and elk. What bullet mold and/or wads/cards and lube have you guys used with good accuracy? Thanks for your help guys.
 
You could go with Lee REALs. They are shorter than some conicals so they stabilize easier, especially in slower twist guns. Minies also stabilize better in slower twist rifling because the hollow base moves the center of gravity forward but they also like shallow rifling. I don't shoot conicals often so I just use regular lube and wipe it on with my fingers. A little messy but works in a pinch. Some people are going to get on here and tell you that your 54 will work fine on your chosen game and they will be correct but it's really your choice.
 
Yeah I expect to get some of those responses . My goal is to find a conical that bucks the wind better than my roundball. Where I hunt can get very windy, and I don't want to have to "Kentucky windage" as much or at all if possible. I didn't think the REALS were hollow based, I'll look into them more, thanks
 
Generally speaking, bullets work best in rifles with shallow rifling grooves. Their ability to expand and seal the grooves is pretty limited.

That is why Thompson Center used rifling grooves that are five thousandths of an inch deep in their 1:48" twist barrels on their Hawkens and Renegade rifles. .005 is deep enough to work with a patched ball or with cast or swaged bullets.

Minie' bullets with a thin skirt also like shallow rifling grooves .005 to .006 deep.

That's why the .010 deep grooves used in the Lyman Great Plains Rifle, which are made for shooting patched roundballs often don't work well with bullets by themselves. They often won't seal off the rifling grooves when they are shot.
To get around this problem, many people who shoot bullets in guns withdeep grooves put a fiber wad between the base of the bullet and the powder charge.
Even then, with the slow 1:60 twist in the GPR, the bullets may tumble as they fly downrange.

I'm not saying don't shoot bullets in a GPR but it may take quite a bit of experimentation to find a bullet and powder combination that will give good accuracy.
 
Kind of in the same position, IE looking for a .54 caliber mold but for a different reason.

When I 'kind of' returned to BP shooting in the early 2000's I bought a Euroarms .58 Cal Zouave and started with round balls but then soon after tried the Hornady Great Plains bullets and the results were phenomenal - accuracy was incredible and they shot very flat out to 120 +/- yards.

When I got and restored my .54 Renegade I followed the same pattern and got similar results, maybe even better than with the Zouave. Ragged one hole groups at 50 yards were not uncommon.

Unfortunately Hornady has stopped making these in .54 and .58 and only making them in .50 caliber.

Therefore I am looking for a mold and may have decided on one - the Lee .54 HB 415 grain style. I wanted to equate the weight of the Great Plains bullets at 425 grains and I can with a more expensive Lyman mold but I have used Lee aluminum molds previously with good results and they are considerably less expensive so that may be the route I go. If it works well with the .5 Renegade I'll probably get the same in .58 for the Zouave.

If anyone currently uses one of these molds please give me your opinion!

These were my last two .54s and they went down range on Saturday!
IMG_2286[1].JPG
 
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Hope you find something. I am in the same boat. I will contact Hornady and ask them to bring the .54 Great Plains bullet back. I may try Lee Real but I don't expect much.
If you find something that works, please post it here.
 
Back when I had a 54 I was going to try this mould from Lee.

https://leeprecision.com/mold-533-410-m.html
It is supposed to drop out at .533 if you wrapped it with two wraps of 9# onion skin it will be at .540 Those may or may not go down the barrel it depends on the gun. If they didn't I would probably try a cross patch with the onion skin.
 
If you can get over your hollow-base hangup a Lee R.E.A.L. Mould is only 20 bucks at Midsouth and available in two weights. They have performed great in everything l’ve ever shot them in.
 
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