I have never used anything but round balls in my revolvers. I just ordered a conical mold from lee for my 58 rem. by Pietta. Just wondering, has anyone else here used these and with what results. .451 swaged round balls seem just shy of what I would expect as far as shaving lead when loading. I had a bigger ring with my Uburti Colt, and Remington and also with my CVA Remington so was thinking of .454 for the Pietta. Then did a off the cuff move and ordered the conical without knowing what the true diameter of the bullet is. Thus this post. Am I just going to end up with another mold like my REAL for the Hawken that just aint worth makin?
Lee hand cast conicals
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First/last report
The mold showed up sat. Cast up about 20 or so on Sun morning. Like all the Lee molds I have used, it tossed out pretty bullets almost right away. My fear was that they would be too small for the Peitta but a test fit in the spare cylinder proved otherwise. I picked out 6 and started to lube the grooves with bore butter (a bit of a pain) and loaded the cylinder (out of the gun) with six charges of 25 gr of 3f, put the cylinder in the gun and tried to load a bullet. It wouldn't fit, the frame around the loading lever is in the way and the loading lever won't go far enough forward to allow you place the bullet right under it to load.
I removed the cylinder and used a short starter to start each bullet up to the second ring (not easy). Then I had to put the cylinder in my vise and tap the bullets down using the short starter and a rubber hammer (did not like that) to seat them but they each shaved off a very nice little ring of lead while loading.
On the range...target: 5 in. square of 3/8 plate steel hanging form chains. Steady on a post 15 yards away, rang the bell 5 out of 6 times (most likely my fault, I think I flinched). Seemed to have at least as much power as my 9mm with 115 gr FMJ.
In summery, easy to cast, lubing the grooves is messy and time consuming, need a loading stand to load (at least with the Peitta) accurate and hard hitting. I will be ordering a .451 round ball mold.
The mold showed up sat. Cast up about 20 or so on Sun morning. Like all the Lee molds I have used, it tossed out pretty bullets almost right away. My fear was that they would be too small for the Peitta but a test fit in the spare cylinder proved otherwise. I picked out 6 and started to lube the grooves with bore butter (a bit of a pain) and loaded the cylinder (out of the gun) with six charges of 25 gr of 3f, put the cylinder in the gun and tried to load a bullet. It wouldn't fit, the frame around the loading lever is in the way and the loading lever won't go far enough forward to allow you place the bullet right under it to load.
I removed the cylinder and used a short starter to start each bullet up to the second ring (not easy). Then I had to put the cylinder in my vise and tap the bullets down using the short starter and a rubber hammer (did not like that) to seat them but they each shaved off a very nice little ring of lead while loading.
On the range...target: 5 in. square of 3/8 plate steel hanging form chains. Steady on a post 15 yards away, rang the bell 5 out of 6 times (most likely my fault, I think I flinched). Seemed to have at least as much power as my 9mm with 115 gr FMJ.
In summery, easy to cast, lubing the grooves is messy and time consuming, need a loading stand to load (at least with the Peitta) accurate and hard hitting. I will be ordering a .451 round ball mold.
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The LEE conicals comes in two sizes one for the Remington and one for the Ruger Old Army. The conical made for the ROA works in the ROA and the Rogers & Spencer. The Remington Conical is too small for the ROA the ROA conical is too large for the Remington.
The LEE conical is more like the loads used back in the day. During the Civil War issued paper Ctgs. used conicals not round balls. The conical loaded over Triple 7 and tumble lubed with LEE Alox makes a very powerful accurate handgun load. Make sure you use only pure lead to avoid an over sized hard to seat conical. The chamber mouths should be chamfered to allow proper alignment and seating. The much longer bearing surface of the conical over the round ball allows much higher pressures more energy on the target.
The LEE conical is more like the loads used back in the day. During the Civil War issued paper Ctgs. used conicals not round balls. The conical loaded over Triple 7 and tumble lubed with LEE Alox makes a very powerful accurate handgun load. Make sure you use only pure lead to avoid an over sized hard to seat conical. The chamber mouths should be chamfered to allow proper alignment and seating. The much longer bearing surface of the conical over the round ball allows much higher pressures more energy on the target.
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6,489 Posts
t-duck, I don't understand why you are having a loading problem. I have used many of these in my handguns never had such a problem?
Nightstalker, what flavor of guns are you using? I currently have a Peitta 1858 Remington. It is not a perfect replica and the cylinders are not chamfered. I will muck with it some more, but the loading lever frame seems to be in the way. If I need to, I will make a loading stand because I sure did like the way the conicals performed compared to the round balls. a chanfered cylinder would sure make starting them easier. Not overly impressed with the Peitta, one cylinder fitted with #11 nipples and the other with #10??
Ordered a loading tool so I can use the conicals. No matter what I tried, I can not load them using the loading lever on the gun. Once you press fit one into a chamber up to the first ring, you can't rotate the cylinder to get it under the loading lever. So if you have a Pietta 1858 Remington new army, you will need a loading stand to load a 200 gr Lee hand cast conical. Not too big a deal given the ease in which the cylinders can be removed on the Reminton but still something to consider.
I haven't tried .454, just .451 round balls in this gun and it shoots all over the place with them. It does like the conicals, just a pain to load. I may also get a box of .454's to try and if it likes them I'll pick up a mold for them also.
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