I just bought some bullets off the internet(sounds bad already). They are 250gr. .45cal.
My barrel is a T/CG2 in 45cal., and notoriously they are tight, but the bullets were cheap...what the heck, maybe they will group good. However, they are not lubed, at all. Do I need to put wonder lube in the rings, or are they 'good to go'? Yeah,I know, my barrel is a1:24 twist which is best for sabots, but...gimme a break...hardness rated at 18 on bullets. Lube before shooting?

Lube before shooting? For sure.

Bye
Jack

Terry,

If the "18" is the Bhn, they dang sure are hard, I rarely run that hard in centerfire rifles.

I can't tell you if they'll shoot or not, possible they will but I can just about guarantee they are not going to expand unless they hit steel or some other much harder material. I alloy my ML bullets but ever so slightly that it's hard to notice, just enough alloy elements to make good casting but not bump the hardness up more than 1 to 1.5 Bhn above "assumed" pure Pb.

Non-saboted ML bullets rely upon being pre-rifled / false muzzled or obtruding into the grooves upon firing, black powder does not have the horsepower reqired to obtrude hard alloy properly so your results are going to be "iffy" at best.

The 1:24 twist may work well with the 250gr bullets given the higher velocity they will reach from the rifle platform, I'd be more concerned with the bullet to bore fit and getting them started strait into the bore. Because they are not going to obtrude, if you don't have a tight interference fit, you'll probably need to use a wad under them to get a good gas seal. Blow-by will cause leading of the bore. Yes, they need to be lubed before use.

To markkw, from the way you responded, I may not be right with the 18 hardness. True, I am looking for a hard-cast bullet for my 'tight' 45cal. G2, but I don't want to do anything to hurt the bore. I know that it shoots really good with powerbelt bullets, but if I decide to hunt bear, caribou or moose, I think powerbelt will expand not penetrate. I would want a hardcast (or something like that) bullet so that I could break down shoulders. These bullets I bought were cheap(7.00$), so if I don't get a lot...well, I didn't pay a lot. Got any ideas who makes a muzzleloader bullet for a .45cal. that would break both shoulders of a bear or caribou?

I don't think the bullets will "hurt" the bore, shouldn't be anywhere near had enough for that. 250gr is just way too light for the caliber. I run a 450gr in my .45-70 and have been working with a varient of it for use in a custom muzzleloader barrel with a .458" groove diameter.

If memory serves me, assumed pure Pb is around 4.2 Bhn, the alloy I've been using comes out around 6.5 Bhn or so. The do expand a little but hold together and penetrate deep even with a heavy bone hit. The mass of the bullet has more to do with how well it penetrates than anything else as long as the alloy is not brittle to the point of fragmenting. Going from the 450gr cast bullets down to 300gr jacketed, there was a significant loss of penetration power on both soft tissue and bone hits.

I have tested power belts as well as many other conicals & sabots for the ML's. None of them produced results that would be considered "impressive" and several were down right dismal. They may look good in the magazine ads after being shot into gell but when you start shooting them into bovine and swine bones, they ain't so pretty anymore.

I'm primarily a round ball shooter but have gone off on the conical tangent for various reasons. I've experimented with strip patching bullets getting mixed results mostly from incompatibility of rifling twist and bullet length. You've got nothing to loose trying the bullets you have as long as they load up properly and produce a safe operating condition.

For bigger game, I'd definitely look for a bigger bullet not necessarily a harder one. If I ever get some time to get back to my conical testing, maybe one of these days I can say for sure if my latest design is going to work or not.... five has been the lucky number before and with this being the fifth revision, hopefully it's the winner!