I can see that your neighbors look to you as the defender of the neighborhood.
That's a good one, I've never heard that one before! :lol:
Cast bullets would definitely be my first choice. I'd put Lyman Moly lube on them too. I think a minie bullet might do the job but I'm not quite sure. It may even help reduce the amount of gas pressure involved since it takes time and distance for the undersize minie to expand into the rifling.
Lee makes a .50 cal minie that has a .500" diameter. BMG barrels are .510". I'm ASSUMING the minie will adequately expand to fill out the .01" difference. However, I'll check with the other BP boards here and ask for opinions first.
ASSUMING that it will work to begin with, the 1-15" twist is really agressive for this type of bullet. I'm wondering if expanding .01" will compromise the integrity of the minie to the point where excessive roational forces due to increased twist rate will cause the minie to fly apart. I'm sure the lead will have to be cast with a decent degree of hardness. I can see this project will definitely be a trial and error type of thing.
If the minie doesn't work out perhaps once of those fancy cast bullet mould made especially for the .50 BMG will work out.
Using slower buring powders like FG & FFG will probably help keep the pressures down in comparison to the much faster FFFG at the expense of increased fouling. Clean...clean...and more cleaning. Ahhh...the joys of black powder!
For the breech block I plan to use 4130 or 4140 bar stock steel with at least .500"-.750" steel above the threaded portion of the block.
I'm now motivated enough to at least buy the barrel this week. Yippee! :-D