Early Romano 2nd Model Maynard - Does Lyman or Lee 50-70 (515) Work for these

[parkranger]

Folks,

Has anyone used the Lyman or Lee 50-70 (515) mold for their Maynard with decent results? If so are you using them "as cast"? I figure on using one of my own "modified wheelweight concoctions" as the casting alloy.

If not, any recommendations on an NEI mold number that has worked for you.

Romano apparently doesn't sell his molds anymore since when you click on the web page you get an empty page.

Park Ranger

[Dana Hayman]

Park Ranger.

I Just bought Mold from L. Romano about mouth ago. So he is still selling them as far I know. He is a little hard to get ahold of. Phone is the only way I have been able to reach him.

Dana

[Eggman]

Well I guess I'll tread out onto this mine field and make a few dangerous comments. First I have and original Second Model, not a Romano, so it's very possible none of this is valid.
Now as to your original question about using that monstrous .50-70 bullet, I've tried it but had stability problems. Very often I would get a "flier" for no apparent reason. I would often get keyholes. Now the caveat is I only use pure lead. Maybe a harder bullet would have solved this.
Now let me wax philosophical. The original Maynard used a small bullet, not even half the mass of the .50-70. This was propelled by 40 grains of powder giving the little bullet lots of velocity, and lots of spin -- for stability. I shifted to little bullets in my gun and have very acceptable accuracy. I believe my powder charge is greater than the average at 35 grains. I use LOTS of lube.
For what it's worth.
Be advised the Iredell Blues are taking no prisoners this national.

[remington1858]

Well I guess I'll tread out onto this mine field and make a few dangerous comments. First I have and original Second Model, not a Romano, so it's very possible none of this is valid.
Now as to your original question about using that monstrous .50-70 bullet, I've tried it but had stability problems. Very often I would get a "flier" for no apparent reason. I would often get keyholes. Now the caveat is I only use pure lead. Maybe a harder bullet would have solved this.
Now let me wax philosophical. The original Maynard used a small bullet, not even half the mass of the .50-70. This was propelled by 40 grains of powder giving the little bullet lots of velocity, and lots of spin -- for stability. I shifted to little bullets in my gun and have very acceptable accuracy. I believe my powder charge is greater than the average at 35 grains. I use LOTS of lube.
For what it's worth.
Be advised the Iredell Blues are taking no prisoners this national.

I can back Eggman up on this. I also tried the same lyman 50-70 mould without having any luck. My gun is also an original and I had stabilization problems with the larger bullet.

Wes

[Lou Lou Lou]

I had NEI make me up a 520 dia. smith bullet that weighed 500 grains. Gun had a bad bore. Shot slick as heck for over 20 years, till I had to reline the barrel.
Tried the 50/7o bullet with no luck. Bullets are similar, but not identical. Still have 2-3 NEI molds like that.

[parkranger]

Thanks guys, looks like the 50-70 mold doesn't do the trick.

Any thoughts on the Lyman 515390 "Smith" mold?

Park Ranger

[Eggman]

Back to true confessions. I use the Dixie Gun Works Smith bullet in .515 from the haircurler mold. Use the bullet in both Maynard and Smith. Love it. Cut the sprues with a nipper. The Lyman would likely be a good choice.
Everybody is taking off for the national. You may want some more comments in a week or so.

[edrutecki]

Probably 90% of the shooters on the line will be using some variation of the 515 365 bullet. You can find these molds from Lyman, NEI,Rapine, Mike Owsiak, Lee custom molds once sold by Lodgewood and possibly a few others I missed. The Lyman 515139 is handicapped by being a single cavity while Mike Owsiak and NEI will have three cavity molds available. I own all of the above molds except the "custom Lee" and find myself using the Mike Owsiak mold the most with the NEI second. What ever one you choose you really can't go wrong with the 515 365 bullet in a Maynard.