My favorite .40-caliber BPCR Silhouette bullet is a Brooks "Turkey Killer" design of 425 grains (1:20 alloy) with pointed nose and four grease grooves. When shooting .45-caliber rifles in BPCR Silhouette I have been using Creedmoor-style roundnose bullets. These are a 513-grain bullet by Brooks or a similarly shaped 530-grain one from Mos. Both bullets have three very wide and deep grease grooves.

Mike's cast-bullet handloads are capable of fine accuracy. The .30-06 2.00-inch group is at 100 yards while the .40-65 3.5-inch group is at 300yards.

For the 800-, 900-, and 1000-yard matches I use another Creedmoor-style bullet that weighs 544 grains from a mold made by Steve Brooks. It is a little different than normal in that the diameter of the bullet for the top two grease grooves is the same diameter as the nose. That way it can be seated far out of the cartridge case, making more room for powder. I went this route because I wanted to make a .45-70 powerful enough for the Long Range matches and by seating the bullet so far out was able to increase the blackpowder charge almost 10 grains.

Instead of sizing those bullets used for long-range competition the molds are ordered to drop the bullets at the rifle's barrel groove diameter. For instance, that is .408 inch for .40-65 and .458 inch for all .45 calibers. Then the bullets are run into lube/sizing dies slightly larger--.410 inch for the .40 caliber and .459 inch for .45 caliber. The lube is applied speedily, but the bullets are not touched by the die during the operation.

Preparing The Case
When it comes to preparing the cartridge cases for reloading, the steps are the same for 100-yard and 1000-yard ammunition. I full-length size the brass, mainly because I have more than one rifle in each caliber and want to ensure easy chambering in all of them. Next, the primer pockets are uniformed with a Sinclair Primer Pocket Uniformer. Last, the case mouths are expanded and belled with a Lyman M-Die. The M-Dies have a stepped stem.

The smaller part expands the inside of the cartridge case to a proper dimension to accept cast bullets, and the larger part bells the case mouth so that the bullet's base can be started without damage. Lyman sells M-Dies for virtually all bore sizes from .22 to .50, and I consider them indispensable for all cast-bullet shooting.

When it comes time to put powder charges into the cases, I again use two very different methods. For the modern, bottleneck .30-caliber cartridges I simply drop the desired charge from a Redding Competition BR-30 powder measure. It holds the smokeless powder charges within a couple tenths of a grain, which is fine for 100-yard shooting.

For the blackpowder loads meant for long-range shooting I hand weigh each one to plus/minus .1 grain. Then I drop each of those hand-weighed powder charges down a 24-inch drop tube, taking about five seconds to trickle each one in. I don't know why, but drop-tubed blackpowder charges burn more cleanly and consistently. And I should mention that this is not a new trick; the original Sharps Rifle Co. also marketed drop tubes among its other reloading tools.