did som testting of my lee 500r bullets 10 as cast .459 and 10 sized at .457.winchester 45/70 brass std flash hole wano fff premium black powder, winchester primers and .030 card and rooster red black powder lube.h&r buffalo classic with lyman .404 globe with lee shaver insert small open croshair rear sight smith buckhorn lader sight with peephole slider. i no the buff likes .457 sized bullets but thought i would give the .459 an outher try.
target at 300 meters all shooting dun of crosed sticks. first 5 rounds .459 load .blow tube between each shot 5 shot group six and five eigth of an inch,clean barrel next 5 .459 six and three quater inch clean barrel. next 5 .457 group three and three quater inch.clean barrel.second group with.457 three and a half inch.all groups shot with one fowling shot.all bullet's cast at 20 to 1 mix.i have a friend i talk to in the us who was getting the same results as me with .459 soon as he sized to .457 he cut his group size in half with the buff classic .it must be that the buff clssic barrels like the sized .457 bullets i have had my bore sluged and it sluged at .452-.459 at the breech end at the muzzell end it went .450-.457. i think i could get the groups smaller of the bench, but
how i shot them is my hunting set up so that does me fine,so if your gun is not performing with .459 bullets give the .457 a go i must ad i am very carfull when i cast my bullets and weigh each one and match them in lots of five never get more than 1 grain diffrance. the powder charge is 69 grn 36 inch drop tube and and .060 compression it works for me the wano powder seems to like heavy compression and burns as clean or better than goex which suprised me. the load went through the crono at 1298- 1302-1305-1299-1307.i am very happy with with this set up,kills hogs and goats dead there tracks.
bernie
