Howdy folks,
I have a 50 caliber muzzle loader that I like to shoot. I was thinking of buying a mould for it. But my ever thinking mind rumbled on to the moulds I already use for my 44 mag. Has anyone tried using hard cast bullets in sabots.
The moulds I have are 429421 and 429215. Is there anywhere to find charge information with this. Maybe lyman?
I think I will check with them also. If anyone has tried this let me know how it worked out.
Chris

Chris,

It works pretty well, so long as the bullets are sized properly to interface with your sabots, and your particular bore. Too, rifling twist is critical. The 1:48 twist rifles are marginal performers with sabots in my experience. Keep the bullet weight low, (as you would with either of the bullets you mention), and they shoot pretty well; run the bullet weight up to 300+ grains and accuracy suffers. Best performance is from those rifles with a twist rate somewhere around 1:28.

Let us know how your experimenting works!

God Bless

The first mould you mentioned works well with 70 grains of Pyrodex RS and sized oversize for 44 Mag revolver--i.e. .430". Less powder produced keyholing and more didn't seem to accomplish much other than a sore shoulder. Bullets are cast form old wheel weights so may be a little harder than one might want. Used sabots from Hornady and there were no problems. Did notice that the lead bullets had to be sized in order to load with the sabots otherwise they were too large in diameter.