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Hello Frank and welcome to the realm of Sniderdom! I've gone through the steps of .577 hollow cavity, round ball and over-bore-sized bullets myself and can attest to the range of results. I agree with what Dantforth is saying, however, you can get some good shooting results from the "correct" .577 projectile. Most of what is experienced as bad results come from the use of bullets that don't duplicate the designs that were worked out during the Snider teething pains. I'm going to over-simplify this here, but basically these used some fairly deep, thin skirted bases with a plug to drive out the skirts into the rifling on firing (so far this is same for the muzzleloading bullets). Part of the problem with the vast majority of muzzleloading .577 bullets is the center of gravity being too far rearward. I don't know why this is a factor for breech-loading and not for muzzleloading, but the deeper cavity shifts the center of gravity forward to help in stabilization. I've researched into this myself and this comes from 2 English brothers that went to the length of making new core plugs for their standard "minie" type moulds. It's a challenge and will take a lot of time (I have yet to make this core plug myself, but I am going this direction), but worth it if you want to duplicate original specs. I'd have to dig around just a bit to find the articles, but I have a complete series of articles on the subject published in the magazine, "Classic Arms". If you're interested, send me a PM and I can photocopy the info and send to you. It's fascinating reading even if you don't decide to go that route.

That said, it's a lot easier at your starting point to go right to an over-bore-size mould. That way you can get started shooting sooner and save any project like what I've described for later. Go to the Cartridges and Reloading forum and start reading. There's a lot there and hopefully you'll find what suits you. Best of luck!

Garret