air cooled soft - water dropped hard

[falootin]

Hello my friends. I've been using this site as a guest for several years now. Figured it was time to register and say hello. Some background on me... I've been handloading for quite a few years. The handguns I load for are: .38 special, .357 mag, .44 special, .44 mag and .40 S&W.

With that out of the way, I have a handful of questions.

I have several bullets a friend of mine cast for me... I need a little direction working up some loads for .44 mag and special using appropriate powders. The ultimate goal being to avoid leading the barrel as much as possible.
What I have:

"air cooled soft" 275 grain 0.429" mold # NEI - 256

"water dropped hard" 275 gr 0.429" (0.32" as cast") mold # NEI - 256

"water dropped hard" 255 gr #429421 0.431"

I've loaded a bunch of the air cooled soft over Blue Dot in .44 mag cases with excellent results. I've also loaded a few of the water dropped hard 255 grainers over 2400 with mixed results.

I'd like your input for loading some .44 special rounds. Which one of the 3 bullets I listed would you use? And which powder?

The powders I have on hand are:

2400
Blue Dot
Unique
True Blue
AA#5
Power Pistol
H110
HP38
Clays

I'm also interested in hearing any other suggested mag load combinations using the cast bullets and powders I listed.

And on to .38 spcl/ .357 mag.. I have some hard cast Missouri Bullet Company .357 158 grain "action", the hard Brinell 18 bullets. I've loaded plenty of these in mag cases with god results using Blue Dot and 2400. I haven't found the perfect combination yet though. I'd also like to load some of these in .38 special cases for some mild plinking rounds but I don't want to lead my bbl so this may not be the right bullet for that. Being as hard as it is (Brinell 18) can I load it down in .38 special and avoid some bad leading problems? I was thinking Unique powder.

Thanks for any help.

Here's a pic for fun:
62484

[bradb]

What size are the throats in that gun?

[1Shirt]

My Blackhawk and my 44Marlin, both want at least .430, and Blackhawk prefers .431. I water drop everything as a matter of convenience, however I prefer BH around 16-18 for paper shooting w/plain base pistol blts. If I were going to use them for hunting, would either air drop, or go to softer alloy, probably someplace between 12-14 bh. Good luck.
1Shirt!

[runfiverun]

429421 at 430 over 7 grs of unique.
if the 44 special won't shoot that it needs some work on the gun.

[MtGun44]

I don't like the choices. How about adding 429421 air cooled? This works perfectly well for
me in many different guns over 10 gr Unique (1050 fps) or 19-21 gr of 2400 (1350-1400 fps).
IME, too hard (WD) shoots more inaccurately or at best, the same as, the air cooled wwts.

Also recommend the same boolit over 8.1 gr of W231 for a mild load.

Bill

[oldarkie]

cant help much,still pretty new myself.just thought id say hy and welcome,never found so much knowledge in one place befor in my life

[fredj338]

IT's awlays about fit, not so much alloy. If the cyl throats are small, the bulllet will likely lead. That is my exp anyway. I lvoe 2400 as an all around 44mag powder. IT downloads better than H110, very accurate @ all vel levels, especially w/ lead bullets.