Lee REAL advice needed

[icehunter121]

I just finished casting out 408 pounds of wheel weights and finished with filling the pot with pure lead.I only have about 30 pounds of it and was wondering...is it worth it to cast out a bunch of real bullets and try them or stick with PRB instead?I have a 50 cal real mould that was included with my last purchase. What kind of lube do you use on them? Do you patch them or just stuff em down the barrel. As I have never played with them any advice would be greatly appreciated..

 

[sahara]

I shoot 50 cal R*E*A*L's in my gun over 90 to 110 grains of powder. Love them. Super accurate, easy to cast, easy to load. You don't patch them, just use normal black powder bullet lube. I save the thick fat off my deer and mix it with beeswax to lube mine.

 

[icehunter121]

I shoot 50 cal R*E*A*L's in my gun over 90 to 110 grains of powder. Love them. Super accurate, easy to cast, easy to load. You don't patch them, just use normal black powder bullet lube. I save the thick fat off my deer and mix it with beeswax to lube mine.

Hmm when I got the rifle and mold and stuff I also got a tube of Tc arms Maxi lube. Its in a yellow tube. So do I just take my fingies and give the slug a coating or does the grooves have to be full of the stuff? The fella that sold me the rifle and stuff is a member in here,but it was his dads rifle and he passed away in 1987 and the rifle was never shot since! Hence forth the questions...

 

[smellie]

Grooves do not have to be full. There is a blurb in the Lee Catalog about these.

What I would like to know is if anyone has tried these in a breechloader.......?

 

[antiqueguy]

Grooves do not have to be full. There is a blurb in the Lee Catalog about these.

What I would like to know is if anyone has tried these in a breechloader.......?

working on that right now just don't want to shell out the money for a .45 3 groove REAL mold and not have it work my idea is because the front band is about .468 and the bottom one is small enough to in .45 colt case using it in my .45 colt/.410 to .577-450 adaptor (mine happens to be bored .468 right through) and make up something i call the .470 colt

 

[Goldenlakepete]

What weight does your mold cast? I had both 250 gr and 320 gr REAL conical molds and found that the 250 gr was much less accurate than the 320 gr.

 

[Tex Critter]

I use Lee Liquid Alox and tumble my REAL bullets.

 

[icehunter121]

What weight does your mold cast? I had both 250 gr and 320 gr REAL conical molds and found that the 250 gr was much less accurate than the 320 gr.

Who"s mold?? I just weighed a slug and mine is at 350 grains...We thought it was a real mold but evidently not! I can post a pic of a slug if any one wants to see.

 

[Goldenlakepete]

Who"s mold?? I just weighed a slug and mine is at 350 grains...We thought it was a real mold but evidently not! I can post a pic of a slug if any one wants to see.

REAL is a Lee Trade Mark. Here's some of my 320 gr ones. The 2 on the bottom were fired through a 4 litre water container into a box of tightly packed papers.

 

[smellie]

REAL is very much a LEE proprietary design and stands for "Rifling Engraved At Loading".

The idea is ridges to catch the rifling down the side of the bullet, but with the ridges increasing in diameter toward the FRONT of the bullet: the basemost ridge will just barely catch the rifling, the next one forward moreso and so forth. The ridges are tapered in order to make loading the bullet MUCH easier than it would be with conventional bullets, which either would have to be patched or hammered all the way down. With a REAL bullet, you have something which LOADS almost as fast as a Minie but with a much greater potential for ACCURACY. The ridges are also designed to clean the bore while the bullet is being rammed home; some shooters report cleaning their rifle just once after a day's shooting, rather than cleaning several times during the day, once after each string.

It is because of their performance in modern Muzzleloaders that I was querying their use in BREECHloaders, knowing all too well the problems which the Royal Laboratory had with trying to make the Snider shoot as well as its muzzle-loading parent.

 

[tiriaq]

Grooves do not have to be full. There is a blurb in the Lee Catalog about these.

What I would like to know is if anyone has tried these in a breechloader.......?

I have shot them in a Starr breech loading carbine, although not enough to say that they are better or worse than alternatives. The chamber is cut for a paper cartridge, so the situation probably isn't applicable to a conventional cartridge. I breech seat the bullet, then load loose powder.

I assume that the back end of the bullet upsets on firing, if the bullet is cast soft.