Original paper patched bullet designs?

[Don McDowell]

Jim I'm at a loss for a good velocity guess, but I'ld say somewhere just north of 1200 fps.
If I remember right Dick Savage was running a 50-70 at one of the gong matches at Alliance, shooting a 550 or lighter bullet and he held his own very well, and those matches go to 1000 yds.
I have often thought a 50-70 would just be pure death on rams, and can you imagine how deep in the berm that thing might bury a chicken? LOL

[Distant Thunder]

Don,

I have shot my .50-70 in a few silhouette matches and many gong matches out to 500 yards. Two years ago I had Steve Brooks cut an elliptical grease groove mold and he did a great job. I shot it at a gong match at 200, 300, 400, & 500, 10 at each so 40 possible and I hit 35. I missed 3 of 5 offhand at 200, screwed up on one at 200 and 300 off sticks, cleaned 400, and cleaned 500. I used the 515141 at 200 & 300 and the Brooks bullet at 400 & 500. The rifle shoots pretty well.

I have not tried the 575 grain Brooks bullet in a silhouette match and probably won't get to it now, but I think that one would handle rams well. I did work for a few years trying to get a paper patched bullet that would do well at the rams. I tried a 520 grain paper patched bullet and that would kill turkeys very well, but I could hardly hit a ram with it.

I went to a 545 grain ppb and that was a little better on the rams. Then I tried a 595 grain ppb and I don't recall that working all that well either. Those last two did well on gongs out 500 yards, but it just seems I can't more than luck into a ram now and then with my .50.

Then late last year I got that .40 caliber ppb working well and I took that to a silhouette match and I don't see any point in looking any further. I put a scope on my .40-65 and got sub MOA out of the little ppb and shot my first ever master class score with it back in May this year. I have never cleaned the rams before with any rifle/bullet/sight, but I cleaned them both days in May. In a few weeks I'll shoot my second silhouette match of the year and I plan to get that 3rd master class score. The .40-65 is working well and I love doing it with ppb!

So now the .50-70 will be a gong match rifle, which is really a good thing 'cause it's so darn much fun to shoot. I just need to come up with a suitable paper patched bullet around 473 grains. I'll draw up a couple more versions and pick the one that I like best. Any of them will shoot well I'm sure. This .50 loves ppb.


DT

[Distant Thunder]

   

This is what I ended up with. Sorry for the not so good picture. The diameter came out perfect at .506" and patches with my Seth Cole 55Y right at .510" so I won't need to size them, but will probably run them through my .510 size die just to smooth things out. The only disappointment is the weight which is a little heavy at 490 grains. The length is 1.055, close to an 1 1/16". I would think that the cupped base in the original bullets reduced the weight some. That and the fact that this is a groove diameter bullet and not a bore diameter would add some weight too.

I only had time to cast 30 bullets, that will be enough to see if it'll shoot. I'm not worried about it because all the paper patched bullets I've tried in this rifle have shot well. I'll eventually test it out 500 yards. I think it will work well for me. This is the lightest ppb I've made in .50 caliber so it will be interesting to see what it can do.

I'll try to get some better pictures once I start loading some of these.

[Don McDowell]

Looks like it should work.

[Stephen Borud]

DT if you decided to hunt with this gun a meplate of .220 to .250 does a fine job of killing although the bullet in the above picture will kill good as well. That is a nice looking bullet. Are you mixing tin with it? If so what is the mix?

SB

[Distant Thunder]

SB,
This first batch was cast from what I had is my pot, a mix of lead, tin, & antimony that gives me about 10-11 BHN, roughly a 16:1 hardness. It is a mix I have used for years in my long range .45 caliber ppb. It shoots very well for me in my .45-70 and .45-90. For gongs with my little .50 it will do well too. Gongs are the primary target for this rifle and bullet. That should be a bunch of fun trying to hit the various shapes and sizes of gongs with these sights. I hope to find out in a couple of weeks.

I thought I had, should I decide to hunt with this rifle and bullet, is that I could easily put a flat on the tip. I have done that with other bullets and it greatly improves performance on game. It would be much easier to put a flat on a hand full of bullets than make another mold.

DT

[Fogman01]

Nice sight on your rifle Jim!!!

[Distant Thunder]

       
Continuing with this .50-70 project today I cut a bunch of patches using the Seth Cole 55Y paper. That paper for these long, narrow patches is a bit of a challenge for me. I'll have to refine that process some.
I have used 2F Goex a lot in this rifle in the past and I'll start there. Using Starline brass 79.0 grains fills the case to the top, so I set up to dump 78.0 grains which will allow seating a .060 wad.
Starting with .125" compression, which I knew would give me just a bit more length than the freebore would accept, I seated the first bullet and tested the OAL in the rifle, it was about .025" to long for easy chambering. I compressed to .150" which gave me a C.O.A.L. of 2.660" and that chambered about perfect.
The patched bullet is snug going into the freebore, such that it stays there if the unfired case is extracted. That's just the way I wanted it.
I'll load some like this and test and get some sight settings. Everything is going pretty smooth so far.

DT

[Distant Thunder]

You know it, Fogman.

[Eric Johanen]

Look's very much like my 50-70 PP load. I use the BACO Jim492500 over 70.0 grains of 1.5 Swiss with a thin card and grease wad column. I've not tried a groove diameter bullet but the bore diameter shoots very well. My OAL is 2.550 and I really should try a longer OAL without the grease wad and wipe between shots. You know what? I think I'll try it Jim.