No so much a Sunday thing but decided to go old school tonight.
Yeah, Nah. Paper patch bullets are a totally different design. They cast at a smaller diameter and are then wrapped with correct thickness paper to make them the right diameter for your bore.
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I think it will be good to do as they then look like the original rounds, well sort of lol, that was one of my thoughts behind doing it
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The problem will be that that bullet will now be too large in diameter to fit you rifle. It’s a grease groove bullet that already has coating on it. Like I said, paper patch bullets are completely different. They are smooth sided and cast at a smaller diameter that is then wrapped to size.
Paper patching is done to prevent the lead bullet actually coming into contact with the barrel. Think of it as the old way of tek-coating.
Measure those bullets and I’d be very surprised that they aren’t .004" - .006" or more oversized.
You could run them through a sizing die to get them down to correct diameter for your bore and they will chamber.
Paper patching is a fine art that requires the correct size mold, the right thickness of paper and the patch cut to exacting dimensions and wrapped consistently so that the patched bullet winds up at the correct diameter and length for your rifles bore.
Not trying to be condescending mate, just trying to give you a better picture of what is involved.
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The Paper Jacket by Paul Mathews, is your bible
@danmac All is good and you are defiantly not being condescending and I appreciate the information.
All of the points you made are 100% correct and spot on.
As JS would say “I scienced the shit out of it” before I started.
I started off by slugging my barrel which came out as needing a 471 projectile.
I purchased a 462 mold and I coated a large number to see what extra it would have added to the size and it only came out as an extra .001" so I kept the coating.
The paper that I used is 9 pound onion skin paper which is .002: thick, wrapped around the projectile twice added .008" to the cast projectile. Added together comes to 471
The hardest part was actually measuring the template that I needed to make the patch with, that took me a couple of goes to get it right but now have a alloy plate that is spot on.
I also played around with normal copy paper first to get the wrapping just right before I used the onion paper.
I asked CBE (where I got my mold from) about making it a straight sided mold but he won’t do that as it is to much of a pain.
Through all of my research I found that a lot of people use projectiles with grease grooves as well as straight sided ones and it made no difference to accuracy or performance. It is mentioned in the book “The Paper Jacket” about using both types of projectiles.
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Grease groove cast wont work with PP its sizing to bore and patching to groove…that gets results…or .001 over bore
Curious as to what rifle you have and what it’s chambered in that the bore is .471?
The rifle is a Martini Henry in 577/450.
Okay, makes sense now, had it in my head it was a .45-70 for some reason.
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Much on 45 Colt in the cartridge book?? I have the PP book, great read.
It doesn’t really go into calibre specific loads but discusses loading black powder in cartridge cases. He mentions 45-70 alot but only as an example. It is definitely a great read.
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You still paperpatching bullets? Im about to go hardcore with my 3006. I bought the CBE .301 PBPP 155gn bullet about 2 yrs ago. Its been pretty accurate at 100m, at full velocity loads. Keen on another .301 PP mold…looking at NOE molds in the USA…
Smokeless of course…
Ive noticed on a lot of youtube videos the yanks are simply patching grease groove cast bullets, and im not sure they are even sizing to bore, and patching to groove dimensions…No wonder they were shooting shit groups at 50m…lol
I’ve got a bunch of N.O.E molds. Build quality and sizing is excellent, just gotta take care of them being aluminium. ( Or should that be “aloominum”?) I’ve got a 5 gang one in .314 that’s a bitch to get and keep up to temp though, too much ally for the size of the holes and due to the “H” profile of the mold, it cools out very quickly.
Perhaps I should add that this is a 120gr bullet for my .32-20’s, it’s short and fat.
Talking to a mate yesterday and he likes Mihec or M.P. molds. I’ve borrowed a couple of his, they’re solid brass and cast real nice bullets.
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I may go a custom design of my own, double cavity in brass from Accurate molds…about $300 though. I best get the design spot on for my chambers
I think brass is the best mold material, for heat control.