loads for wilkerson bullet

[red leg]

I want load information on the Wilkerson bullet. I will be shootin a Colt 2 bander with Hoyt barrel, Hard lead or soft , type powder and amount etc. Thank you for your input. Red Leg

[Muley Gil]

I don't have any load info, but ALWAYS use pure, soft lead in any muzzleloader.

[Don Dixon]

I assume that you are talking about one of Greg Edington's Wilkinson bullets. If you are, the following will work:

Dead soft lead, sized not more than .001 to .002 inches under bore size. 45 to 50 grains of Swiss FFFg. MCM lube. Put the nose of the bullet in the plastic tube, and make one quick dip of the base in the melted lube. The grooves in the bullet are compression grooves, not lubrication grooves. If you fill them with lube, the bullet will not compress properly, will not take the rifling reliably, and will not shoot well.

Regards,
Don Dixon
2881V

[Tom Magno, 9269V]

In addition to Don's post, I will add that the fit of the bullet to bore is more important than the powder charge. The bullet must be a slip fit - not so large as to engrave the rifling, and not too small to drop down the barrel. The weight of the ramrod should be sufficient to push the bullet down. Once down on the powder, do not slam -seat the bullet, only a firm smooth push to the powder with maybe one light tap to ensure it does not follow the ramrod back up. If you bang it down on the powder like a lot of people do with minnies, it will tilt and deform and not be at all accurate. The Wilkinson bullet form out performed the minie in US Army testing, so it has high potential in skirmishing - it was not practical for mass production because of the variances in bore sizes and the requirement to fit properly for adequate accuracy. In battlefield conditions/fouled barrels, the Minie was the better round.

As for powder, I shoot a .54 Wilkinson over 43grains 3F goex. Don's note above about lube is absolutely dead on balls accurate. A dip will do 'ya, and that's all. If you have to size them, use a nose first push thru type. Don't use a base-first lube-sizer, it will pre-compress the grooves, and it will fill it with lube, neither of which helps accuracy with these types of bullets.

[Gary Van Kauwenbergh, 101]

I shoot a Wilkison bullet in my Lorenz rifled muskets - the one with a single compression groove. My load is 43.5 grains of GOEX FFFg. Your .58 cal may be different, but that's a good starting place.