Sizing .44 Mag.

[xr650]

I am going to size and lube some boolits for a BIL and a guy at work.
Moulds: H&G 44 210 gr., H&G 45BB 240 gr. and H&G 15 240 gr.
Alloy: WW + 1% tin Air cooled
Lube: Alox

Is .431" a good size to start with?

I will not have opportunity to slug their bores.

Thanks,
Larry

[454PB]

Yes, a very good starting point.

[mtgrs737]

I am sizing some Lyman 429421 boolits at .431" right now. My throats measure .4335" to .434" and I don't know the bore dia. because it is a five land and groove barrel and I have a hard time getting an accurate measurement. The loaded rounds chamber easily with the .431" sized boolit so I am going to try that. I don't think that the as cast dia. would be larger than .4315" in the mould I have. I would measure the throats, load a few rounds and see if they camber easily and then try some to see how accurate they are. Good luck!

[xr650]

Thanks folks.

[Blammer]

yep .431 is what I'd try first

[hunter64]

I have a 629 that I couldn't get any kind of accuracy out of, tried every type of powder and primer combination and finally I just went with something stiff in the neighborhood of 20 grn 2400 with my 429421. I found this site a couple of years ago and after doing some reading I finally figured out my problem. I was sizing the 421's to .429 and my throats were .432 and the barrel was .432 also. I beagled the 429421 mold to see if I could bump it up a couple thou and it worked. I ran some thru the luber that I had a die made for .432 for my marlin 444 and what a difference. At 25 yards I could see without even looking thru binoculars that I was getting better accuracy. Before keeping all 6 bullets inside the black 6" circle was a fluke and now having them all touch each other in a 2" cluster is more the norm. .431 is a great size to start at and work up from there.

[xr650]

Thanks for the help.
I'll size some and let them boys give'm a spin.
Larry

[Sprue]

I recently discovered that I was sizing too big. I came by a RCBS sizer without a heater. So, I followed the Felix formula. When I got the luber/sizer it came with a .429 die so I had no option but to load up a hundred or so for testing.... Walaah ! I'm totally lead free now.

Also the same for 38 Spl. Used to size at .358 but now size at .357 (ordered new die) and w/felix lube. All my lead goes down range. It feels good not to have to scrub the bores anymore!

Oh, Uh, and .356/9mm & .451 too :drinks:

[Boomer Mikey]

After a week or so your 0.431" boolits will be a little larger and in most cases that's a good thing. I size most of my 44's to 0.432" or larger but 0.431" is a good place to start for most applications without the capability to slug the bores or chamber exit holes and air cooled ww+1% tin is also a good alloy for most 44 applications as well.

You're going to make your friends very happy; put those boolits ahead of some 296, H110, or 2400.

Boomer

[jleneave]

I am sizing some Lyman 429421 boolits at .431" right now. My throats measure .4335" to .434" and I don't know the bore dia. because it is a five land and groove barrel and I have a hard time getting an accurate measurement. The loaded rounds chamber easily with the .431" sized boolit so I am going to try that. I don't think that the as cast dia. would be larger than .4315" in the mould I have. I would measure the throats, load a few rounds and see if they camber easily and then try some to see how accurate they are. Good luck!

I have the same Lyman mold and my bullets are dropping at .429". Did you do something to get it to cast at .431" or is that what it dropped bullets at new? Thanks.

Jody

[mtgrs737]

Jody,

My 429421 mould is a new 4 cavity from Midsouth about two months ago. I am using WW's with about 20% lino or less. I did make a huge mistake that I am still kicking myself for, I allowed the mould to rust a bit due to time getting away from me and it being very wet and humid here in the monsoon season. The reason I am telling you this is because of the light rust I did lap the cavities to remove the rust. However I don't think that I gained more than a .0005" and most likely only .0001" or .0002". I was not trying to increase the diameter only to polish the cavities as I was having a problem with the blocks wanting to stick together when casting before the rust problem. I will say that the lapping with toothpaste certainly polished the cavities nice and shiney and now the boolits look smoother and are rounder than they were from the stock mould. I was getting .4305" to .431" from the mould as purchased, and am now getting a solid .431" after polishing. I run my RCBS pot at 800 degrees measured by an RCBS thermometer. So getting rid of the light surface rust by lapping with toothpaste may of rounded out and smoothed the cavities but I don't believe that it made them enough bigger to be worth the work it took. Needless to say I am embarrassed about the rusting of a new mould, but it looks like it may have a silver linning!

[felix]

Yes, I have read where one guy always causes a cavity rust on his molds before casting, just for the purpose you have mentioned. Not a bad idea, really, assuming the rust formation is concentric and deep enough to come out at the correct diameter after cleaning with a fine grit something (simichrome, carpolish, toothpaste, fritz, bonami, etc.). ... felix

[Ricochet]

Just consider it "browning" the mould, not rusting. :-D

[mtgrs737]

Ricochet, I appreciate your comment. I am slowly getting over it. It looks like I lucked out on the "browning" of the mould, in the long run it may be better that it happened as the boolits are now very smooth. I am just a little anal about rust on any of my tools or moulds.

[MtGun44]

While it is great to try .431", just understand that a significant number of
.44 mags have larger throats, so the accy may be mediocre to poor. I have
provided some ammo to friends with SBHs and they had poor results. My
own SBH requires special oversized boolits for good accy, (or condom bullets)
due to .434" throats, and at the time I was only loading for my S&Ws which
all are newer models that hit .430" throats right on - amazing. 429421s at
.430" in a .434" throat SBH is good for about 6" at 25 yds.

No real way around slugging barrel and pin gauging the throats if you need
to ensure accy.

However, you may very well luck out and it is definitely worth a try.

Bill

[jleneave]

Mtgrs737, thanks for the reply. I may try to "beagle" my mold and see how that works out. I have been reading some of the past posts and several people have had good luck doing that. I have also read that some of the 429421 molds drop bullets a couple .001" new from the box. I guess they just got lucky and got one on the high side of the tolerances from the factory. My mold is also a 4 cavity and it don't have the square lube groove, it is rounded off. I got the mold off ebay as "new" old stock, it came in a cardboard black and white striped box. I have to say that is was new and there were no signs of it being used. I read somewhere on here that there were a few variations of this mold, I guess that I got one of them, as it also has a smaller front driving band. Thanks for taking the time to explain how yours ended up dropping larger bullets, I appreciate it.

Jody