Popsbengo

Alan Westlake warned most strongly about using those - soft lead only.

I tried undersizing using a Lee sizing die to resize the wadcutters I purchased from Alan W, as you say, better fit but very poor accuracy. Can't be bothered with casting, I don't shoot enough pistol to warrant the effort. Also I'm not very good.... I wondered about making a press that was sleeved so stopping the bullet distorting under pressure, never got past musing on paper.

You have a great deal more luck than I did with my 4" Westlake Alpha. I just could not get on with it, extremely difficult to load the bullets I purchased off Westlake without distorting the wadcutters, extremely sensitive to charge weight and of course that's a tiny weight of eg Herco. I have a mate with a 6" model, he loves it but has resorted to casting his own bullets to get a decent fit. In a nutshell I hated mine with a passion. Thankfully there are plenty of people after them so it was easy to move on. I have far better results with my Euroarms Roger & Spencer .44 cap & ball. I would agree that Mr Westlake is a charming chap and a pleasure to do business with.

The best! I must be on a 'node' of the postman's delivery route wrt bundle size so plenty of gathered discarded bands. Of course the critical question is what colour band? (Sent from Golgafrincham B Ark)

Excellent - what make of rubber bands should I use and have you considered differing rubber compounds? 😂 seriously, it's an interesting outcome, I look forward to further testing

Never let reality get in the way of a good story,

Arrived safely thanks John, perfect condition and a perfect fit for my canon. Thanks very much mate

OH NO! not the shouty 'Merican 😂

Could be the explanation. I would expect the wax to have some affect. When I clean it takes about 50 rounds to get back to acceptable performance. I could clean, try CCI mini-mag and see. Then again I'll just fire a not-fouling shot 😉 and carry on as mini-mag shoots really very badly in my 455

I expect it also means that the barrel can be made slightly 'looser' so reducing friction, reducing pressure, reducing stress impulses etc Here's an odd one that needs some explanation: my CZ455 16" is very accurate at 20yds bench rest with RWS rifle match. However the first shot out of the stone cold barrel always goes high and left by about 1moa. I'm satisfied it's not the soft nut behind the trigger. the problem is there with other ammo too but there's a general loss of precision. If I leave my rifle for say an hour after 20 shots and shoot again, the 'flyer' is not seen, it's bang on target I clean once a year if it needs it or not😀

yes, seen those. Just interested in alternative ideas that may have been tried - I'm not advocating for it just academic interest. The structure of naval gun barrels and artillery barrels are interesting, the use of pre-stressed steel sleeves etc.

that's what I've read - I think it's an excellent example of practical empirical method delivering benefits.

Damn! who'd have thunk it? Bloody ballistics expert got it right, 😂🤣

and mine

Quite a bit different to your original guesstimate of 2.5mS for 16". I've drawn a more representative curve and recalculated = 1.57mS ± some beans We need 1066 to chop the barrel at 1.5 " 😂