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

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

Ah, Mike I love that bullet. I have a Schoyen 33-40 False Muzzle
outfit. Hhave been looking for a .33 Pope mold for it. No luck so far. But then Hope Springs Eternal. Regards, FITZ.

Fitz, Welcome to the forum it's good to see you here. I have a like new .32 Pope mould that I would trade for .33 Pope mould but to date have no takers. If ANYONE can find a mould maker that can duplicate the Pope mould I'll be happy.

Michael, I'll send some bullets where you want them, get a hold of me at mjpetrov@acsalaska.net

hey fitz,

let me join machael p. in saying welcome. it's great to see you on the site.. you have quite a few other freinds over here. i'm sure they will jump in and lay some insults upon you..

..ttfn..grampa..

I'll have you know that I'd never insult the mighty FITZ, he's been a big help to me and others over the years. And besides, he likes Borchardts!
Regards, Joe

Hey FITZ, no insults from me, but I do intend to continue tweaking you to move down here to the "Sunny South" so we can shoot together more often than just once a year!

MP, have you tried lately to get hold of Dave Mos? He made a run of copies of the Pope tapered .32 mould a few years ago, primarily with the instigation of our old buddy xxGrampa and samples from an original Pope mould provided, IIRC, by the above-mentioned FITZ. I may still have one of those moulds from that batch around here somewhere, I think.

Froggie

this site is beguing to look a lot like Christmas and a lot of fun..

just need brent and ken hurst to hammer on fitz. i'm sure glen would like a poke or two at the rascal.

..ttfn..grampa.

ps.. it's getting to be 6am out here, time for bed..

Thanks' guys a lot of useful information, FITZ I would very much like the description.
Is your 32-40 bullets also tapered at the bottom band like the 33-47? do you have the measurement on the entire bullet as MP?

FITZ do you own a pope 32-40 with FM, if so if I mailed you a mechanical drawing could you then fill in the measurements? The same goes for the schoyen.

With MP help I am going to have Paul Jones to make a copy of this .33 Pope bullet, if it works one can always order another :), I have only good experience with PJ moulds.

Regarding the twist rate I read in the Black Powder Cartridge News #54 page 26 that this 31" .33 RKS barrel starts with twist of 1-29 and ends at 1-14.

I do have a Hoch mould in 38-55 which is supposed to be a copy of a Pope bullet, never had any luck with it.

I normally cast 1:30 at 750F, how soft shall the bullets be for muzzle loading?

mriisj, I can email you a descrition of the Muzzle loading procedure. It is a long winded description so I feel it would be best in a email. You may send me an email to
robertfitzgerald.ma@verizon.net
To all you others, YEA this looks like a user freindly site, thanks Mike and Willis for leading me here. Looking forward to many discussions and swapping of information. Regards, FITZ.

Mike, you and I have had this conversation about Pope molds before. Even with all the wonderfull machine tools available today I have yet to see a modern produced mold that is such a joy to use as a Pope. The man must have just had the touch. Regarding the as new Pope .32 Mold, did you by any chance get it from Mark from NY? I had an opportunity to examine one that was as new back in September at Damiriscotta Maine. Could not convince him to sell it though. Regards, FITZ.