Something to share

[Smokey45]

Thanks for sharing, Kurt!

[Iron Coyote]

Kurt
When i get them found,I will have a lot better idea of what is happening.
Thanks

Bruce
The felt wads I use are lubed with DGL.
They work real well in the .44 2.4" with gg bullets.
Thnx Lots
Bob

[kokomokid]

Thanks for sharing. LB

[Kurt]

Here are 4 bullets that where shot with the same alloy from the same casting session. The alloy is 1/19 (19# lead 1# roll of 95-5 tin antimony solder) The left bullet was shot from the .45-90 and the three other were shot using the .45-70 with 70 gr of 2F OE.
The .45-90 on the left had a lube wad between two .023" card wads.
The .45-70 2nd from left had a lube wad between two .023 card wads.
The 3rd .45-70 had a .023 card over the powder and a lube wad cork under the bullet.
4th .45-70 had a .023 card over the powder felt and a .023 under the bullet.
All the .45-70's had the same powder loads just different wad stacks. The .45-90 got hit to hard with the alloy and wad stack used, but would work, but after a few shots fired lead would be an issue.
The second next to the .45-90 is what I want for a match bullet for the .45-70.
The third would be OK but the forth would be iffy.
I took the pictures from 4 different angles to change how the light hits them.

[Nuclearcricket]

Kurt, thanks for posting all of this information. It seems like the cork and to a greater extent the felt wads are kind of working as s shock absorber. Not really what you need when shooting PPB's. It does look like the felt and the cork are doing a good job of sealing the bore as I don't see any evidence of any gas cutting on your bullets.
Thanks again
Sam

[Kurt]

Sam

Those bullets I use for the long range and midrange matches. They are patched one thousand over bore diameter so they just have to fill the grooves. I don't have much of a problem with those getting gas cuts unless I only use one .060" wad between the base and the powder.
The round nosed hunting bullets are patched 1 to 1-1/2 thousands under bore and those got cut using a felt wad. I picked up 36 more last evening and almost 1/2 of those had gas cuts. I reclaimed 16# of those so far to throw back into the pot to make better bullets

[Don McDowell]

Fascinating stuff there Kurt.

[Kurt]

Yes Don it is.

This winter I spent more time with these prolate bullets in the .44's and .45's because I want to use these this season's matches. Last year I did not do much shooting, I didn't even burn up a 1/2 case of powder compared to the 4 cases plus I normally go through each year because of some Med problems and the few loads just did not satisfy me especially at the longer ranges so this winter I spent a lot of time looking for the cause on what is going on. I had over 300 rounds shot this year looking to find out what is going on and what it takes to correct this. Not all of those rounds where test rounds, they where just reclaiming brass from old loads but they also served seeing what felt and cork does to undersized bullets.
I found that just a 5% of antimony in a 95%/5% one pound roll of solder mixed in 19 pounds of pure lead will do. I haven't figured out what this 5% in one pound equates to when it's mixed in 19 pounds of lead is but it's a very small amount that don't sound like much.
But for a PP bullet it is not good if you don't get the proportions correct, it will just not fill the grooves good enough when I used soft wads in the loads. A mix of 1/16 T/L does a fine job. Full obduration that relates to full rotation of the bullet.
In this recovered bunch is a ( the top horizontal one) .44-485 gr prolate bullet that is a alloy of 1/17 T/L with a lube wad between a .023 and a 1/16" cork wad. I think I will stay with this combination.
The felt wads would be good in a bullet like your tank busters because of it's tight relation to the bore groove, but I cant say for sure. I have not found the couple bullets I had left from what you gave me to see what they look like. Heck I found the two Norma .22 bullets but not yours. They must have passed clear through the pile

Kurt

[Don McDowell]

Your recovered bullets are confirming a lot of what I have suspicioned by looking at the "groups" I've been able to shoot at distance. I am fairly convinced for fine target work the larger the diameter of the slick, the better it is likely to preform at long range. 20-1 and 16-1 seem to work good with most bullets. 16-1 has actually shot respectable without any wads, 435 dia. from the 44's. I have both a .444 dia and 446 dia blocks for the 45's, that I think I'll run a batch of each from 16-1 and do some testing in the 45-90.