1:48 - Copper/Lead bullets

[CVShooter]

Thanks to Tom-ADC for setting me up with my first muzzleloader! I'm reading the Lyman manual and picking up all the knick-knacks I'll need before my first range trip. As this will be primarily a hunting rifle, I need a little help with bullet selection.

For my .308, I've paired 125 grain lead with 130 grain copper bullets and cannot tell the difference in the point of impact out to 300+ yards. It is a great practice & hunting combo for me. I run the exact same powder charge for both bullets.

Thinking I'd like to try the same thing for the muzzleloader, I picked up some Hornady XTP (lead) in 240 grain and some Barnes Expander MZ (copper) in 250 grains. However, once I got them home & opened them up, there was a huge difference in the length of the bullets. Both are HP but the barnes is such a deep HP that it ends up being about 30-50% longer than the Hornady. I expect a copper to be longer but these were a lot longer than I expected.

Barnes recommends twist rates of 1:16 - 1:34 -- more appropriate for in-lines than Hawkens. Any idea how these might do in my rifle? Are they likely to require different charges to get similar points of impact out to 100 yards? Or should I be ordering some lead-free round ball rather than messing around with conicals & sabots?

[Super Chicken]

Where does on procure said lead-free round balls? Are they DFG or wildlife or whatever they call themselves now approved? Pardon the questions instead of answers reply!

[Henry Shooter]

Where does on procure said lead-free round balls? Are they DFG or wildlife or whatever they call themselves now approved? Pardon the questions instead of answers reply!

Ballistics Products sells Non Toxic round ball

here:

https://www.ballisticproducts.com/

[CVShooter]

Where does on procure said lead-free round balls? Are they DFG or wildlife or whatever they call themselves now approved? Pardon the questions instead of answers reply!

I don't know if they're CA approved but they certainly honor the spirit of the law. If a warden was unconvinced and wanted to push things, I'd make my case to the judge with a lot of confidence.

[Super Chicken]

Thank you sir, I appreciate your input.

Cheers.

[CVShooter]

Just heard back the official word from Barnes. None of their bullets are expected to stabilize at 1:48. Ordered some ITX round balls. Fine by me. I think I'll like the more traditional side of things anyway.

[CVShooter]

Looks like the ITX round ball is approved after all.

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=91765&inline

[Super Chicken]

Soooo bloody cool! Thank you, I didn't dig deep enough. I like to woods roam & this will be an awesome way to hike/hunt with a cap and ball revolver. Thank you Sir.