Howdy to the camp,
Well I a about ready to try the new Taylor's 56-50, except the monsoons are still drenching the northern Sierra Nevada mountains!
I got Lyman 56-50 (Taylor's) dies from Dave Gullo at Buffalo Arms, with more brass and lead coming from him.
I got some factory ammo from Ken at Ten-X (both Smokeless and BP) for the article. Also got some Starline 56-50 brass and some lead slugs (350 grain, .512 dia.) from Ken also. Loaded up about 50 rounds of them with 37.5 grains Hodgdon's Triple 7 with WMR primers. That load is a might compressed (maybe an 1/8" or less), but should be OK.
Problem is, raining to hard to shoot!
Some initial observations:
The roll crimp die on the Lyman die is too long. WHen seated against the shell holder, it barely crimps at all. I had to take a flat file and take about 1/32" off of it so it would give a good crimp.
Also, the case belling die of the Lyman die is too long before it gets to the belling "bump". If you put it deep enough to bell the case. the end of it expands the case above the head where the brass is thicker. I will need to shorten the nose on the expander.
The 37.5 grains of Hodgdon's Triple Seven (LEE 2.5 cc dipper) I used in my 56-56 is slightly more compressed in the 56-50 with the 350 grain bullet. with BP, you could probably go about 40 grains of FFG or 42 of FFFG and compress it more.
When the brass comes from Buffalo Arms, I will load some FFG and FFFG loads too.
The rear sight (battle sight) on the Taylor's has too small of a notch. No daylight on either side. I took a very fine machinist's file and opened it up just a tad, and it now has a perfect sight picture.
The trigger is fairly heavy, but I am not going to lighten it until after I shoot the test shots for the article.
Maybe tonight the rain will stop for a few minutes!