Hex felt wads are only needed if you are shooting a flat-based bullet. If your bullet has a hollow base or even just a minimal hollow base, all a felt hex wad will do with a hollow base is fill up the base cavity.
Here is a 540 grain RCBS .451 conical with shallow hollow base that can be used without a hex wad (if you want to try it.) They expand and emerge from a Whitworth barrel as a hex bullet, and shoot just as well as the mechanically-fitted bullets without all of the fuss. Whitworth's .577 large bore shot a specially designed 600-grain hollow pointed (wood plugged) conical out to 1,200 yards (1864). Later, in 1869, one of the .577 large bore rifles was equipped with a Davidson scope and used in trials at 2,000 yards.
https://www.buffaloarms.com/451-pape...mould-rcb57926
Last edited by R. McAuley 3014V; 03-05-2018 at 03:24 PM.
First Cousin (7 times removed) to Brigadier General Stand Watie (1806-1871), CSA
1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles | Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation 1862-66
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