What size bore/chamber is a .44mag SRH?

[the_ursus]

I'm shooting a Super Redhawk .44mag and am trying to find out what size bullets I need to be casting for a good fit. I have some .430 Speer SWC that lead the bore badly so I was wondering if the size might be contributing to the matter. Once this batch of bullet is gone I plan on using only home-cast and want to make sure I get the right sizer. Any ideas?

Thanks!

[missionary5155]

Greetings.. What you NEED to do is stop shooting those offending lead blobsand do some research. There could be several reasons the boolits are leading.
First step is slug your chamber throats and barrel. If your barrel is larger diameter than your clylinder than you have a fixable problem. Use some soft lead slugs with a lite coat of oil.
You can also take a couple of your present boolits and find out if they are FAT enough to fill the chamber throats. If they are to small diameter there is a solution. Also it would be helpful to have an idea what the mix was your boolits were made of. Possibly the pachaging has this info or a tele # you could call and ask the maker.
This will only take a few minutes and is far easier than unleading a barrel.

[454PB]

Ideally, the bore should be .429" to .430", and the throats should be .431". The only way to really know is slug the barrel and throats as 5155 said. If it does measure as such, a .431" boolit would be a good fit.

The Speer bullets you have are swaged, not cast, and are quite soft. They were not designed for full power loading.

I own or have owned several Rugers in .44 magnum, my Redhawk likes .431" boolits. Your requirements depend on YOUR gun.

[the_ursus]

Yeah, research is what I'm now doing since I've seen a need to fix a problem. It was a good price for the bullets so not all is lost. Also, I can always melt them down and mix in tin or something but not till I get my hardness tester. I realize there are a lot of factors to consider when it comes to leading but since I've never given chamber throat and barrel diameter any consideration so I thought I'd check into it. I know the lead blobs I've been shooting are noticeably softer than the cast stuff I've done using the fingernail test.

So to clarify, I should lube up a bullet and try pushing it through the barrel with a rod to check fit? When I do this, what do I need to look for?

I'm new but I'm soaking all this info up, thanks! (Keep up the good work down there Peru Missionary!)

[Blammer]

first, oil up a bullet and push it through the cylinders, noting each dia.

If the boolits drop through, take a hmmer and give it a medium whack to make it a bit fatter then try to push it through.

Make sure you support the cylinder when driving a slug through it.

then oil up the brl and the boolit an push one through the brl an see what dia that is.

[MtGun44]

Must measure YOUR pistol, no two alike.

Bill

[the_ursus]

Ok, so I can push a .430 though the cylinder with a nice snug fit. I wasn't able to push it through the barrel though. Then I tried a .429 that I cast and sized. It went into the cylinder easier but seemed to fit without any wobble. Now I'm trying to see if I can get it down the barrel but I'm still experiencing some resistance as the rifling is cutting into the lead quite a bit. How hard can I SAFELY push on it before I can say "ok, she's just too fat" Should I use a wood dowel and hammer to help it along?

I'm a little nervous and I can just hear someone smarter than me saying "well of course it's stuck, you hammered it into your barrel with a dowel!!"

[felix]

You are good to go. Because you are "nervous", start with the BIG boolit (430) and shoot with starting loads until you become comfortable to move up the scale some to get more yardage. ... felix

[eka]

I'm a little nervous and I can just hear someone smarter than me saying "well of course it's stuck, you hammered it into your barrel with a dowel!!"

That's pretty much what you are supposed to do. I use a egg fishing sinker with the hole in the middle. The hole in the middle allows the lead somewhere to go when you compress it in your barrel. Go to Wal-Mart and get several sizes and choose the one that's big enough, but not too big. You'll be able to tell. I use an old .38 Special brass case and a rubber mallet to hammer the sinker flush with the bore. The sinker is lubed with light grease. I usually shear off a ring of lead, when I tap it flush. This doesn't take a lot of force, as lead is a slick material. Now, you can use short lengths of dowel rod (7" or 8"), preferably hardwood. Make sure there not too big or tight in the barrel. If you try to use a one piece rod it can break. A steel rod wrapped with electrical tape works better for rifles. Now, once you get to tapping with the dowel rod it goes through the barrel with little effort. Use a rag or towell to catch the slug as you drive it out, so as not to damage it. Once you get it through, you use calipers to measure the opposite grooves. Remember the grooves of your barrel will appear raised on your slug. Measure it in several places to make sure you are getting the proper measurement. You now have the groove diameter of your barrel.

Now, use a new sinker for each cylinder chamber. You will not have to do much at all to drive one through there. Agan, catch them on a towel and measure.

Ideally, you want your cylinder chambers to be .001 larger than your barrel. If they are the opposite, your cylinder is swaging down your boolit before it gets into your barrel and the boolit is too small for your barrel's groove diameter. This probably won't be an issue for you, but if it is it's not a big problem. You just get the cylinder reamed to the proper diameter.

Once you get your measurements, you will want to size your boolit to match your cylinder throat diameter. Your should be good to go then.

Now, quit babying that old Redhawk around and drive them slugs down the tube. :mrgreen:

If that was clear as mud, just yell back and I'll try to confuse you some more. :-D

Good luck, and remember, we all started out green as goose dung at one time or another.

Keith

[Jon K]

Ok, so I can push a .430 though the cylinder with a nice snug fit. I wasn't able to push it through the barrel though. Then I tried a .429 that I cast and sized. It went into the cylinder easier but seemed to fit without any wobble. Now I'm trying to see if I can get it down the barrel but I'm still experiencing some resistance as the rifling is cutting into the lead quite a bit. How hard can I SAFELY push on it before I can say "ok, she's just too fat" Should I use a wood dowel and hammer to help it along?

I'm a little nervous and I can just hear someone smarter than me saying "well of course it's stuck, you hammered it into your barrel with a dowel!!"

Are you pushing it thru the barrel from the forcing cone end first? That's the end you want to slug. Just push it in enough to engrave, then knock it back out with your dowel, then measure.

Jon

[the_ursus]

"forcing cone end" uh, I think I can only force it through the muzzle end since it's a revolver unless there's a special trick. Or maybe you're saying to go through the cone end just to get an imprint on the front of the bullet and measure that instead of cram'n the slug down the length of the barrel. I'll give that a try.

Oh yeah, and I'll try to stop treating my redhawk like a baby but this is all new territory for me so bear with me. Thanks for all the advise so far.

[Jon K]

Yes, all you need is to get the imprint about the length of the boolit beyond the forcing cone. The bore gets smaller as it goes thru the barrel. The muzzle end is the small end.

Jon

[Heavy lead]

Those dead soft speer boolits with the junk lube on them make great boolits to slug the bore with. I use a brass tap hammer and a hard wood dowel after I spray the boolit with some hornady case size lube, just drive it on through from the muzzle, won't hurt anything, that stainless is way harder than the lead and wood dowel, it'll go. I've got a bunch of those Speers to melt down to, no lube grooves, no lube, only thing if you want to shoot them maybe tumble them with JPW or LLA.

[the_ursus]

Ok, for those who've been following this epic saga...
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v674/alaskan_waters/random%20stuff/?action=view&current=PC020009.jpg
I chose to cram one of those soft speers down the barrel (since they're all going in the melting pot anyway). So my question now is, could I be shooting fatter bullets since nearly all the metal removed was from the rifling? Or is this good? I put the calipers on them and they still read .430

[Firebird]

Since the sides of the bullet didn't reach the bottom of the grooves, your barrel's groove diameter is larger than .430". You need to try again, either expanding the bullet first by squashing it down some so it gets fatter, or finding a bullet that's already bigger in diameter. After the slug gets pushed through the barrel, the sides should be all shiny proving they were in contact with the bottom of the rifling; then you can measure it's diameter and know the groove to groove diameter of your barrel.

[454PB]

What Firebird said. What I do is place the slug horizontally in a vice and squeeze it larger. Use your micrometer to measure it after squeezing, it should be .435" to get a good print.

[the_ursus]

Yeah, that was my hunch. I'll make a fatter one tomorrow and do it again.

[missionary5155]

Good morning The ursus.. Aint it FUN ! Reading your posts remind me of some jitter moments I went through. But you are headed in the right direction now. Smart enough to ask questions will sure save alot of sorrow and elbow work with a ramrod. I do not mind mining lead out of impact burms... but out of a perfectly good barrel ??? UGH !!!
Sounds like your SRH is a keeper. I remember when guys were buying Rugers 10 at a time to get just 2 or 3 to use shooting steel.

[the_ursus]

Ok, so for kicks I hammered one of my cast bullets though to see what it would look like. This one was sized at .429 There's 2 photos because I wanted to show the difference in the depth of the grease grooves from the rifling on opposite sides of the slug. Is this normal?
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v674/alaskan_waters/random%20stuff/?action=view&current=PC030001.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v674/alaskan_waters/random%20stuff/?action=view&current=PC030002.jpg

[leftiye]

Cool, Yeah, I think it is normal. I'd expect less deformation from actual firing. But what do they mike? Make your chamber mouths at least .001" bigger than the slug measures, and your boolit can (If you want ) even be made a thou. larger than the chamber mouths - IF THEY WILL STILL CHAMBER. Try several sizes (none smaller than chamber mouths) and see which shoots best.

[Big Boomer]

The ursus ... a trick I thunk up while pondering a similar difficulty in chamber mouth and bore properties & sizing was the same as mentioned above, but with this exception. Take the Speer swaged bullet, which is dead soft, and a 3/4 inch long brad, as in thumb tack or small nail. Drive the brad very carefully into the center of the base of the bullet but not all the way in. The whole bullet will expand a few thousands if the brad is fat enough - you only want to expand the base and up toward the middle of the bullet a little, leaving the nose slightly smaller in diameter. Don't drive the bullet through either the cylinder chamber mouths or the bore with the tack/brad still in the base of the bullet. Leave enough brad sticking out so that you can remove it with pliers and a "fork" of some sort down into which the remainder of the protruding brad will fit, lke a claw hammer or some sort of nail puller/remover. Pull the brad out with pliers or similar device. After driving the expanded slug through cylinder mouth and/or bore, use your micrometer to measure accordingly. A few bullets done this way will suffice to measure all chamber mouths and bore and can even be reused by repeating the process. 'Tuck

[Dale53]

I suggest you remove the cylinder from the barrel before trying to slug it. The crane is pretty soft and easy to bend. Take the cylinder out, place a chamber over a hole in a 2x4 and drive the slug thru each chamber. That way you'll take no chance at injuring your revolver crane.

When measuring the slugs with a micrometer, use a light touch. Lead is extremely soft and easy to deform which can change your measurements.

Dale53