Bob,

  On primers....... With BP I prefer regular rifle size. Win.large rifles to be concise. I've tried the magnums and as far as I'm concerned they don't work as well as standards. With that said a friend thinks the magnum rifles work better for him. I should caveat this by saying we're both talking about igniting .50/90SS full house loads. So I believe that if a regular LR primer will ignite up to 110 grs. of 1F BP with minimum ES/SD's, then I think standards will work with any load. My thinking is you need enuf flame to ignite the powder adequately, but not enuf to push the charge out of the case before proper pressure is built up.

  With smokeless I prefer to use Rem. 2 1/2's which is kind of a standard for shooting Schuetzen in the .32/40 & .38/55 class of cartridges. When I go to smaller cases such as the .28/30 I go to the CCI BR-4 primers for both smokeless and BP.

  Grease grooves........ Yes. Deeper, wider, grease grooves are a necessity when using BP, and if you ever have a chance to look at moulds made when BP was king you'll see that's how they were made. But it's not necessary with smokeless, and, again, if you will look at most of the custom moulds made today for smokeless Schuetzen you'll see most of the will have narrow, shallow, grooves. If you plan on shooting both BP & smokeless I would get moulds with wide, deep grease grooves. These bullets can be used with smokeless just by regulating the number of grooves you fill. I've even had to reduce the amount of lube on a bullet shooting BP in order to get rid of flyers due to lube purging. As for should the grooves be deeper than the rifling, it would be pretty hard to find a mould that this wasn't true for.

  Moulds to buy...... Both Lyman & RCBS make very good moulds, and I have several of each, not to mention those I have from Hoch, Brooks, NEI, LBT, SAECO, Corbin, and quite a few I & a friend have made over the years for special jobs. If the mould is from a "commercial" maker then you will have to be careful that the mould you get will suit the powder you want to shoot as mentioned above. Custom makers of course will make anything you want within their capacity to do so.

  Sorry to hear about your blood levels. I also do quite a bit of pistol & rifle shooting, plus casting, but so far I'm still "safe" after 50 yrs. of casting. Like you tho, a friend has had to go thru the treatment to purge his blood of high Lead content, so I'm trying to be more careful. Both my doc and his, and I'm sure yours, told us the best thing you can do is to be sure and wash your hands after casting or handling cast bullets. Another friend has been casting commercially for years and he uses a good ventilation system and the last I heard his Lead level was well within safe limits.

PETE

  Pete;
      I think we've covered most everything,but while I was looking into bbl.makers I find one(Pac-Nor)who not only offers many twist rates but also you get to choose:3,5,or 6 lands.
  Any thoughts on this?And have I missed anything.
                                                                   Bob

  Pete:
       And speaking of rifling and such:If you should find such information soon let me know,could be interesting....It is also what intrigues me about whitworth rifling if it can be called that.Thanks again for your input.
                                          Bob

  Mike-t
        thanks for the reply.Yes I would be interested in your results.I was on the verge of going with a CPA when I saw the Wesson action.The rest is history now.We'll see!!
                                           Good Luck
                                                        Bob