ROA Conicals
happyhuntr:
I have been doing a lot of research myself looking for a hunting bullet for my ROA. From what I have found your choices for store bought are limited.
Firstly you need .456" dia. bullets not .454" dia.. depending on the size of your chambers of your gun the .454 may walk/jump under recoil. Also you should stick to pure lead bullets.
Second by shooting conicals which are typically heavier than round balls you'll probably need a taller front sight to still impact at point of aim as the ROA was designed to only shoot 144 gr round balls.
Available at an ebay store called "cheapshotstore" ebay item number #230224356013 are some 200 gr conicals for the ROA.
Dixie gun works does list the 190 gr conicals from Buffalo Bullets however supply is limited as Buffalo Bullets is no longer producing bullets.
It's to bad you don't want to cast your own as there are lots more bullet choices available to you then via Moulds. With that said I'll also pass on what I have learned from that aspect.
Lee reloading: Makes a 220 gr conical mould #90384 specifically for the ROA.
Ballisiti-cast is now making a replacement Hensley-Gibbs mould for a 165 gr conical P/N# 962.
NEI Handtools makes a 250 gr conical mould #332
Lee reloading is also making a mould for the DD/ROA 210 gr Big Lube Bullet.
So far I have experimented with .45 acp bullets 200 and 225 gr Dropped from the mould at .455" dia. and just the bottom band of the bullet sized to .452" dia.. Accuracy was better in my gun with the heavier bullet and 30 gr of 777 but they walked under recoil. Incidently they were cast of wheel weights. Kind of hard to get them rammed into the chamber.
Since then I purchased the Lee conical mould mentioned above 220 gr double cavity and modified the front cavity by running a 5/16" end mill down there and putting a flat spot on the front of the bullet. Went down .070" to kind of take the shoulder off of the conical. I casted up about 25 of each modified 230 gr and unmodified 220 gr. pure lead. I should have a range report buy the end of the week.
I'll post results and pictures if I can figure out how... LOL