Buffalo Classic and Pyrodex

[fltcrkhilbily]

Question, the Hogdon '04  basic reloaders manual says to use a card between powder and base of bullet. Is this needed with gas check bullets?
Also should I clean the barrel when going from Pyrodex to smokeless in the same shooting session? Gotta love this rifle      Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.

[quickdtoo]

I haven't shot enough through my 45-120 BC to be an authority on the matter yet, but I'll share what I've learned so far. I've only shot XMP5744 and Triple 7, with and without gas checked bullets and with jacketed bullets. T7 is much cleaner burning than Pyrodex and I wouldn't want to rely on data obtained from shooting white powder loads after shooting T7 or any black powder substitute loads without cleaning, it doesn't take much, just a damp patch or 2 followed by a dry patch to get the bore clean. I would highly recommend using a card or grease cookie when shooting lead only bullets, I got some bore leading using 95gr of T7 in the 45-120 with hard cast 500gr bullets with no fiber cards which I forgot to load! No problems with the gas checked lead bullets with the T7 or the smokeless.

[Haywire Haywood]

I've heard that using hard cast bullets with low pressure BP loads lead because the bullet is too hard to "bump up" and the leading is due to gas cutting.  I'm out of those bullets that DJ sent me.  I have a box of hard case bevel based 405s but am reluctant to try them because of this.

Ian

[quickdtoo]

I don't know about the gas cutting, but I have had severe leading in my TC Black Diamond shooting lead PowerBelts and 100-120gr of Triple 7. The PowerBelts have a plastic gas check on em. Examination of the fired gas checks showed no signs of gas cutting so it's hard to explain why the heavy leading of the barrel other than from friction. FWIW, they shoot extremely accurate, just a pain to clean up after! The copper plated versions shot just as good, just no leading. :?