[url][/url]Oops 454 Minie
Hi all
As we cant buy guns , powder or bullets in Australia indefinitely i went to the gun shop to see if they had a 452 moulding die for BM in around 350-400gr, they had nothing, but they did have an old secondhand 454 minie mould 298g and a 452 sizing thingy so i thought why not. I googled the minie which i had never heard of and it was a bad ass projy back in the civil war from what i read and worth a read if you have a spare half hour and havnt heard of these like myself.
Anyhow having never cast a bullet in my life i made one and loaded up with 12G of trail boss and shot it yesterday while trying out some ftx 200g 39g light loads to test new scope , at 80 metres it was within about 6 '' of the FTXs which suprised the hell out of me as i was more expecting my gun to explode as i had never cast a bullet.
The Minie has a big tapered hole in the base which from what i read was designed so the soldier could drop the bullet down the barrel without having to hammer it in for a neat fit - when fired the tapered hole would expand and engage the rifling and make good for hitting a house at 1000 yards - pretty bloody impressive for 1860s ish
Newbie questions
Would this tapered hole ( primer side ) expand too much and cause dramas with modern powder and higher psi ?
If you use cast bullets do you have to clean barrel a lot more - i did wax projy and cleaned gun today and had a lot of lead come out after several passes - is it worth it ?
What happens if you put 14.5 g of trailboss behind one of these- Answer - it went through a thick pillow, 2 x 20Litre drums of water , a 2'' piece of pine and through my back fence into bush - I was expecting to grab the spent bullet in the first water drum , could not believe it and i know i screwed up as it ripped the thread off my home made muzzle brake which has shot heaps of 300g factory feds and 250 ftx
Pic shows my cast of 454 minie then sized with 452 , you can see the big tapered hole up the bum of it
Pic has 300g xpt standard along side