Why I love the un-sexy 429383

I purchased this two cavity mold off of this forum. It looked in excellent condition. In use it drops good bullets very quick even before the mold is at proper temp. One of the better casting molds that I've ever used. Just once in a while you get a mold that's perfect and this one fits the bill. I like that its the older of the .44 molds going back to .44 Russian in the older Ideal catalogs. Its not sexy like a SWC or Trunicated Cone bullet. Just a boring round nose that has an old time funky look to it. I love it!

https://images40.fotki.com/v1668/pho..._165517-vi.jpg

https://images20.fotki.com/v1666/pho...4501zzz-vi.jpg

https://images41.fotki.com/v1399/pho...502xzzz-vi.jpg

I would call that bullet "retro" sexy!

I’ve got that mould. I use to load a .44 Special with that bullet. The .44’s gone but the mould remains. That seems to happen to me a lot. ��

That is funny. I cast and load my 44 Special with it sometimes too. Not because it is the best design but rather it produces an age old factory looking handload. Satisfying. Plus, when I was a kid, that was what "bullets" looked like! I have a single cavity mold and it takes a while to produce 50 but that is fine.
Even though it is a round nose it hits hard and makes deep holes.:Fire: I feel well armed in the woods with it and don't give it a second thought.

Glad the mould is working out for you. I have it and have never used it. Actually own 3 different 44s at the moment and sad to say, that I haven't cast for them or pulled the trigger on any of them in the past 5 or so years. Our kids are busy with school and sports and typical life chaos, has put a large crunch on shooting sports time.. The times I've made it to the range, it's been mostly with rimfires or one of my Garands or 03s. I hope to change that soon, as I just tuned up a Ruger Super Blackhawk I have here and it's now begging for trigger time. I do like RN moulds and currently have 3 different ones for the 44, hope my Ruger shoots them well. Hope they give good results in your 44. Bill in MA

Looks like there's a lot of scrap bullets in your pile. The 429383 has a reputation for shooting decent in some revolvers, that tend to shoot the SWC bullets poorly. The RN design supposedly aligns itself with the forcing cone better, giving decent accuracy in otherwise difficult revolvers. It's a good mold to have.

Looks great! I have always like the round nose bullets, they just seem to fall into a wheel gun with ease!

I think all our favorite bullets are the ones coming from the easiest mold to use.
My favorite is a truncated cone that just falls out of the mold.
and it shoots good too!

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Originally Posted by GBertolet

Looks like there's a lot of scrap bullets in your pile. The 429383 has a reputation for shooting decent in some revolvers, that tend to shoot the SWC bullets poorly. The RN design supposedly aligns itself with the forcing cone better, giving decent accuracy in otherwise difficult revolvers. It's a good mold to have.

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The photo showed as-cast so yes there were many rejects in that pile. I tend to inspect at the several stages during the loading process so sub-quality bullets are weened out as I go along.

Dutch

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Originally Posted by Chill Wills

That is funny. I cast and load my 44 Special with it sometimes too. Not because it is the best design but rather it produces an age old factory looking handload. Satisfying. Plus, when I was a kid, that was what "bullets" looked like! I have a single cavity mold and it takes a while to produce 50 but that is fine.
Even though it is a round nose it hits hard and makes deep holes.:Fire: I feel well armed in the woods with it and don't give it a second thought.

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Mr. Chill Wills you nailed it better than I did in describing the ~why~ of my adoration for 429383.

Dutch

Dutchman, I have 2 429383 molds that I cast for my 5.5" Ruger BH 44 Spl. I had one of the molds hollow pointed by Eric Ohlen, and it works as I hoped it would. Fired into a 55 gallon barrel of water (from above) it expands out like a hollyhock! My alloy is 95/2.5/2.5. Both rn and hp versions are very accurate. A 44 special round loaded with one of these round noses just looks right!

I cast with a Lyman 429383 single cavity mold because I could not find a double cavity mold that was reasonably priced. Apparently the other casters like them well enough to run up the prices on auction sites. I commonly cast more boolits than I need for immediate purposes so there will be a quantity remaining available later if the mood suits me to load more of them. When I load these the venture is a trip down nostalgia lane. These boolits don't have the meplat or shoulders of a WC or SWC but they make me smile whenever I am casting, loading and shooting them. I get greedy for that personal satisfaction of throwing my own.

Very cool.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chill Wills

That is funny. I cast and load my 44 Special with it sometimes too. Not because it is the best design but rather it produces an age old factory looking handload. Satisfying. Plus, when I was a kid, that was what "bullets" looked like! I have a single cavity mold and it takes a while to produce 50 but that is fine.
Even though it is a round nose it hits hard and makes deep holes.:Fire: I feel well armed in the woods with it and don't give it a second thought.

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I have had that mold for years but haven't played with it but yeah that's what bullet's looked like when we were kids back in the day unless your dad taught you how to cast Keith bullets like mine did when I was around 10 years old. Anyone remember the lever action rifle and single action style colt toy's that had the gray round nosed plastic bullet that would snap into a brass colored plastic case with a Greenie Stickem' Caps stuck to the base? When loaded they looks just like round nosed 38's and 44's.

Kind of wondering how that bullet would work out of my 444 marlin?

That is a cool old boolit profile. I just love to lool at picks of cast boolits.

EDITED TO ADD: Plus that bullet loaded into that case just looks proper!

I use the old #429251, which I believe was the original bullet for the .44Spl. It's an old small block 1cav. I also have a old Lee 2cav that drops an almost identical bullet.
Both work well in both .44Spl & .44Rus cases.
For Cowboy Shooting I also used the 2cav #429478 210gr RN and the older Lee #429-214-1R RN 2cav.

All shoot well in either Spl or Russ cases. And they look COOL.

If you love the big ol' round-nose .44s like No.429383 and No.429251, you should take a look at No.429184... originally listed at 256 grains (1 - 40 alloy), and designed to duplicate the early factory .44 Russian offerings. When cast from Lyman's No.2 alloy, weight is approx. 235 grains, and makes an almost perfect facsimile of factory loads in both .44 Russian and Special.

Kind of the same thing with my 38/357. A H&G #39 round nose. Very retro.