Bullet recommendation for .45 rifle

[JiriK]

I bought a muzzleloading rifle for Vetterli and Whitworth.
Gun is propably made by Intermarco, but mfg name is not mentioned anywhere. Frame of striker assembly says "Creedmoor Match"

Rifle has 750mm long barrel with 6 riflings.
Diameters: 11,41mm (.4492) and 11.65mm (.4587)
Pitch of rifling is approx. 1:29"

I shot 84p in my first competition with this rifle using patch & round ball, as those are the only projectiles I have.
I tested different round ball loads using sandbags, but best groups were 38p at 50m (4 shots) Not bad, but not good enough.

What type of bullet you recommend me to try? Lee .450/294gr minie?
Do you have experience with Lee REAL bullets? Are they good with this type barrel?

[tacfoley]

With such a fast twist rifling, your rifle, just like the original, was made to shoot a long bullet. THE definitive bullet for your rifle is the .451" calibre Lyman 450gr cylindro-conoidal multi-groove bullet, made with pure soft lead, and your own bullet lubricant - do NOT use Lee Alox. For your kind of climate, I recommend a 80/20 mix of Beeswax and Neat's Foot Oil - if you can get it in Finland. If not, please PM me and I'l send you some.

This rifle is NOT designed to shoot either a Minié OR a R.E.A.L design bullet, only the bullet I mentioned above.

Your load should be between 80 and 90gr of FFg or the Swiss BP equivalent. You will also find that the nipples will burn out very quickly, and a sign of this is shooting and the hammer blows back.

Always wear safety glasses!!!

Hints & tips - -

1. Fire off two or three caps to clear the nipple.

2. Dry clean the bore.

3. Using a drop tube, load the powder charge directly into the breech and tap the butt to settle it against the flash-hole.

4. Make some cardboard wads out of the shiny-sided cardboard that you get when you buy a new shirt - it is used to make the collar stiff. You can make a cutter from a .45 Long Colt cartridge case.

5. With the shiny side up, place it in the muzzle and put the bullet on top, and load in one easy movement down on to the powder charge. It is important to compress the charge with 18kg of down-force - to begin I used to use a set of bathroom scale to get it right, but after many shots you can judge it for yourself.

6. Clean the barrel once more to make sure that all the lubricant from the bullet passing down it has been removed.

7. Cap and fire.

8. Do it all over again for every shot.

tac
Whitworth #888

[JiriK]

Tac, thanks for very detailed response.

Seems no one here in Finland has any 45cal bullet casting molds for sale.
Guy who sold me this rifle said he has a mold for some long bullet, but he didn´t want to give it to me with the rifle. Will try to contact him.

Lyman molds are quite pricey, so I tend to look at LEE.
Would http://leeprecision.com/mold-dc-459-500-3r.html or http://leeprecision.com/mold-sc-459-405hb.html be worth trying?

[tacfoley]

Tac, thanks for very detailed response.

Seems no one here in Finland has any 45cal bullet casting molds for sale.
Guy who sold me this rifle said he has a mold for some long bullet, but he didn´t want to give it to me with the rifle. Will try to contact him.

Lyman molds are quite pricey, so I tend to look at LEE.
Would http://leeprecision.com/mold-dc-459-500-3r.html or http://leeprecision.com/mold-sc-459-405hb.html be worth trying?

Hyvää päivää maaseudun Itä Englannista!

I'm sorry to say that the Lyman bullet is the best there is for this rifle - it is the bullet that we all use in the Muzzle Loading Association of Great Britain - MLAGB - and also in the long-range BP rifle shooting association of USA and Canada, Australia, Germany and so on. We shoot this bullet out to 1200 yards/1000m with great success.

The bullet you showed me is the actual one that I use in my Winchester High-Wall - it IS the correct diameter for a .45-70 calibre CARTRIDGE-firing rifle but the pointy-nose design is NOT suitable for a muzzle-loader like yours. Sorry.

If you can't get the mould from your guy - look up the old English aphorism/saying 'dog in a manger' - then let me know and I'll put you in touch with my pal Joe in Oregon. We've been dealing BP stuff for many years and his prices are the best I've ever seen.

Best graders

tac

[tacfoley]

Jiri - please read your email.

Best

tac

PS - these people are my good friends. Their store is the 'Best in the West'!

[JiriK]

Tac, thanks again.

I haven´t been able to reach the seller, so no molds found so far.
That $75 doesn´t sound too bad, will definately consider it.

I have only Swiss no2 powder. Too fast for rifle with heavy bullet?