Kodiak Double - Part 1 casting conicals.

After receiving my "corrected" conical bullet mould for my .72 caliber kodiak, I set up my melting station on my back patio. Casting lead is always a fun thing here in Florida. Nothing like adding fuel to the fire. The new Brook's mould is a beautiful piece of machining and it attached to my Lee handles with no problem. After checking the fit of the mould and melting about 5 pounds of soft pure lead, I cast the first bullet. It looked ok but not perfect so I dumped it back into the pot. After the mould was at the right temperature and I adjusted the heat on the pot, the bullets came out perfect. My goal was to cast 50 conical bullets. I think that is all that I would be able to carry to the range.
On bullet 46, I squeezed the handles on the mould and one broke clean off. 45 bullets would have to do. The bullets are slightly longer than they are wide, but that shouldn't cause a problem even with the slow twist of the barrel. I would have liked them a little shorter. I checked all the bullets for sizing. Bottom rings .724 - top rings .729. Close enough. I threw the test bullet sent by Brooks on the scales and it weighed in at 56 grams. This was with a 30-1 lead to tin (?). Mine were pure lead and weighed in at 58 grams. Conversion is 895 grains!
Realizing that I only had bore butter, which becomes a real mess in the Florida heat, I went into my shop and found a stick of machine tool lube wax. Since it said on the tube that it fought corrosion, I figure that it would be ok.

Although I was ready for the range, I was a bit skeptical about shooting a bullet that was almost twice as heavy as a round ball form my gun. I tossed and turned all night thinking about what the pressure may be in the gun trying to push 2 oz of lead out of the barrel of the Kodiak. I didn't want to hurt myself or even more anyone else around me.

Range report in Part 2.

I arrived at the range with some friends and we got adjoining stations. The range was not crowded, so that would be a good thing. After fretting all night about which load to use, I decided to take the advice from black powder pros in South Africa. These guys shoot more Kodiaks than any other place combined. They know their stuff about those big bore Kodiak doubles. They said start at 90gr of FFg black powder and didn't recommend a substitute for black. FFg Goex would be the powder.
I loaded only the right barrel. The bullet loaded with no difficulty what so ever. I didn't know if that was good or bad.
Sat down on the bench and told my friends on either side of me to step back.
When I touched off the first round the Kodiak went off like a "kick boxing" fire breathing dragon. Quite different from shooting a patched round ball. The first shot was in the black at 50 yards. Shot a few more rounds from the right barrel and all were fairly consistent, even with my increasingly noticeable flinch. It kicked a bunch, but not too punishing.
Went to the left barrel and it seems to cross at 50 yards. Still on target but with a slightly bigger spread. It seems that my right barrel will be my killing barrel and the left will have to be my bonus barrel. After all, it's a muzzleloader. Anything more than one shot is a gimme.
The big test was next. If I load both barrels, will the recoil from the right barrel dislodge the bullet in the left barrel. This is a real concern with these black powder doubles. No one wants a space between the powder and the bullet. Bad things can happen to the barrel.
Even though after all these shots, the barrels required no swabbing to load the bullets. This still concerned me, but the accuracy reminds the same.
I fired the right barrel and then checked the left barrel with the mark on my ramrod. The left bullet was still seated.
I was pretty happy so far with the gun Accuracy could be a little better with the left barrel, but I think I can tweak that with playing with the powder charge.

Part 3...my friends 58 caliber Kodiak... coming up.

Although this doesn't have anything to do with my Kodiak, I feel obligated to tell you about my friend's .58 caliber Kodiak. After all, he purchased it from me.
When I arrived at the range at about 10:30AM, my friend was already there for 2 1/2 hours shooting the Kodiak that he bought from me. He really didn't look too thrilled when I got there and when I looked down range at his target, it was evident why. There were only two stray shots in the backstop. None in the target area. I think you could have fried an egg on his forehead from the combination of the Florida heat and his frustration.
I turned my bench over to my wife and her .22 and I went over to check my buddy's gun out. I asked him to load up the right barrel for me. He put in the exact load that he had been shooting and I shot the gun at his target. I figured that since he hadn't hit the target all day, it would be easy for me to see my shots if they indeed hit the target (or cardboard backstop).
I remember shooting with him about two weeks prior and I shot ok with his gun using the tall rear leaf at 50 yards. The short leaf shot way low.
Shot 1 rt. barrel - 1 1/2" above target - slightly left of center
Shot 2 rt. barrel - 1 1/2" above target - 3" right of shot 1
Shot 3 left barrel - touching target at 3 o'clock position (this would be about 6" lower than right barrel, so they seem to be stacking)
Shot 4 left barrel - 1" right of bulls eye - level with shot 3
Shot 5 rt barrel - real close to shot 1 and 2 above target
Shot 6 left barrel - 1 1/2" left of bulls eye.
In 15 minutes or so, I put 6 shots either in the target or above the target.

My friend loaded both barrels and shot the gun. Nothing in the target or backstop. My friend is usually a good shot. He just cant seem to master the express sights on the gun. We are reaching these sights with a lower more traditional shotgun sight for him and start from there. We will make the adjustments of the rear sight at the range.

Glad to hear you survived shooting the 72 cal. That is a big gun! Do have to send the mold back for the 72 cal or can it be fixed from getting parts at the hardware store?

Actually the part that broke was the handles. I use them for all my moulds, so I need to purchase a set of Lyman or Lee mould handles. About $20-$30. They were pretty new, so I wasn't real happy when they broke.

My friend had a .58, and I enjoyed shooting it, except where the barrels got hot a half second after firing it. I have read that they all don't shoot to point of aim. and several people sent them back for exchanges until they got a good one.