New to BP cartridge shooting

6

66gt350

Inactive
I've been shooting BP for a while, and now I want to try my hand at a bit of BP cartridge shooting. I believe that I have all of the basics down about loading the cartridge. I've been loading smokeless for about 15 years. And I'll be ordering the Lyman BP dispenser and drop tube later today.

The question I have comes to the bullet. I'll be loading a 45 colt and shooting it out of a Ruger Vaquero, old stlye. I've got a bunch of the 255 gr. dry lubed Bear Creek bullets. The local gunshop says no problems with using these with BP. But all I've read, says that a soft lube like SPG is required.

Can I use these bullets with minimal excess fouling, or prematurely wearing the barrel? Can I use like an Ox-Yoke Wonder Wad below the bullet, or lube the front of the cylinder with crisco or other? Or should I bite the bullet (no pun intended...OK it was intended :D ) and pick up some 200 or 250 gr RNFP bullets with the soft lube and use the dry lube for the smokeless rounds?

I've tried to do some searches here and other site, with not much luck. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Rob
 
I would buy some SPG and lube the outside of the bullet if you are concerned. I have 500 Bearcreek 44 colt loaded with BP and that is what I am going to do...if I ever get another Open Top Colt Clone.

UH...er...Uh I suppose I could pull the bear creek bullets, recover the BP and reload for my 44 Rem. HMMMM. Thanks for the idea. I'll do it.(44 Remington take a .451 dia outside lubed bullet from Old West Molds. the 44 Colt clones use a .431 dia bullet. Anyone want 500 Bear Creek Moly Lubed pulled bullets??
 
66,i use 200 grn RNPL w/30 grn of ffg 777 and fill the space w/wads.i shoot mine out of a ruger as well.the 30 grns is a bit hot too.these are very accurate as well.
 
My experience is limited to black powder in modern 45-70 cases with cast bullets. The bullet lube I used was Lyman stuff for a luber-sizer and wasn't effective with the black powder at all. The fouling became a hard cake in the bore after only a few rounds and accuracy became non-existent. There's not a lot of room in a modern case, 50 grains of FFg was about all that would fit and still seat the bullet at the cannelure, so I gave it up because of the lack of case capacity. There may be new lubes out there now which will work even in the small quantities contained in the lube rings of a bullet but if I were going down that road again, I'd get a 45-90 or 45-110 this time so there would be room in the case for a full powder charge, a card wad over the powder followed by a cake of some beeswax/olive oil lube with the bullet seated over that.
I only know the fouling has to be kept soft to preserve accuracy and the only luck I've had with that has been with a soft lube or one with a very low melting point, liberally applied. Whether the lube rings hold enough lube to accomplish that is a balance between bullet design and lube composition and time on the range to figure it out, I guess. That's why I have so much fun at this whole black powder thing. I know it USED to work for the old-timers so why don't it work for me? Good luck and happy experimenting!
Steve
 
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