Hunting with Lee r.e.a.l bullets

[rawhide]

Thinking of getting a Lee r.e.a.l. bullet mold for my St. Louis hakken. It 50 cal 27 1/2 inch barrel with 1:48 twist. I want to know if anyone here hunted with a real bullet in 50? What was your powder charge? What did u hunt and at what range? Thinking of getting the Lee 320 grain real bullet mold for hunting elk here in Washington. I used to hunt with a .54 cal CVA hawken with 90 grains of ffg and a 380 grain real bullet only elk I got with one of those was at 60 paces. Most of the elk I seen taken in the area I plan to hunt r 80 yards and under. Would a powder charge of 70-80 grains of ffg and a 320 real do the job?

 

[mechteacher]

I have not hunted with the real bullet. I have a Thompson Center Renegade .54 cal. 1:48 twist s/n 223***. I have made some Lee REAL bullets of 300 gr and tried them powder coated at 50 yard target with 63 gr of 20 year old RS pyrodex. I had a 3 inch group without any cleaning between shots until #25 and I believe that most of it was as good as I was shooting and not the gun / load.
I had tried at 75 yards with 90 gr BP and put three rounds in separate targets within 1 inch of center. Texas downpour stopped me with less than 10 rounds on that outing.
Good Luck

 

[longcruise]

I'm interested in learning more about your experience combining powder coating and black powder.

 

[tenngun]

I shot some when they came out in a green river . 54 with a 1/66 twist. They shot about an inch smaller groups at fifty yards then did tc maxies. No doubt the slow twist. I found them easier to load and while it wouldn’t win ribbons it would have turned Bambi French.
I’ve only hunted with PRB

 

[mechteacher]

I'm interested in learning more about your experience combining powder coating and black powder.

I tried it as I first started powder coat for cast pistol 38 spl, 45 acp, & 9mm, It was used without any lube. Seems to work fine for me. Alot cleaner loading without my waxy lube all over. I have not tried RP coated. The REAL bullets seem to scrap the fouling down the bore when loading, my guess. They shoot well for me.

 

[Rat]

They seem very tolerant of heavy powder charges, in my rifles. Well the .50-70 cartridge did pretty well on buffalo with a 400 grain bullet, so the 320 with 80 to 90 grains should knock just about anything down.

 

[longcruise]

@mechteacher
Thanks for the update.

 

[dsayer]

I've got a 54cal 380gr Lee mold. I could never get the boolit to fit well in my barrel (Investarms 1:48). The REALs were always too small and wouldn't stay on the powder if jostled even a little. They shot pretty well and I'm confident that with paper patching or powder coating I could have made them work, but just wasn't worth the effort since my rifle likes PRBs.