What Bullet To Go With

So, my 1 in 48 twist 50 cal Traditions Deer Hunter seems to really like the 250 to 275 class weight bullet range. I want to get my first mold to cast my own bullets and was looking at these 2 accurate molds.  I used the JB calculator to see what my stability would be and both show pretty good. So, how do you decide, or what would push you towards either one. I will shoot these between 100 to 300 yards and will be strictly a steel banger.


Thanks
Rob

While you are waiting for I.L.s reply I'll say my instinct is the 275 as it is longer and the base is not beveled. What bullet did you use to discover your rifle likes the 250 to 275 range? Best to you.

Hi Kurt,

I shot the Aerolite 250s and 300 hundreds. The Aerolite 250s shot fantastic with all three shots going through the same hole at 75 yards ( best group of the day).  I also shot some of the Parker Ballistic extremes in 275 ( still shot very well with all three touching). I used  the same charge weights with all of them, 80 grains by weight of Schutzen 3f.  I did notice that the group sizes started opening up after I passed the 275 weight mark. I could probably get the 300s to shoot better by playing with the charge weight.

I did notice the small bevel at the bottom of the 255,  was thinking that if I did order the 255 I would ask for the mold to be changed to make that area straight.

Thanks
Rob

I would

Either look good, I like the looks of the 275 the best, The top groove is a “Crimp Groove” (for Cartridge) It will serve fine to hold a little extra Lube. Like you said, If you do go with the smaller Bullet, I would do away with the Bevel Base, have it made Flat Base That is a personal preference of mine, In all fairness i have had pretty good luck with most Bevel Base Bullets i have Tried in my Muzzleloaders, I stil prefer a Straight Flat Base

That 275 will end up weighing closer to 280 When Cast of PURE Lead, Accurate Molds numbers are for Wheel Weight Lead

Thank you Lewis for the information. I will go ahead and get the 275 mold on order. I am going to try the 300 grain bullets again this weekend since I managed to find some 2f powder.

Roblynch wrote:Thank you Lewis for the information. I will go ahead and get the 275 mold on order. I am going to try the 300 grain bullets again this weekend since I managed to find some 2f powder.

Sounds good, Keep us posted on your results

I certainly will.

Rob

You got the Parker Ballistic Extremes 275 to shoot well out of a 1:48 Deerhunter?

Hi AJHS,
They shot pretty good at 75 yards and opened at 100 yards. I would say about 3 inches was my best. Now with that said. I changed powders the day I tested at 100 yards. I went to 2F from 3F. The test before that was with 3F. This was all with Schutzen. I now have Travelers 2F Swiss that I will try tomorrow, I was told that it is re branded Swiss powder. Tomorrow I am trying 230g XTP's in a short sabot as well.

Roblynch wrote:Hi AJHS,
They shot pretty good at 75 yards and opened at 100 yards. I would say about 3 inches was my best. Now with that said. I changed powders the day I tested at 100 yards. I went to 2F from 3F. The test before that was with 3F. This was all with Schutzen. I now have Travelers 2F Swiss that I will try tomorrow, I was told that it is re branded Swiss powder. Tomorrow I am trying 230g XTP's in a short  sabot as well.

Thanks! Please update us! I have a Deerhunter as well, only thing I have shot out of it is the Hornady Great Plains 285, over 80 grains (v) of 777. I got a handful of Parker's 275's to try out but haven't gotten to the range yet. Hornady XTP 240 grain shot fine out of it too, but Barnes TE-Z 250 grain keyholed at 50 yards.

Yes no problem at all. My best target to date was with the Aerolites in 250s. It shoots a Hornady 490 round balls very well using Larry's method with pocket drill material and his lube. I think the 3F may shoot better since its a short barrel, but its only a guess. Will spend a full day tomorrow playing with combinations. I have done work to my Deer Hunter as well. I polished all the trigger pieces and it breaks clean now at 2 lbs.

Roblynch wrote:Yes no problem  at all. My best target to date was with the Aerolites in 250s. It shoots a Hornady 490 round balls very well using Larry's method with pocket drill material and his lube. I think the 3F may shoot better since its a short barrel, but its only a guess. Will spend a full day tomorrow playing with combinations. I have done work to my Deer Hunter as well. I polished all the trigger pieces and it breaks clean now at 2 lbs.

Sort of linked to another thread too, but I was using T7 2F in the Deerhunter and the Winchester Magnum #11 I was getting a delayed ignition...so I got a magspark to use a 209 with the Deerhunter...ignition was immediate. I wonder if whether with T7 3F, ignition would be immediate with a #11 primer. After my hunting season ended, I was able to get a bottle of Swiss 2F, so I assume I will just work up my load with that come late spring.

I found in mine that the flash hole channel had a large shaving of metal in it from the factory. I have a magspark also that I was using with BH209. I found that as long as I did my reloading the same each time I never had an issue after that. I also use a drop funnel to get my powder to the breach area, then I lift and tap the breach area with my hand to make sure the drum fills. I also clean the drum every 6th shot. I do swab between shots as well.

Roblynch wrote: I also clean the drum every 6th shot.

How do you do that {clean the drum}? Remove the screw and run a pipe cleaner or something in there?

Yes exactly, I pull the drum screw and the nipple then using a 6 mm bore brush I push it through from the outside inwards. Next I put the bore brush in my cleaning rod and pass it down the muzzle into the flash channel and give it a little spin then blow it out. I carry a small can of compressed air for cleaning( like you use for a keyboard). I blow it out from the muzzle towards the drum area. You will see it shoot out of the drum screw hole. Put it all back together and off I go. Takes me less then 2 minutes to do it. I haven't had a delayed ignition since doing these steps.

Interesting topic. I have a Traditions deerhunter rifle. Besides the patched ball, I shoot the Hornady PA conicals, 240 grains.
My typical shooting range is only 50 yards.
With 80 grains by volume of 2f Swiss, the PA conicals will all go into the same hole for the most part.

Roblynch wrote:

Roblynch - Did you make it out to the range yesterday, eager to hear your results. Do you have the original open sights on your Deerhunter or did you switch out the optics?

Hi AJHS,

Yes,  I certainly did get out yesterday. I did a bunch of shooting. All my shots were at 75 yards. The new 2f swiss powder is amazing. Way less fouling then Schutzen. It also shot much better then 2F Schutzen as well. I used the same load with all 3 powder types which was 80 grains by weight. The other thing I noticed was I didn't have to pull my powder drum apart, it fired consistently all day.

 I started with Hornady 230 grain XTPs and then switched to the Bob Parker 275 Ballistic Extreme's. I  used  short crush rib sabots with both. 
What a joy to load by the way, so easy to get down the barrel. Both the XTP's and the BP shot incredibly accurate. The last group of the day was a 4 shot group that was right at .60 inches. The Hornady was right with it as well. I will post pics also.

My Deer Hunter has a Creedmoor rear sight and a Williams globe front sight with a Lee Shaver inserts.

11

Roblynch wrote:

That's awesome, great shooting! Big ask, but if you do not mind posting some pictures of your front and rear sights, I'd love to see the modifications. Looks like you've turned a ho-hum stock rifle into a real tack driver!

AJHS thank you. I am pleased with it. This has been a great learning experience for my son and I. I wil post some photos of the setup as well as a list of what was done. One thing I can tell you is mounting the rear sight was a bit tricky as the stock isn't exactly straight, but with the mill at work and the laser level I got it done. The other thing was the sight itself. It had a lot of play in it and had to bush the pivot screw hole at the base to take the play out of it. So, to mount the rear sight and have a perfect vertical alignment it took 4 washers under the rear of the tang. Once I had that done I took it all back apart and used JB weld to create a nice fillet under the entire base of the sight. I did use mold re lease on the stock as well as the bottom of the base. The front sight wasn't as bad, but did have to drill and extra hole to attach the globe base. I did bed the entire barrel into the stock as well.