To all here. xxgrampa has it right. I shoot a Pope 38-55 and use the same bullet muzzle loaded or breech seated. The Base band on all Pope molds I have used and examined is quite large, usually larger than Groove size by .002 to .003. I am curently shooting a Pope 32-40 bullet in three different 32-40 Rifles and the base band measures .327 out of the mold. They all accept it easily breech seated and shoot superbly. The 38-55 Pope bullet that came with the 38-55 outfit casts a bullet that is tapered to .384 at the base. It also breech seat easily. One of the clues to muzzle loading is soft alloy. If it is too hard an alloy you will beat your hand up driving it thru the false muzzle.If it does not go thru cleanly with one strike it will shoot differently. Every time you strike it with the bullet starter it will bump a little and then shoot to a different zero. The real value in my mind to muzzle loading is with black powder as someone here suggested. The benefit is the bore is scraped clean for every shot and pre-
lubricated for the next shot, also the bullet is engraved to the rifling and the base has the finns from seating into the rifling pulled forward. Having said this, it takes a lot of physical WORK
to shoot a 100 or 50 shot match muzzle loading. If someone wishes I will describe the process. HTH Regards, FITZ
