Finally measured my .44 SBH Huh?

[hunter64]

I have a nice old .44 mag Super Black Hawk that I picked up at a gun show last fall for a song. I took it to the range a couple of times and with some hornady hollow point 240grn it was ok, nothing spectacular to write home about. Last time out I thought I would run some Lyman Keith 429421 240 Grn. and see what happens. It did ok at 2" at 25 yards but when it came time to clean at home the barrel was slightly leaded. So I cleaned it out and it sat for a couple of months and finally yesterday I remembered I needed to slug the barrel and it came out .4315-.432 huh. I tried my dial caliper and my micrometer and they all said the same. My other 44's are .429 or .430 not that big. Now what? I have read about beagling the mold but a stupid question here, doesn't that leave a small fin on the bullet? I guess you could just remove it. I wish I had seen the group buy for the larger Lee mold earlier.

[Ricochet]

A more important question is, how big are the throats of the cylinder? If you've got a .4315" groove barrel and a .430" cylinder, Beagling your mould isn't going to help a thing.

[mike in co]

yep..gotta measure the throats....
my clyinder is about .4326...now that makes one go hmmmmmmm....

sized to 432 they barely drop thru the cylinder,,,,and have slowly polished the 429 tight (threaded) section of the bbl.

all is well 5/8-3/4 groups at 25yds!

[gregg]

My SBH made in 74 or 75..
throats and barrel .433

[44man]

No problem at all if the throats are larger, except finding a mold. Beagling might work fine though. Never know until you try.

[beagle]

The beagling process only seperates the mould a small amount. I was surprised when I was working on the concept that it didn't leave a fin either.

It starts to leave a fin only when you get to about .005" of enlargement. Normally a strip of tape on either side does not seperate the halves enough to get flashing./beagle

[cbrick]

hunter64, listen to Ricochet, if your bore is larger than the throats it doesn't matter in the slightest how large you make your bullets. The throats are bullet sizing dies and when they exit the throat they will be throat diameter regardless of bore diameter. If the throats are smaller than the bore (groove) diameter the throats will need to be reamed to bore diamter by a competent smith or accuracy loss and leading will be the result.

Rick

[hunter64]

Forgot to mention that the throats are .4325 so I will be fine in that direction.

Beagle: What kind of tape do you use, metal tape obviously but is it shim stock or something like that from an automotive store? What do you use for glue?

Thanks for the replys guys. Learn something every time I jump on here.

[Char-Gar]

I have a 1963 Ruger SBH with a .431 barrel and .433 cylinder throats. Shoots very well with bullets .431 to .432. I don't see that you have a problem.

[hunter64]

For tape I was thinking of that aluminum tape that you can buy at an auto parts store that is used to patch a whole in the muffler. I have a gun show to go to today but I will give it a try tonight if I get the time.

[Treeman]

You can also use aluminium foil and a high temp adhesive (J.B Weld, Hi Temp Silicone etc.)Regular foil gives about .001 per layer heavy duty-.002-.003. Stick on with adhesive, close blocks tightly, open blocks and clean up adhesive that squeezed out.

[hunter64]

Treeman: I had the exact same idea. I went to the auto store and the muffler repair tape is good for 250F so I bought some high temp glue and some tin foil and will give it a run after supper tonight.

[Swagerman]

Seems like I read in Handloader Magazine that the .455 S&W revolvers of WW-1 era, had a simular problem of the cylinder throats being smaller than the barrel rifling. It was overcome by using HOLLOW BASE BULLETS, good accuracy was the result.

I don't know if this is your answer to your Black Hawk problem, but it wouldn't hurt to try it before beageling.

Got a .455 S&W that's been converted to .45 Colt caliber, its of the same time period. Hollow base bullets work very well in it.

I have swaging equipment that can hollow base any lead bullet already made from the mould. This requires special nose punches and swaging dies...but it works fine.

Jim