Black Powder Boolits

[Cemetery]

Signs are starting to show that I'll be getting into reloading for my black powder cartridges, and am thinking of going 44.40 for a new rifle.

But the question is, are boolits boolits?  Or do I need special ones for BP due to lubing? 

[Jefro]

Great choice, I finally got me a 73 in 44/40. All you need are Big Lube Boolits, the Mav Dutchman 44cal 200gr works great. If you plan to pour your own see DD for the molds. Or Springfield Slim has them lubed and ready to load. Good Luck.
http://www.biglube.com/
http://www.whyteleatherworks.com/

Jefro

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

There are more than one ways to skin this cat. Yes, you do need a Black Powder compatable lube on your bullets, regular smokeless lube will form a crusty hard fouling that is difficult to remove and will quickly ruiin accuracy.

I used to melt the smokeless lube off of regular hard cast Smokeless bullets for years, and then pan lube them with a mixture or beeswax and Crisco in a 50/50 mixture. Unfortunately, regular hard cast bullets do not usually have large enough lube grooves to carry enough BP lube to do the job in a rifle. You can get away with it in the shorter barrel of a pistol, but by the time a bullet has travelled 18 or 20 inches down a rifle barrel, all the lube will have been rubbed off, so crusty fouling used to start to build up about 6 inches from the muzzle. The easy solution to this was to swab out the rifle barrel every few stages to bring accuracy back. This is a perfectly acceptable solution.

I also used to add lube cookies behind the bullet to add a bit more lube. This required sandwhiching the lube between two card wads to keep the lube from contaminating the power, or from getting glued to the bullet. This was way too much work.

These days I cast my own Big Lube Mav Dutchman 44 cal 200 grain bullets and size them and lube them with SPG. These bullets carry plenty of lube so the bullet is still lubricated when it leaves the barrel. No more lube cookies or pan lubing for me.

[Dick Dastardly]

Driftwood, you are too Norsk.  You and your pard, Johnson designed the fine Big Lube J/P 45-200 RNFP bullet that has become a true classic of Cowboy Action shooting.  Please stand and take a bow.  You and Wild Bill did us all a great service.  Among Big Lube designs, yours has become one of the greats.

Thank you Driftwood and Wild Bill.

DD-DLoS

[Dalton Masterson]

Amen to that DD. Thanks DJ.
DM

[john boy]

I'll add another verse with praises and an Amen!Gee, and I even remember when DJ and Wild Bill made the initial post for the J/P 45-200 RNFP bullet on the Frontier Spot.  Still have the diagram in my references.  Some of us are growing gray hairs and maybe a few of us loosing some too! 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Aw Shucks fellers, thanks.

John Boy, would it be possible for you to forward any of that information to me? I am no longer at my old email, and I have lost all the drawings I did of the J/P 45-200 bullet.

Thanks

[fourfingersofdeath]

Watch my lips,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Mav Dutchman,,,,,Big loooooooooooooooooobe!!!! and yer'll be good to go!

[Ransom Gaer]

Just placed an order with Springfield Slim for some 200 gr Mav Dutchmans.  I got an email from him 'cause I had a sizing question for him.  On his website hit lists .427 and .429 sizes.  He told me he is going to .428 for stocking reasons.  So that is what I ordered.

Now for a side question.  I am thinking about using my new '73 Winchester in .44-40 for deer season this fall and early winter.  Has anybody used the 200 gr Mav Dutchmans for whitetail.  Not looking at shots over 100 yards.  Frankly around here with all the trees you'd be hard pressed to get a shot anything close to 100 yards.  Short range shots seem to be the norm.

Ransom Gaer

[john boy]

John Boy, would it be possible for you to forward any of that information to me? I am no longer at my old email, and I have lost all the drawings I did of the J/P 45-200 bullet.

DJ, what I though I had - I don't.  Saving old posts from the Frontier Spot, the archive routine does not copy the 2nd page of the thread.  All I have are the naked and loaded round bullet...

[Roosterman]

Signs are starting to show that I'll be getting into reloading for my black powder cartridges, and am thinking of going 44.40 for a new rifle.

But the question is, are boolits boolits?  Or do I need special ones for BP due to lubing? 

I use smokeless bullets and use a grease cookie under them, works fine.

[Pulp]

The cool thing about the grease cookie is when it does stick to the bullet and creates a "tracer".  I've had folks from other stages come and watch me shoot just to see it.  But the downside is the extra step in reloading.  I don't use them anymore.

[Jed Cooper]

[quote author=Ransom ow for a side question.  I am thinking about using my new '73 Winchester in .44-40 for deer season this fall and early winter.  Has anybody used the 200 gr Mav Dutchmans for whitetail.  Not looking at shots over 100 yards.  Frankly around here with all the trees you'd be hard pressed to get a shot anything close to 100 yards.  Short range shots seem to be the norm.

Ransom Gaer
[/quote]RG, Thats what I'm gonna use this season.A A well placed shot IMHO will get the job done. 2 years ago I dropped a 12 pointer with a 7 1/2 inch 2nd gn. colt in 357. He didnt take a step. Just collapsed.    Good hunting,  Jed

[Dick Dastardly]

Howdy Jed,

I shoot deer with my Browning 92 44 Magnum using the Mav Dutchman bullet.  For deer, I cast 'em pretty soft.  I want lots of expansion and I get it.  Stoked up with a compressed charge of 35 grains of FFFg Schuetzen they move along plenty fast to kill Bambi cleanly.  I see no reason that the 44-40 Win. wouldn't do as well.

Here in Southern Wisconsin the 44 Magnum pistols are legal but the 44 Magnum rifle isn't.  Go figure.  Same bullet, different gun and both can be effectively shot at the same velocity (BP in rifle & smokeless in pistol) and kill deer the same.

DD-DLoS

[Dirty Brass]

That's interesting about the 44 Magnum rifle DD. I guess I broke the law occassionally when I was a youngster with my Marlin 1894.

[Ransom Gaer]

When talking about state deer regulations, they sure can get confusing.

Here in Mississippi they have what they call a primitive season.  You can use your muzzleloader as well as a big bore single shot like an 1874 Sharps.  Your cartridges just have to have BP or a sub.

DD, your '92 in .44 Magnum as well as your .44 Magnum pistol would be legal down here.

As soon as I get the Mav Dutchman 200 grain bullets from Springfield Slim I'm going to load them up and sight the rifle in with them at 100 yards and get ready for deer season and do some CAS shooting as well this fall with the new rifle.

Ransom Gaer

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Here in Indiana we can now use pistol caliber rifles.  NO high-power rifles.

But I can't use my 1874 Taylors Sharps repro, and even 'tho it's higher power than my 45 Colt "Super Knockdown" loads, I don't put it even close to the power of, say ... a 30-06 or a .243 and other TRUE high-power loads.

(Saying that, however is NOT saying that a 535 gr. bullet - or even an itty-bitty 405 has no real power, velocity or gen-u-wine knock-down power!)

[Dick Dastardly]

After all the Magnum, Short Magnum, Long Magnum and other high power hype, many of us sportsmen are re-discovering the killing power of a fairly soft cast bullet.  They do kill well and they don't make a 15 inch blood shot wasted meat wound.  Aim well and our Cowboy guns will bring home the meat and it won't be wrecked by shrapnel and bone fragments.

DD-DLoS

[44caliberkid]

I haven't shot a deer with the Mav-Dutchman but I have killed one with a .451 round ball fired from a muzzle loading rifle.  The soft lead expands well.  I would expect equally good performance from the Mav-Dutch boolit.
   In Iowa, we can't use cartridge rifles till a special last season in the lower tier counties to eliminate the excess of does.  My brother is on the state conservation board and is politicking for pistol caliber rifles and buffler guns.

[Dirty Brass]

After all the Magnum, Short Magnum, Long Magnum and other high power hype, many of us sportsmen are re-discovering the killing power of a fairly soft cast bullet.  They do kill well and they don't make a 15 inch blood shot wasted meat wound.  Aim well and our Cowboy guns will bring home the meat and it won't be wrecked by shrapnel and bone fragments.

DD-DLoS

All true and I totally agree with you. Problem now is (at least with Wisc. DNR) the push for alternative material bullets to eventually (I'm afraid) implementing a ban on using lead bullets for hunting. Not anytime real soon, but the handwriting is on the wall I fear......