The copper plug is actually a very thin copper tube, fixed in place during the final swaging operation. I have dimensions on them, too.
Tom should be able to make a mold - I used to, but I'm retired now. The 255 grain bullet is the same, but with no hollow and plug. You can fill the hollow with wax, it'll do the same thing.
Have you read "The Modern Sportsman's Gun and Rifle Vol.2" by J.H. Walsh 1883? If not, you need to.
The only guy making correct Express bullets (only for the .450) is Jim Poynor in Virginia. Very deadly with a lung shot on deer, that's for sure.
Mike, Walsh is one of those books I have read discrete parts of, and not the whole thing, not even half of it. He was opinionated, occasionally wrong, and never in doubt, from what I read of his own words. I do agree with you that his book is a must-have for the people shooting these old British double and single BPE rifles.
Someone riffed the flat-nose .450 BPE PP mould I had Tom make me, and now there is a historically accurate (pointed) 350-grain PP bullet design for the .450 BPE at Accurate Molds.
After fruitlessly searching everywhere for a 220-230 grain .400" mold, I concluded Accurate is going to have make one for me. If this round was as common as Helsley says, you would think the molds or bullets would be out there, even listed in the old catalogues, which they are not (that I can see). Then again, he is the Originator of The Helsley Principle
, so I am automatically condemned to having to go through all kinds of gyrations to get this gun to shoot.
Thanks for your advice, Mike, hope you enjoy retirement. Sorry that you are not working, and it is nice you are still lurking about these forums, chipping in whenever.
