Slug gun and Picket rifle bullets - photos

[Dan]

The bullet used by the slug gun pictured in the thread about home made muzzle loaders:



The lineup and some stats, left to right:

CCI Subsonic LR HP
.422" 300 grain paper patch, tapered
.463" 2 piece swagged picket bullet
.530" Lewis style belted picket bullet
.543" Lewis style, double belted picket bullet
.532" Picket bullet
.495"(nose) and .511"(base) slug gun bullet, 800 grains.  Nose is alloyed, base is pure lead.  Fired with paper patch and about 150 grains of Swiss 1-1/2 FG.
.554" slug gun bullet of 997 grains, also using 150 grains of Lord Black.  The gun shooting this one is pictured below, built by Perry.  It also uses a 1,300 grain 2 piece swagged bullet when the owner feels man enough.

[Daryl]

That would thump pretty good, even with the heavy gun.

[Dan]

That it does.

[ottawa]

why the lead aloy with a pure lead base? not pure lead for the hole bullet?

[Dan]

The theory of it is to prevent the nose from slumping(harder alloy) and use the soft base as a seal when it obturates.  That particular bullet is designed  as a bore rider in the nose section.  Based on its performance I'd say it works.  Keep in mind that slug guns run at substantially higher pressures that workaday muzzle loaders.

The other two piece bullet is a puzzle to me as I believe the nose is soft and base hard, this due to the oxidation present on the base section.  Pure lead does not do that to any significant degree, but alloy will.  It is a picket bullet and a great many things were tried to make those rifles shoot, some with more success than others. I have no idea what theory was at play there.  I have read of some folks doing that for hunting bullets and that I understand.  Sort of a muzzle loader "partition" design.

[RobertS]

Very cool, thanks for sharing-