Well, I tried this new "shake-a-shake" method today, and took it a little off the deep end.
I had a little time to kill, and cut a crude, smooth-side cavity with the intent of running it through my CVA Kodiak Mag inline .50 cal. Why? For giggles... I was curious if it could be done. Then I decided to give the airsoft method of PC'ing them a try,
Well, here is a couple cooled. Not exactly pretty, but considering I went from beginning to cut the cavity to cooling the PC'd bullets in about an hour and a half, I wasn't expecting runway performances. Truth be told, it was cut in a piece of random scrap block I had laying around because I wasn't going to waste good stock and a ton of time on something that I had no idea would even work. They're .503 on the drive band and come in at 275gr. with dead-soft.
Well, then I had to shoot 'em... After all, that WAS the whole idea.
Getting them started took a little bit of a 'pop' with the starter and I slicked the outside with an ultra-thin swirl of bore butter. But once the lands bit, they slid down the bore really smooth and seated over 60gr Pyrodex RS. I wasn't really so much interested in accuracy as I was how they would ride the bore being PC'd with no patch or wad, and only enough bore butter to start them in the muzzle. Two shots from the shoulder at 50 yards hit 1 3/4" apart and 2" low of dead-center with nice round holes. Bonus--the goofy things appear to be accurate, too! But now I'm gonna have to spend some time cutting a real mold instead of winging it with a piece of scrap!
Next came the real quest---how's the bore look? Well, I went in the house, pulled the breech plug, and shoved three dry patches through--no water, no solvent, no nothing. They were crudded just like I would expect with any muzzle-stuffer. Then I glanced down the bore to see how bad it was leaded or smeared...
Granted, my phone isn't much of a camera, and wasn't agreeing with me when I told it to focus down the bore of my inline. But I think it shows clearly enough that there is no leading--bright, shiny bore and nice, crisp lands.
I did a so-so effort at trying to dig the bullets out of my berm and haven't located them yet. On the next run I'll put some effort into recovering a couple. I'm really curious how they look now.
SO, after violating a few smoke-pole rules, I seem to think PC'ing is viable for muzzle loaders under certain applications with great potential!