Powders
I will include only a few words about powders for all this shooting because the range of choices is just so great. There are well over 100 different smokeless powders now, and blackpowders are available from here, Germany, and Switzerland. My choice for modern, bottleneck smokeless powder cartridges is Accurate Arms XMP-5744. It burns very consistently without needing any sort of case filler and has a small enough granule size that it powder measures well. For blackpowder shooting I have settled on Swiss 11/2 Fg for the NRA BPCR Silhouette game. For NRA Long Range Target shooting with the .45-70 I use Swiss FFFg because it gives the cartridge extra oomph. When firing the .45-90 cartridge in that game I return to Swiss 11/2 Fg.

According to the author, case neck expanding and belling dies are required for constructing good-quality cast-bullet handloads.

Bulletseating
Now we get to the bulletseating step. For my modern bottleneck cartridges the bullet is seated in the normal manner in a standard seating die with all grease grooves covered, and then I apply a rather heavy crimp. That is to ensure the bullet stays in place during the sometimes rough travel from military rifle magazine into chamber. For my long-range blackpowder match ammunition each bullet is seated with the aid of a Redding micrometer adjustable Competition Seating Die. The spring-loaded inner sleeve of that die helps ensure the alignment of bullet to cartridge case. Before using these rounds in competition, I further check them with a Sinclair concentricity gauge. I find that my rounds seldom have more than .001 inch of run out.

Unlike with the modern bottleneck smokeless powder cartridges where I let the bullet's crimping groove dictate the seating depth of the bullet, with the blackpowder match rounds I have invested considerable experimentation to determine seating depth. For instance, my Lone Star Rolling Block and Shiloh Sharps Model 1874 .40-65s give best groups with the 425-grain Brooks Turkey Killer bullet to be seated with one grease groove exposed.

My custom Remington Rolling Block and C. Sharps Arms Model 1874 .45-70s and my Shiloh Model 1874 Sharps .45-90 like the Brooks and Mos Postell bullets to be seated with all grease grooves covered. That C. Sharps Arms Model 1874 .45-70 is one I have won some awards with (but nary a first place yet!) in the 800-, 900-, and 1000-yard events. And I did the shooting with the Brooks 544-grain Creedmoor seated with two full grease grooves exposed.

After all is said and done, just how well does my 100- to 1000-yard ammunition shoot? I've enclosed some of my favorite loads as samples in the accompanying chart, but I'll give these details. No major problem has been encountered in getting my 1903 Springfield .30-06s or the U.S. Krag .30-40 to give groups from 11/2 to 2 MOA at 100 yards. The British SMLE No. 4 Mark 1 .303 and the Model 1917 Enfields are more like 2 to 3 MOA shooters.

I won't compete with one of my BPCR Long Range rifles unless it will deliver groups of about 11/2 MOA at 300 yards. (The longest range I can test loads at on my own property.) And I've managed to shoot myself into the Master Class in both of those very difficult shooting sports.

Perhaps I was lucky in my early years in that I was forced to go the cast-bullet route in my reloading endeavors. It made me appreciate that species of projectile and has caused me to get the very most enjoyment out of handloading.