Bullet design for 44 special in SW 329?

[oldandslow]

Greetings all, 1/21/12

Thanks mainly to all your help I have had great success in my .45 and 9mm casting with Tom's Accurate molds. I am now ordering another Accurate Mold for shooting 44 special out of my SW 329 44mag revolver. Do I have to pick a particular bullet design to avoid shaving the bullet on the 44 mag shoulder in the cylinders? I am looking at Tom's 43-240-T or 43-250-E molds.

thanks and best wishes- oldandslow

[kbstenberg]

If you have already slugged your barrel and cylinder you know what diameter bullet you need. The largest of the measurements + .001" will bee the mold casting diameter. Say the barrel measures .429 an your throats measure .430 then you need a mold that casts at .431 or larger.
When ordering Tom's molds you can specify what the diameter has to be.
Welcome to the neighberhood. The welcome wagon will be around shortly.
Kevin

[stubshaft]

When specifying the diameter also specify the alloy.

[oldandslow]

Thanks for the input.

I've slugged the barrel and it runs 0.4295" so I am tentatively going to order a mold in 0.431" from Tom. I still need to slug the cylinders. But my question is on the bullet design- will certain bullet designs shave more when contacting the 44 magnum shoulders in the cylinder than other designs since the 44 special seats quite a bit shorter than the 44 mag. (ie- large meplat, rounded ogive, etc.)? Thanks.

best wishes- oldandslow

[Forrest r]

I've owned several 44spl pistols over the years, currently have a 624 61/2" bbl'd target pistol that that shoots 428383 wc (180g) exclusively. In the past I've used any bullets in the long bbl'd 44spls.

For some reason the lighter 44 bullets seemed to do better in the short bbl'd 44spl's that I've owned, in the 200g to 220g range. I always liked a round nosed design, huge hp or a bullet with a small meplat (lee 214g swc) for slow moving bullets from a short bbl'd pistol. Those bullet designs will either hit harder or penetrate further at slower speeds.

[Mk42gunner]

But my question is on the bullet design- will certain bullet designs shave more when contacting the 44 magnum shoulders in the cylinder than other designs since the 44 special seats quite a bit shorter than the 44 mag.

oldandslow,

I had to read both your posts before I realized what you are asking.

You should not get any shaving of the boolit when it hits the transition from the chamber to the throat in the cylinder; there should be a taper, not an abrupt shoulder.

With that said, I can offer no ideas as to what mold may be more accurate; the only .44 Specials that I can remember firing in my old Redhawks were some Glaser Safety Slugs (they shot about a foot and a half low at 25 yards IIRC).

Robert

[Shuz]

You should not get any shaving of the boolit when it hits the transition from the chamber to the throat in the cylinder; there should be a taper, not an abrupt shoulder.

With that said, I can offer no ideas as to what mold may be more accurate; the only .44 Specials that I can remember firing in my old Redhawks were some Glaser Safety Slugs (they shot about a foot and a half low at 25 yards IIRC).

Robert[/QUOTE]

I agree with Robert. I have a 329PD, and I once had a problem with even mild loads like, 8g of Green Dot and a 429421, jumping crimp and tying up the cylinder. I solved the problem by reducing the diameter of my expander plug. This gave me greater neck tension and the boolits no longer jump crimp. All my loads were in .44 mag cases, but you may wanna visit this situation with the .44 Special as well. At 26 ounces, that gun tends to act like a bullet puller no matter what you put thru it!

[theperfessor]

For a lighter bullet I like the Lee 429-200 RF. It works nicely in several .44 Specials I own.

[mooman76]

+ 1 with what the professor said. It's a nice plinker in my 44 special and mag.

[Lizard333]

This is just something you are going to try and see. Some guns like different boolets. They can be picky that way. Frankly I haven't had issues shooting any cast out of a revolver. Auto-loaders are another issue.

I bet if you wanted to try a specific boolet for gun before you pulled the trigger on a mould purchase, someone here could probly send you some to try. People here are pretty nice about that. I only have the Lyman molds and a Lee for my 44's. If you interested in any of those send me a PM.

[captaint]

While having both the 429421 types and the 200gr round flat types, I kinda prefer the round flat designs. Honestly, they both shoot real well in HP and solid. I have a single action 44spl that really likes one of the MP designs in 200gr round flat. Haven't shot them in the 44mag though. enjoy Mike

[EDK]

You want a kick a** boolit design...get a full wadcutter.

You want something that loads easy and MAY NOT have the lead scraping (your gun might need some adjusting rather than the ammo.) problems, get a round nose flat point aka cowboy boolit. (I'm waiting on a MIHEC 434640 cramer hollow point mould....the LYMAN Devastator hollow point.) The 200 and 240 grain LYMAN Cowboy bullets are a good design IMHO and I'm sure Tom has something as good or better....contact him and lay out your wishes and see what he recommends.

FWIW I had two of the first issue S&W 625-2 revolvers in 45 ACP in 1988/89. Fire a dozen rounds PER GUN and cartridges wouldn't chamber...run a brass brush through the chambers and repeat as necessary. S&W did a recall. It seems that they had new chambering reamers ground by a new guy...the old guy had retired...and he had a nice square corner on the reamers. Unfortunately, the reamers needed a small chamfer to eliminate the lead scraping and the knowledge went out the door with the old guy years before. They called "Harry" and he diagnosed the problem immediately and told them what to do...after he quite laughing. You might want to examine your guns for something similar.

:redneck::cbpour::2gunsfiring_v1:

[Grandpas50AE]

In my experience, Tom is very good to work with. I had an idea of a boolit design I liked for the .38 Super, emailed him Friday last week, got an email from him last Saturday morning that he had jsut added that design to his catalog for me, ordered it that morning, and it came today. I didn't have specific measurements or an engineering drawing, but when I referenced what I had looked at for a boollit, he seemed to know where to find an image of it and had it that quick. Email him and tell him what you're thinking and I'm sure he will be able to make a suggestion or have something close for you to look at.

[Dark Helmet]

I'd load in mag cases, the boolit in them will let you see easily that it is a reduced/different load, then you won't have to worry about a crud ring building up in your 329's chambers or the boolit catching the end of the chambers.

[oldandslow]

Thanks for all the suggestions, 1/22/12

When I look at the shoulder (through a borescope) inside the cylinder it looks pretty abrupt and I still worry about the 44 special loads shaving off lead as they make the jump from the shorter 44 special case to the cylinder throat. I'll order a mold from Tom and if it looks like there is significant leading then I will use Dark Helmet's suggestion and load 44 special loads in full size 44 magnum brass. The only bad thing is that I just received 200 new 44 special cases from Starline and I hate to waste them. Thanks again

best wishes- oldandslow

[Grandpas50AE]

IIRC, the .44mag case is .1" longer than the .44 spl. case, so if you're loading to the lighter 44. spl. load maps, you can just seat the boolit out .1" and solve the problem about a shorter case. There are plenty of powders that work well with the added internal case volume. I did this years ago on my 629's and SBH and it worked very well.

[44magnum1979]

i like the lee 200 grain round nose flat point for my plinker loads in 44 mag brass. i have a 629. also the lee 240 grain round nose is a nice boolit to. they fall right in the cylinder.

[mdi]

I've shot a lot of .44 Specials through my Magnums (4) and have not noticed the problem you are asking about. I would think though, perhaps a true Kieth style with a wide top band would transition from chamber to throat easily and not lead. Sitting here, I cannot visualize the clyinders in my guns, but I don't remember a "ridge" or "step" in the chambers of my revolvers as would a chamber for a semi-auto where cartridge headspaces on the mouths. Two good suggestions above; seat boolit out .1", or use Magnum brass. For me amd my guns, I'll just load as usual...

[Dale53]

I have a variety of .44 Specials from three different manufacturers (S&W, Ruger, and Cimarron) and NONE of them exhibit any leading in the cylinder (or the bore, for that matter).

I believe the original poster is worried about a non-existant issue.

That said, if I were concerned about that then a "round flat" design of the desired weight will do as much as anything to ease the transition from chamber to cylinder throat to barrel with the least problem.

I have an LBT Wide Flat Nose that should do as well as can be expected from any revolver. I am sure that Accurate moulds can cut a similar bullet mould.

FWIW
Dale53

[XWrench3]

just a side note, my 629 had an awfully rough forcing cone. rough enough that it gave me problems. take a good look at it. mine looked like a cave man flint napped it rather than a machine cutting it. the only thing i can even imagine is that a cutter broke in the process, and somehow it got past quality control.

[MtGun44]

Is it possible to load anything other than a Keith 250 SWC in an .44 Special?

If so - why would you?

:bigsmyl2:

Bill

[Mal Paso]

I had accuracy issues in a 629 with both 200g RNFPs and 250g Keiths loaded in special cases back when the cylinder throats were .0005 smaller than the groove. Reaming the cylinder throats fixed that. Currently my 629 throats are 431+, groove 429 and I'm shooting 431 Keith style boolits. The loaded rounds are .454 in diameter in a .458 chamber so I guess they start out .002 low but I'll bet much of the misalignment corrects as the brass expands.

I'd really like to know what 329 throats are running.