REAL & .675 RB

[wwillson]

RebinPA,

You used the term "REAL" in this post earlier today. I'm interested in what "REAL" means? The .675 RB sounds interesting as well.

Thanks in advance for sharing.

Wayne

[BarryinIN]

REAL is a Lee cylindrical muzzle loader bullet where the REAL letters stand for Rifling Engraved At Loading. It looks like a little tomato juice can.

What I would like to know is- Which came first, the REAL or Maxi-Ball? I have always had the impression the REAL came first, as an improvement over the Minie' and then in turn inspiring the Maxi-Ball, but I don't know where I got that idea. I could have imagined the entire thing.

[wwillson]

I would think the REAL bullet would be a bit difficult to start into the bore and push down the barrel?

Wayne

[BarryinIN]

That's another thing I've wondered about. I wonder if they have a slight taper to them?

Reb?

[RebinPA]

There is a light taper in that the bottom lands fit into bore, but the top one doesn't. The top one does the "work" and follows the rifling. A short-starter is required, at the least for tapping it down into the barrel. Best results are achieved by ramming it down in one stroke afterwards. The more taps and hits it takes, the less accuracy for that shot. They're my current favorite target loads for my Lyman pistol and P1858 Enfield. 5" circle at 100yds w/60gr in Enfield. They're also easier to cast than minies. I can shoot a lot more before swabbing barrel since REALs clean the bore while firing.

The .675 RB is just that, a .675" Round Ball. I make those from hard lead in period style iron clamshell type mold. I harden them further by dropping in cold water right from the mold. I like them harder to prevent deformation in my buck-and-ball loads. My .69cal smoothbore loves 'em.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/177...ost__p__2245473

Here's a link to a post I've made somewhere else showing some of my rounds and "pieces". I'm not setup for posting pics on sites without hosting.

[RebinPA]

The REALs perform well with light loads(50gr vs 60gr for my minies) and they like slower rifling. For minies a 1-in-48 twist is great, but REALs prefer 1-in-66 or 1-in-72. Lee makes a .45 pistol combo mold that I'm looking into to perhaps try some REALs in my revolvers.