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I sized down a bunch of .451 rb's to .430 with my Lee push through sizer.
The balls weigh about 125grs. I would like a load for small game and plinking. I will be shooting them in a Henry Big Boy with that 1:38 twist and a USFA .44 special 1873 revolver. I have most of the useful powders.
Bullseye, Red Dot or Tightgroup are your friends for this application.
Lube with Lee Alox and then start with 2.5 grains. Be very careful to make sure the ball exits the bore each shot until you reach your desired velocity with accuracy. Bring a good rod to range with you in case you do stick a ball in the bore.
I've done this with the 45/70, but with less than stellar results accuracy wise. I ended up using a 210 grain .458 mould from Rapine (at Larry's suggestion) instead of balls to establish an accurate small game load for my Trapdoors.
I used Unique--5.0 grains IIRC--but accuracy was not what I wanted. YMMV.
4.0 of red dot worked for me but I didn't swage the ball and seated it deeper than flush.
What size rb can I load for a 44 special that will not need to be swaged without getting into pressure problems? Do you load the ball all the way down into the case directly on top of the powder? I do 18th Century Living History and have a healthy supply of rb's and molds to feed my flintlocks. Loading rb's into brass cases seems like a really cool idea.
RB dia is dependent on cylinder measurement.
I seat the ball so the widest part is just below case mouth. I only take the flair out of the case no crimp. But I only use lite loads. 3 gr. Be
.433 ACWW. Seated deep but not all the way onto the powder. Rolled in thinned liquid alox. Some shoot well seated 1/2 way and crimped and some guns like deeper. Play around with the depth. The ones seated 1/2 way are less of a PITA to load into the gun and will function in Marlin lever guns.