doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com muzzle loading bullets

Hi All

Thanks’ for all the comments, I will try to address them as well as I can.

First I want to make clear that I am not making the false muzzle I simply do not have the skills for that but I have a very good gunsmith there is able to do so...well at least he says that he can make it, my gunsmith is of the kind you don’t ask about prices and you don’t ask about delivery time, if you do you can take your work somewhere else so if he finds the job interesting he takes it and the work he makes is first class.

The idea of making the barrel with the false muzzle starts from a blank barrel, when the barrel are finish and ready to be cut at the muzzle then make a tiny cut of the muzzle end, make the FM and then melt some very hard metal and fill a small part into the barrel muzzle and when it is hardened push it out a bit and then "screw" the FM on make the index marks for the 4 pins drill, mark the barrel and drill and then attach the pins.

I will make then bullet starter myself and have a mechanical drawing from an original

I was lucky on my last trip to Cody WY to find a Pope barrel with a false muzzle so I took all the measurements of it and a lot of pictures, then I made a mechanical drawing to my gunsmith, funny all the sizes was in mm not in inch. I will try to post it here.

Thanks’ for the link to book it was informative but did not reveille the mystery off how the muzzle loaded bullet is designed but a must have in the library

xxgrampa where do you have the info that the bullets are the same as breech seated bullets??

I have been through my tiny library but have not been able to find any info on this subject but I had contact to a guy in Australia who own a Stevens-Pope and he has two different moulds for breech/muzzle seating

I have a Hoch 38-55 mould which is supposed to be a copy of a Pope BS bullet.

Michael

I was not able to post the drawings I made in pdf format on the FM but I can email it to those who want it.

Michael

My first question to you would be what is the diameter of the groove and bore on your rifle?

Sorry Michael forgot to answer that, the 32-40 is bore .314 groove is .321, the 33-47 is not made yet but my plans are to have Ron Smith make the barrel as a gain twist.

Michael

Have Ron make your .33 caliber barrel the same as he made the two for John and I here in Anchorage. My Pope .33 Muzzle-Loading bullet fits that barrel perfectly and I can send a bullet to whoever is going to make your mould.

The Pope .32 caliber moulds are typically made with seven bands (.33 are eight) the first three or four are bore diameter .314" the next bands are .3225" and the bottom large band is a tapered band starting at .3225" with the bottom at .327".

The .33 Pope starts out at .330" for the first four bands then .333" .3355" .340" with the bottom large band starting at .340" tapering to .344".

Both Pope bullets have a tapered base band about .005"-.006" over groove diameter. These are made for muzzle-loading and may or may not work in your rifle for breech-loading.

I don't have a .32 Pope rifle here and have not had one for several years so I will try to find my barrel card on it. I have both .32 and .33 caliber Pope moulds but do not have any cast bullets for the .32. The next time I cast bullets I'll run some .32's and see how they measure. The measurements for the .32 I posted was from my old Pope mould that a friend here in town now has.

I've had dismal luck getting a mould maker to make a copy of the Pope .33 caliber mould, the last one was a disaster.

Sorry for the bad picture.

Michael, this is very good news for me.

Regarding the barrel I would like a little more info, what are your final length, is it a gain twist, what are the final ratio and how many grooves does it have, what are the action it is fitted on and what your shooting results are.

I talked to Ron 3 weeks ago about this barrel and I was looking for an 8 grooves barrel like Popes and he could make that if I wanted to,

I would very much like your offer, Paul Jones is the one making the mould so if possible I would like you to mail him 2 bullets and the description you just gave me and maybe the photo and I would like 2 bullets for comparison purpose I will pay you all expenses, the same thing goes for the 32-40 if possible and if it measures to be usable in my bore.

Your picture is fine.

Michael

greetings iisj,

the guys that got me started in schuetzen shortly after WW11, always used the same bullet front or back.. it was just common knowledge. seems a half century later we try and re=invent them.

the purpose for front loading is to try and eliminate the 'feathers' from the base of the bullet.

the bullets mike p is talking about with the larger base band would shoot great breach seated in a few of my 32-40's.

have a g. schoyen and a FBW kit with fm and breach seater, both take the same bulletfront or back..

over on the assra site, 'fitz' has the pope's with fm's AND the molds. we used his bullets as a model and had dave mos hake up some molds. the new bullets drop perfectly into the pope mold.

BTW, daves 25 cal. bullets routinally shoot 250's. jim bourton recently shot a world record with a dave mos mold.


if i can be of some help, give me a hollar. 714-538-7284

good luck and ..ttfn..grampa..

The length is 29", 6-grooves, it's a gain twist and it's whatever Ron says it is, I tried without success to measure the twist. It's on a Ballard and you can see how it preforms on the post I linked.