Cap and ball revolvers and conicals

O

olmontanaboy

New member
I think most cap and ball shooters use round balls in their pistols and I have too in the past, but I'd like to try shooting some conical bullets. I'm thinking of getting a Lee conical mold in .456, designated for the Ruger OA. I plan on sizeing it down in a bullet sizer lubricator, with pure beeswax to fill the grooves in the bullet, I'm thinking that would seal the chamber and eliminate the need for wonder wads or chamber grease. Anyone here use conicals in their C+B revolvers? What do you think of Lee aluminum molds? The pistols I'd like to shoot these in would be a Uberti Walker, Pietta 1860 army and a Pietta 1873 cap and ball.
 
I shoot Lee mold slugs in my '58 Rem and ROA. you shouldn't need to run them through a sizer since the chamber shaves them to size. lubeing is a good idea though. I've had good results with them and I use a felt atop powder also.
 
I have a mold for .45 TC Maxie Balls, 220 grains and I have shot them out of a Old Army. I lube the grooves with Bore Butter and then wrap them with Saran Wrap twisted on both ends so I can carry them in my pocket. Accuracy was about the same as round balls but these long bullets only leave enough room for about 25 gr of powder resulting in low muzzle velocities. Due to the higher velocities, round balls actually seemed to be more effective in quickly killing small varmints. Those heavy slow slugs do penetrate but there is so little shock that you may as well have impaled the critter with a target arrow.

Lee R.E.A.L. bullets work quite well and are shorter, allowing a larger powder charge and more velocity.

I have had excellent luck with Lee molds.

Because of the longer barrel time, the point of impact of a heavy bullet will be significantly higher than a round ball.
 
I use the 220gr. .456 Lee Conical bullet in my Pietta NMA revolver with great results, 30gr. FFFG Goex & one of these conicals through my 5.5" barrel produces 718 fps. & 250 ft. lbs. pretty decent punch & the accuracy is on par with what I normally get with .457 ball.
 
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