Bullet casting frustration

[bruce m]

august,
for paper patch target loads, parallell shanks have a lot to offer.
if the patched bullet is a good sliding fit into the bore diameter of the rifling, bullet alignment with the axis of the bore is the best you can get.
this is one of the reasons to avoid overlap of the ends of the patch.
this is equally true of fixed ammo 1/10" in the case and breech seating.
this is also why it is better not to size cases for serious accuracy, as the unsized case allows for better bullet alignment, unless your ammo has zero runout.
tapered bullets might well have suited shooting dirty more so than long range, as you could seat the bullet back in the case far enough for the bullet to clear fouling.
this more suited to hunting.
in the day, hunters might have used cast pp bullets more than long range target shooters.
certainly the top guys hammer swaged either cast alloy blanks or cast bullets for absolute uniformity.
factories would most likely have supplied swaged bullets.
with regards bullet lengths, this could have been to relate the bullet to barrel twist rates.
bruce.

[bruce m]

tom, you are correct that flat clean bases are absolutely necessary for accuracy, the more so as range increases.
you are also right that nose pour moulds carefully manufactured are the easiest way to achieve this.
with base pour, crap moulds are a waste of time, and you have to work harder to achieve good bases.
bullet stability and meplat diameter do go hand in hand, but the meplat has to get very small before it becomes an issue.
i have often wondered whether transonic bullets are more susceptible to this, as spitzer bullets have not been that successful at b.p. long range.
the odg ended up using pretty much a generic bullet that looked elliptical in nose form, hammer swaged for best results.
the brots used the metford bullet swaged and with a nose a bit blunter than modern money bullets but similar in shape.
bruce.

[Tomklinger]

August,
Bruce is correct, the “tapered” original paper patch bullets I have are very close to the elliptical design offered today. I’ve never seen an adjustable paper patch mold of the 1870’s. The target rifles were most often delivered with loading tools, a mold, powder measure, brass, etc. you got everything needed to load and shoot the rifle. the mold was serial numbered to the rifle. Each mold was made for that rifle after the barrel was rifled and lapped. The manufacturer knew the correct bullet weight and style that worked best in their barrels, so no need for an adjustable mold. Some rifles came with a swager to swage the bullets after casting.

Bruce m
Spitzer bullets work best at smokeless velocities, not worth crap in black powder. I was only referring to the hollow point.
If you have access to a range 600yds or more and you want to try an experiment, Grease groove or paper patch, load 10 rounds your normal way, then make 10 bullets with an approximately .125 flat on the nose, (best cut on a lathe) weigh them, load the same as the first 10 and compare the results. You may be surprised...especially if the wind is up!