OK, I spent four long days at the range, shot five different minies and two different types of round balls and I finally found two loads that shoot well. The first is the Lee REAL bullet in front of 70 grns of FF. I tried both musket and #11 caps and musket worked the best. At 50 yards I got a nice 3 inch group. Previous loads with all other types of minies never did better than 20 inches. The next load was the best. I shot 3 rounds into one ragged hole. I cleaned the gun and then did the same thing again! (I had one fouling shot each time) the load consisted of Lee's target minie, the one with the skinny grooves and the shallow hollow base, and 60 grns of FF set off with a Navy Arms musket cap. Last year I had adjustable sights installed. These were from a very late model 30-40 Krag. I opened the notch up a few thousanths and filed the base a bit so that I could depress the sights enough to get a 50 yrd zero without adding to the front sight. This load is super. Funny, compared to other loads, this one kicks like a Missouri Mule. My guess is that I'm getting a good seal from this bullet and I had blow-by from all of the others. The kicker came when I tried my had at the 400 yard steel gong. I hit it 2 for 2 using the flip up feater on the stock sights (I put them back on behind the Krag sights)
My lube is a mixture of bees wax, lard, castor oil and a small amount of carnauba. It's soft at 50 degrees and so far, it doesn't seem to run at 90 degrees (unlike Bore Butter). I'm going to put the other Lee minie moulds up for sale. I've cast no more than 30 bullets from each. One is the standard 575 classic minie the other two are 577 versions. I'm going to ask $15.00 each for them plus shipping. If anyone is interested drop me a line. Thanks for all of your input, it was a big help.
