WTB - 56-50 Spencer reloading items.

[William Sycamore]

Looking for 56-50 brass or loaded. 

[Sedalia Dave]

57 minutes ago, William Sycamore said:

Looking for 56-50 brass or loaded. 

 

If you have a Taylors Spencer, Star line Brass has it instock.

 

https://www.starlinebrass.com/56-50-spencer-taylors-brass

 

 

[Sedalia Dave]

Best bullet profile is the 51-330S from Accurate Molds.  Have Tom modify the design to not include a crimp groove. Also slug your barrel so that you know the diameter of bullet you need. Spencers perform best with softer bullets.  I prefer 20:1 alloy.

 

Spencers are very OAL sensitive hence eliminating the crimp groove so that you can get the OAL correct.

 

You can order a sizing die from Buffalo Arms.

 

I found 23.5 grains of IMR 4227 to be the best performing smokeless powder although you can never go wrong with a full case of FFFg.

 

You can learn volumes over at the Spencer Shooting Society 

[Three Foot Johnson]

As above, Starline brass is in stock.

 

RCBS makes a 350 grain mold (50-350-CM) that works OK for me, although a little short of ideal length and slightly undersized. A lot of us use a modified 500 grain .50-70 Lee mold (515-500-F) with the bottom couple grease grooves turned off. It weighs in at about 325 grains, and has no crimp groove, so it's better suited to black powder loads, and feeds slightly better than the RCBS.

 

Modified Lee on the left, Ten-X pulled factory bullet in the middle, RCBS on the right. Buffalo Arms has a very similar mold to the Lee, but it's listed at $205 and currently out of stock. The Lee mold is under $40 from Amazon and Midway, but if you don't have a buddy with a lathe, you'll probably have to fork over another $50 or whatever to have someone it cut down. Dakota Widowmaker on the Spencer Shooting Society link above used to cut these down and sell them for a very reasonable price. He might still be doing it.

 

IMR-4227 works well, as per Sedalia Dave above, but dang... why in the world would you want to shoot smokeless in a .56-50? 

 

[William Sycamore]

Thanks for the information. I just checked Starline and it still shows it as backordered. I bought this Taylors Spencer and never thought about actually finding brass, thinking it was fairly common or they would not have chambered for it. Live and learn!

[Sedalia Dave]

6 minutes ago, William Sycamore said:

Thanks for the information. I just checked Starline and it still shows it as backordered. I bought this Taylors Spencer and never thought about actually finding brass, thinking it was fairly common or they would not have chambered for it. Live and learn!

 

Go ahead and place an order.  When they get enough demand Starline will do a run and fill the back orders.

 

While 56-50 is tougher to find it is by far the easiest caliber to make function in a Spencer. 

[William Sycamore]

Thanks. I will do that. 

[La Sombra]

Another avenue is https://www.rockymountaincartridge.com/products.htm

 

Pricey, but you might get it sooner than Starline. Ask @Sedalia Dave how long he has been waiting for his 50-90 brass from Starline.

 

La Sombra

[William Sycamore]

Thanks I will try them. 

[Three Foot Johnson]

Good Lord, that 250 count lot of NOS Starline I messaged you about went for $515.00 + $20 shipping. 

[Preacher Kid]

I would buy a box of loaded black powder rounds for an original spencer if you get them up and going. 
 

pk

[Sedalia Dave]

2 hours ago, Preacher Kid said:

I would buy a box of loaded black powder rounds for an original spencer if you get them up and going. 
 

pk

 

The Taylors brass does not work well in an original Spencer. The rim is too small and it does not extract reliably. It also tends to be undersized for the chamber and is easily overworked when resized.

[William Sycamore]

19 hours ago, Three Foot Johnson said:

Good Lord, that 250 count lot of NOS Starline I messaged you about went for $515.00 + $20 shipping. 

Yikes! Maybe I will just watch others shoot their Spencers, lol.