Pile of cruddy .44 boolits still performed Ok

[ghh3rd]

I love to shoot my .44, and try to do as well as I can with it. I cull out imperfect boolits, carefully measure my powder, reject those with gas checks that don't look like they fit just right, etc. I have even weighed boolits to get as much consistency as possible.

My son decided to get a little more practice with his new Glock this weekend and asked me to bring along my .44 -- caught me off guard, cause I don't have any PB already cast, and am currently out of gas checks for my 265 RD and 310 Lee.

I scrounged up a total of 67 boolits that already had gas checks installed that were stashed away in small groups of undetermined alloy, condition, etc. (left over from prior loading events). Many others with gas checks installed were pulled from my reject bucket, and were probably there after hitting the floor as I was trying to load them. I found a few gas checks under my bench and pulled out some ugly boolits from the reject pile and installed the checks and sized and lubed them.

I normally run the .44 with 21.5 gr of W296 -- this time 16gr of 2400.

We were only at 25 yards, rather than the usual 50, and my son shot six offhand into a 6" ring. He was able to do it again the second time, and moved to his Glock. I was curious, so I set up a sandbag, and shot four 6 round groups and easily kept them in 2-3" groups without too much concentration.

That old pile of boolits of varying weight, sizing, and condition, still shot pretty well... definitely good enough for plinking. Perhaps all of my boolit prep helps at longer range, but those 'plinkers' were sure good enough for 25 yds.

Randy

[Rocky Raab]

That's what I often tell folks: ugly isn't all bad.

Persnickety perfectionism is seldom required for reloading in general and cast bullets in particular. Cast 'em. Shoot 'em. Grin. Repeat.

[Cherokee]

I once gave a pile of reject 38 wad cutters to my brother for just blasting. He said they shot great. I don't worry a lot about cosmetics on bullets as long as the base is good.

[buck1]

I once gave a pile of reject 38 wad cutters to my brother for just blasting. He said they shot great. I don't worry a lot about cosmetics on bullets as long as the base is good.

Its shocking how well ugly large cal handgun boolits can shoot. I now have 3 piles at the sorting table , remelts,can rollers, and near perfict.

Funny thing is, the can roller pile shoot right with the near perfict boolits but I do get a uncalled flyer now and again. But not that often.

[Centaur 1]

I get some out of a cold mold that look like they have Papa Smurf's nose cast in their side. As long as the base is the full diameter they shoot just fine, even if the corners aren't sharp they shoot ok.

[MtGun44]

Yep, I agree.

[home in oz]

I would think close range=just fine...

[patsher]

Okay, what's a "can roller"?

[patsher]

Another question: do these "ugly bullets" shoot well in the semi-autos?

[Bass Ackward]

This "ugly boolit" phrase is politically incorrect. The term is bore preps or grandkid fodder. :grin:

Let's not kid ourselves here. Balance comes into play when velocity is lost. The individual question for each one of us is good enough good enough and for how far?

That's why I generally get new casters to mold hard and run the velocity up. It's the most idiot proof or forgiving method. If they want to learn more to shoot lower velocity, then it falls on them to educate themselves.

But I shoot more stuff that would make people flinch. And it is short(er) range challenged dependent on the launching platform.

[mroliver77]

I bought a set of .22 swaging dies from a member here. Even with his very good directions I had a nice reject pile after a few weeks. I shoot varmints out of the garden from 10 - 40 yards and loaded some of these in the .222 and shot them for group. I was very amazed! Some even had nasty folds in the jacket and shot more than well enough to blow bunnies apart in the garden. Even the NEF Hornet shoots them well at 50 yds. Even at 100 yds went around 3". Works for this ole tight wad!
]Jay

[ghh3rd]

Ok - I took this a step farther today. Two of my sons wanted to shoot today and I was totally out of .44 boolits. I went to my reject bucket and found some 310gr with gas checks, top mashed all up and deformed from lube sizer errors, 265's with major problems, 240's with major deformities (round bottoms and deformed sides). These are the ones that were dropped on the floor and dented, or whatever, total rejects.

They shot them only at 25 yards, with a red dot on the Ruger SBH, but still got 2" groups! I had told them ahead of time not to be dissapointed, since they weren't going to be accurate at all. They were totally useable for short range hunting, that's for sure.

Just another lesson about how fare one can take boolit quality in the 'other direction' and still get good plinking results.

[Elkins45]

Okay, what's a "can roller"?

I assumed he meant bullets that were destined to be shot at old tin cans.

[qajaq59]

A while back I found some uglies for my 30-30 that I had cast and gas checked several years before I knew better. Normally I'd have tossed em back in the pot, but I thought I'd check them out for accuracy just for laughs. And the accuracy at 100 yards was definitely laughable. They were nothing like the stuff that I cast now that I'm picky. That'd probably be fine for shooting clay birds at 50 yards. But I sure wouldn't want to go after a hog with them.

[Three44s]

My Lee six cavity tumble lube mold gets usage for making can rollers and clod busters.

They get sorted into three piles like one of the above posters said: Good, good enough to bust dirt clods ....... and re-melts.

Every time I do one of those sorts ........ the re-melt pile gets smaller and smaller ........

........ not because I'm getting better at casting (mind you) ........

........ but because I am getting less choosy at bustin' clods!

Three 44s