A critique of three standardweight 44 SWCs

From Left to Right the H&G 503 (MP Molds Clone), Lyman 429421 (Arsenal Clone), and Lyman 429244 (MP Molds Clone). My experience with these bullets are entirely from a single S&W 624 I own with a 6.5" barrel. This is a 44 special which I shoot with heavy handloads and normal SAMMI spec loads in all three of these bullets. I have listed the bullets in order of when I acquired them, so I have the most experience with the grand old 429421. I use carnuba blue.

Attachment 264424

Attachment 264425

The 429421 seems to be the standard by which all other bullets are judged. The original Keith design. Bullet is standard wight to a little heavy for caliber. Meplat is actually pretty small as a percentage of the diameter. It has a long nose and a rather radical wadcutting shoulder. It has a very large grease groove, one I consider excessive. It has proven itself for generations and has proven very accurate in my testing. Mine weigh 255 grains lubed.

The 503 is the last of Keith's designs. It is, I suppose, all the things that Keith would have changed to the 429421 and came after the advent of the 44 magnum. It has longer driving band, a less radical shoulder, a more round-nosed ogive profile, a larger meplat, more bearing surface, a shorter distance from crimp groove to base (leaving more space in the case), and a smaller grease groove. It weighs slightly more, about 258 grains. I consider every one of these adjustments an improvement. It still cuts a nice hole in paper, and presumably the larger meplat would mean greater wounding potential. The smaller grease groove certainly still has plenty of lube and it uses less which is nice. It shoots cleanly and when cast of 96-2-2 leaves no leading in my 624.

The 429244 was a Ray Thompson design and from what I understand intended for the 44 magnum not the 44 special. This I understand is the reason for the gas check. The particular mold I have is a hollow-point mold, and I've come to prefer gas check designs with hollow-points since antimony reduces retained weight of the bullet under expansion, and I've found that gas checks keep the barrel cleaner with binary alloys. The 244 has a very similar forward driving band to the 421, yet it is clear to me that the 503's nose is a lot more like the 244's, putting more weight forward and leaving more room in the case. Keith seems to have imitated Thompson in this regard, as I believe the 503 came after the 244. The 244 is a thoroughly proven design even at long ranges. In hollowppint form it may be the most versatile bullet and its copper diaper, though costing about as much as the alloy to make the bullet, would offer the 44 magnum shooter a measure of assurance.

It would be a hard choice if I had to pick just one of these, but I think I would pick the 503 if I had to. If I had a 44 magnum I may tempted to pick the 244 because of the gas check. I consider the 503 to be the apogee of 44 SWCs. At least, I cannot think of anything I would change.

I've found the supplied top punch for the 503 works better than the 421 for all three. The 421 top punch puts rings on the 244 and 503 if used. I size all .431 as my 624's throats are all .432. All have proven to be of excellent accuracy potential with the right load. So far a slightly beefed up Skeeter load of 8 grains of Unique with the 421 has been the most accurate.

Now that I have the 6 cavity mold pinned and running smoothly it rains MP 503s here. I also have it in brass 4c and an Arsenal aluminum 5c. I still have one of the 429421 Lymans I started with, the one I lapped to .432 and a BC 1103.

Gas check might be helpful at extreme speed or to cover poor fit but I have never used them. I down load for PP and metal targets but pretty much stick to 1300 fps. The throats of my guns have been reamed where necessary to .431 and I shoot 431 boolits.

I like the #503 best. The forward drive band is just inside the throats of my Colt.

I use the MP boolit exclusively in my 44 magnum
when I had a special I used the Skeeter load and the 503 to no end
and found it to be very accurate in my Bisley Blackhawk
I have had all the molds you mention and have settled on Miha's mold
in hp and non hp design and like Mal I have a 6 cav that rain's 503's

There were at least two different designs of the 503 over the years that I know of. None are made like the very old Idea 429421 that is pictured in Mr. Keith's book Sixguns.

Yes, there are at least two 503 designs I am aware of. I have two brass four holers, one HPd and the other solid. I prefer the solid in the 503 as the needle point type cavities do not impress me. I much prefer conical type cavities as found on the 244. They expand at lower velocites and more reliably at less than perpendicular impact angles. Also, I find it much more difficult to stay in the sweet spot with 4 cavity hollopoint molds. The center cavities overheat while the outer pair I struggle to keep hot enough. Two cavity molds (my 244 is a two holer) seem more balanced to me. This and I am a believer in gas checks with HPs. Once you start testing on gel you quickly realize how antimony erodes weight retention, even in small quantities. I use exclusively binary alloys with my HPs (which is why that 244 has so much more shine to it btw). Even 1:16 leads a little for me and the gas check solves that. I like gas checks even at 38 special pressures as it allows the bullet to be even softer.

Back to the 503. There are ones depicted as having a truncated cone type SWC (like the 429360) and others with a Keith compound radius type ogive. I am not sure which one is the "real 503" but I do like the one I have. I understand the it may not really be a 503 clone, rather, it was a particular design settled upon in the discussion section for the group buy.

I find that the 503s driving bands come right up into the throats of my 624 with no resistance. I have heard some people dislike it because the throats they are dealing with are tighter. But this hasn't been a problem for me.

I wish I had some game results to report but I've never taken a deer with any of these bullets (yet).

Anybody taken deer with a "503" and if so what load and range?

I was meaning that H & G made at least two versions of the 503.

Dale 53 supplied the bullet dimensions for the #503 MP clone. I got 1 of the first Group Buy.

I have seen the other #503 but don't remember it.

Elmers designs for all of his swc's specified three equal length driving bands. At one time I saw a picture of 11 different 429421 labelled molds from Lyman/Ideal. The 503 comes close to his specs. I understand there are even more varieties of 454424. The answer to accuracy is still fit and alloy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mal Paso

Dale 53 supplied the bullet dimensions for the #503 MP clone. I got 1 of the first Group Buy.

I have seen the other #503 but don't remember it.

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I got one of these molds during that group buy as well. I have a couple other 44 call molds but this my most used one.

Back in 1978 I ordered an H&G 503 Keith four cavity and each drive band was a different length with the forward band the most narrow and the base band the thickest. Then in 1988 I ordered an eight cavity H&G 503 and the all the bands were pretty much the same width being beefier and the meplat was also slightly larger. After Ballsticast took over I ordered a matched set of 503 six cavities and they were the same as the 1988 H&G version to the point I could put bullets into either mold and they would close.

curioushooter :

Thank You for that write-up.

I enjoyed it myself. Thanks.