Cast Minie Ball In A Cartridge Question

by Paul , Monday, January 20, 2014, 10:41 (3966 days ago) @ Hoot

Hoot,

Years ago I used the Lee REAL (Rifling Engraved At Loading) designed for the Ruger Old Army - in an Old Army - over a snort of inappropriate powder. My one regret is that I used muzzle loading lube (Ox Yoke wonderlube or something like that) that was kind of goopey, gooey, runny stuff that would have been good enough for FFFg loads but which contaminated the inappropriate powder charge and lead to a burst barrel. However, when fresh loaded that pistol had some tremendous power. No chrony around but judging by later experiments with cartridge pistols of similar caliber leads me to believe that the load was generating in excess of 1,200 fps. Now, the weight of that bullet is not remembered by yours truly. It was, however, a nice fit in the Ruger Old Army, methinks it was around .257 or so, which may or may not work in your stated application of 455 Eley. Is this an original gun or a modern repro effort? It would be nifty if cast of pure lead and launched at a more sedate speed than the stomp 'em loads it was my pleasure to develop way back in the depths of youth...