Designing the 2-diameter paper patch bullet.

[Distant Thunder]

I had some time this evening to explore the idea of this bullet fitting my C. Sharps 1874 in .45-70. That rifle has about 3/16" freebore and while that was handy when I was shooting GG bullets it hasn't worked out with PP. I have tried straight bore diameter and straight groove diameter PP bullets in this rifle and never got good consistent results. The best, and it wasn't that good, was an NEI bullet that patched to groove diameter, but with a fairly short freebore and a short ogive on that 500 grain bullet I had to seat it so deep in the case that my powder space was very limited. It might have been ok for mid range but not long range because the velocity would have been below 1200 fps.

I have been wanting to try this 2-daimeter idea in this rifle for a while now and just never seem to find the time to get a mold made for myself. When I cast some bullets from Matt's mold last week I immediately thought that it just might have a long enough groove diameter section to leave just enough of the base in the case to allow it to work in my rifle.

Every once in awhile a guy gets lucky! It actually fits almost perfect to my way of thinking. The bore diameter section is a nice snug fit in the muzzle and the groove diameter section is a perfect fit in my Starline Brass. Pushed into the chamber until the groove diameter is tight against the rifling there is just .070" of the bullet in the case. This will be the shallowest seating I've used with PP but should work great.

   

I should be able to get between 83.0 grains and 85.0 grains of 1 1/2 Swiss under this bullet in my .45-70 with no trouble. This will be interesting!

I'll cast up a bunch before I turn the mold over to Matt and he and I can both work with this bullet and then we will have results from two different rifles, his a Pedersoli and mine a C. Sharps. There is always the chance that a rifle won't shoot well with a given bullet whether GG or PP, but I think this bullet has a very good chance of working in both our rifles. Also Matt has a second rifle he wants to try this bullet in and that will tell us even more.

Now I just have to find the time to load some up and see how they shoot before the snow gets so deep here that I have to wear snowshoes to get to my target at 200 meters. We have snow coming tonight so my time may be short!