Dakota's mold

[Oregon Bill]

Cast up my first batch of .56-50 bullets today using my new mold from Dakota Widowmaker. Hope to lube, load and shoot in the new Spencer on Monday. Man, that is one sweet-casting mold. Thanks DW.

[Tuolumne Lawman]

Amen,

I love mine too.  Great job pard!!

[Oregon Bill]

Tuolumne:
My bullets out of nearly pure lead are dropping at 346 grains and running .517 or so. I am delighted at the consistent weights, as I am by no means a skillful caster. For my first 20 rounds, using Starline brass and WLR primers, I loaded 10 rounds with 40 grains FFg Goex, drop-tubed, and 10 with 38 grains drop tubed. Dunno if I will take the trouble to chrono these as the gun has never even been fired, but dang, they make up into a handful of squat litte BP beauties, these .56-50s with the DW slug.

[Dakota Widowmaker]

Thanks for the positive feedback.

I still have more moulds and a few sizes left.

Since its a single cavity block, and it Al, it drops VERY consistently.

Pure lead is no problem for these moulds. 30:1 or 20:1 (or somewhere inbetween) works quite well.

The extra large flat front and longer nose-to-grove length really helps with feeding and preventing recoil fires.

You might want to switch to magnum primers...possibly open up the flash holes as well. (*opening up the flash hole is not needed, but, some BP shooters do this and it has helped with 45-70 and 38-55)

[Oregon Bill]

Dakota: I usually use magnum primers with BP, but was out when I loaded the 20 shakedown rounds. I had the cases primed before I realized I should have annealed first. I have the drill bit from Pat Wolf for opening flash holes for .45-70, although I suspect the shorter .56-50 case doesn't need this treatment.
I'll actually shoot this puppy today for the first time, once the frost melts. Yahoo!

[Ed Clintwood]

Oregon Bill has postulated an interesting point.  How many out there anneal their Starline Brass?

[Tuolumne Lawman]

I don't anneal the 56-50s at all.

[French Jack]

I have found no need to anneal my brass.  The only way I would consider it is if I started finding some case failure after several reloads.  I have had absolutely no problem with the Starline cases in my gun.  Most of the cases have been reloaded over 20 times each. 

Just a thought-- sometimes annealing actually does more harm than good.  I have seen cases that were softened too much, or to a degree that caused other problems.  That is why unless the brass proves to need it, I don't do so.  Premature splitting of case necks is a good indicator that the cases need annealed.  Another thing, if the brass is too soft, you will get more case stretching and case lengthening, needing frequent trimming, and thinning of brass, leading to more failure-- a vicious circle.

[Backstrap Bill]

I have posted elsewhere about  my experiences annealing 56-50 Starline brass.  Will repeat results here.  If you do not know how to anneal properly, stop reading right now.  As has been mentioned, you can ruin brass & maybe even cause injury upon firing if the brass gets too soft.

Before I started annealing, I had extraction problems caused by a lot of chamber fouling.  I shoot real black exclusively, no substitutes, no smokeless.  After 3-4 shots, it was difficult to complete the extraction, cases hung up about 1/2 way out of the chamber.  Bullets had plenty of lube, there was a soft grease star at the muzzle.

After annealing, I fired 55 consecutive shots with complete extraction & ejection of the empties.  Nuf said?