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Repurposing small cal ammo for my Bess

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RandyBishop

32 Cal
Joined
Feb 13, 2021
Messages
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I recently ran out of balls and shot and lead to make them, so I started to improvise with my replica short land bess. Wrapping .357 magnum slugs with tinfoil gave reasonable accuracy out to about 30 yards. I had handful or so of 7.62x54 kicking around that my brother in law gave me when he sold his rifle. I took 3 slugs from their shells and taped them together with duct tape and dropped a drop of flux cored solder in the middle to keep them together, removed the tape and wrapped them with tin foil and put a couple of shotgun pads under it. With a charge of 115 grains of powder and 5 in the pan I aimed it at a block of ice I froze in a 5 gal bucket from about 20 feet away. The block disappeared. Gone. I'm wondering if anyone else has ever done this and if so what kind of accuracy can one expect from such bizarre ammunition. I am aware that it could be dangerous under the wrong circumstances.Thank you for your time. I just joined this forum to post this, I am fairly new to black powder. My father and I bought a replica 1768 bess and a Hawken rifle in .50 a couple years ago. We quit deer hunting with our winchesters because it became too easy, and neither of us wanted to stick a deer with our crossbows or bows, so we bought flinters. Call us soft I suppose. I have enclosed a picture of the slugs before the solder was applied, and also a picture of a wrapped .357 mag. The three 7.62x54 slugs with the tin foil weighs about 500 grains, the .715 balls I shoot are 550. Thanks again, God bless. Stay safe. Think twice, act once. 😉
 

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Britsmoothy I bought a box of 500 tins of cheap russian .177s awhile back I melted them all down for balls. manure I wish I would have kept them now.
 
hanshi Thanks man. I wont use any nails. I read somewhere soldiers used to ram a nail in their musket balls. Seems excessive I don't know if it makes sense. I cast pewter balls though lighter they seemed to work. I ran out of ammo so I am willing to try anything right now. The shops are closed here currently.
 
It cleans the bore quite nicely actually, scrapes the fouling out so it must be abrasive but doesnt appear to hurt the barrel at all

I'm probably bad to ask though I use scouring pads with isopropyl alcohol to clean my bore. I realized that if I swabbed with isopropyl alcohol and let it dry it forms a black oily protective coating I know it is totally not what one is supposed to do but I find it works for me.
 
I was bird hunting several years ago with a 20 gauge and a guy using a 12 gauge close by ran out of ammo. I said all i have is 20 gauge. He said i'll take em.
He ran to his truck got a roll of black electrical tape and proceeds to wrap around the base, trying for fit several times. Then he loaded them singly in his pump gun.

Damned if he didn't kill 2 of the next 4 birds he shot at...I walked away shaking my head at the bubba...
 
I was bird hunting several years ago with a 20 gauge and a guy using a 12 gauge close by ran out of ammo. I said all i have is 20 gauge. He said i'll take em.
He ran to his truck got a roll of black electrical tape and proceeds to wrap around the base, trying for fit several times. Then he loaded them singly in his pump gun.

Damned if he didn't kill 2 of the next 4 birds he shot at...I walked away shaking my head at the bubba...
That is quite dangerous. If he got one lodged in the throat and didnt notice or forgot to clear it!
 
I was bird hunting several years ago with a 20 gauge and a guy using a 12 gauge close by ran out of ammo. I said all i have is 20 gauge. He said i'll take em.
He ran to his truck got a roll of black electrical tape and proceeds to wrap around the base, trying for fit several times. Then he loaded them singly in his pump gun.

Damned if he didn't kill 2 of the next 4 birds he shot at...I walked away shaking my head at the bubba...

Bubba’s are gonna bubba, it’s what they do........
 
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