Designing the 2-diameter paper patch bullet.

[Distant Thunder]

I'm told a 300 grain .40 caliber will take down rams. I've never gone that light.

I have used the 350 RCBS bullet in my .40-65 successfully on rams and everything else. The only ram I have rung with my .40-65 was with a 420 grain gg bullet back in 2004. I know it will likely happen again someday with my 382 grain ppb, but so far they have all gone down when hit and I am, on average, hitting more rams than I ever did with my .45-70 and gg bullets. I also believe my chicken count will continue to improve with the .40. For me the move (back) to my .40-65 has been a good one. I like to think it is the move to ppb that has helped. It sure hasn't hurt.

There is no doubt that this 2-diameter ppb is the most accurate bullet I have ever loaded in my .40-65. No gg bullet even came close. I owe a lot of thanks to Arnie for first suggesting the 2-diameter idea to me. It will be very interesting to see how this two diameter .45 caliber bullet works out.

The .45 caliber 2-diameter ppb I made for Jeff Heeler, a copy of my .40 caliber, is working pretty well for him. Better than he was doing with any gg bullet he has used lately. This is Jeff's first serious attempt with paper patching and I believe as he learns the ins and outs of shooting pp he will continue to improve his results. The 2-diameter design works well in grease groove chambers with or without freebore. More shooters will be working with them going forward and in time we'll see what works out best for them. The more shooters using ppb the better, they are the superior projectile for BPCR. We just need to relearn some of what the ODG knew so well.

As for wrapping these 2-diameter bullets I don't find it difficult all, but I've been wrapping straight sided bullets for several years. I dry wrap everything these days. I see no advantage in wetting my patches.

I took some of the bullets I case from the first mold I made for this current project and wrapped them with my 9 lb. onion skin paper. I'm sure I'm starting the patch a little different than I would with a single diameter bullet, but I could wrap bullets in my sleep so they just "go on" and that's all I can tell you.
I could show someone how I do it, but I sure couldn't tell you how I do it. It's a lot like riding a bike, you just get on and go. I don't use a patching board, I just use my fingers and start the patch by eye and wrap the patch around nice and tight and without missing a beat fold the end over the base. A that point I like to run the patched bullet through a size die. This doesn't really size the bullet some much as it smooths out the patch to a very uniform diameter bullet to bullet. It also spanks the fold over very nice and flat. This helps make the patch stay on the bullet better while handling them, thought they usually go from the size die to the charged case, to the taper crimp die and then to the ammo box.

All my ppb bullet have a fine line in the mold at the start of the ogive and I use that to align the patch when I start it.

It's all pretty simple really.