Which boolit for .44 Spl?

[W.R.Buchanan]

It should be noted that Elmer Keith designed the 429421 in the 1930's and when reading this thread it is obvious that it is still considered the best boolit for .44's ever made. There are several close variations of the mould, H&G 503, RCBS 44-250KT, my personal mould is a Mihec mould with interchangeable HP and Solid Pins.

Hard to go wrong with that one.

Randy

[FISH4BUGS]

I have tried many different bullets but the one I find the best is the TRUE Keith designed (not the Keith-type) bullet - the Hensley & Gibbs #503. I shoot them over a light load of 5.5 gr WW231. You can go as high as 6.5 of 231 but I just plink away with them @ 5.5 gr.
I shoot them from a Ruger GP 100 (neat gun) and a 6" 5 screw pre-29 S&W 44 magnum - I shoot that one all day long.
I don't want to shake the 29 loose over time so I shoot light cast bullet loads. That same bullet can be loaded over 296 for magnum velocities if you wish.

[Forrest r]

Hard not to find an accurate bullet for the 44spl's, shot a lot of different designs over the decades. Shot anything from the keith's already mentioned to the thompson designs like the 429215/429303/h&g#142. Any wc bullet does extremely well in the 44spl's, this nose pour 200gr wc from a cramer molds shoots bugholes with several different loads.
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It's just me, I've found I like the lighter 175gr to 220gr bullets in the 44spl's and the 240gr to 270gr bullets in the 44mags. I've owned firearms chambered in 44spl since the 80's, mostly bulldogs and 24's/624's. Nose pour bullets shoot lights out in the 44cal's, I cast 4 different bullets that are nose pour and 3 of them are hollow based designs that flat out shoot. The hb bullets I cast/playing around in a 2 1/2" bbl'd buldog, 44spl.


Top left: Keith 429422 hb swc. It's the swc (429421/503/etc) bullet keith designed that is hollow based to make it lighter. It also makes it extremely accurate.
Top right: Mihec 220gr hbwc
Bottom left: H&G #142 thompson design
Bottom right: A 211gr flat nosed hollow based bullet from a raphine mold that has had a huge hp put in it.

Seems everyone is bringing up the keith swc. Here's what keith wrote/had to say about the 429422 235gr hbswc.
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Several years ago I was happier then heck to buy 1 of mihec's hbwc molds for the 44cal's. The mold case a 220gr hbwc that had a small taper on the nose for crimping/better alignment in forcing cones. Along with 2 crimp grooves/grease grooves. I couldn't cast up some bullets quick enough and tested them in a 6 1/2" bbl'd 624. Tested them seated flush, crimped in the top lube groove, bottom lube groove along with filling both lube grooves, 1 lube groove, tumble lubing them, tumble lubing + filling the lube grooves. Yup, had to turn some around to make huge hp's.
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It's pretty hard to just pick 1 bullet for the 44cal's/44spl. If I had to it would be the h&g #142 220gr gcswc/200gr hpgcswc. I have the mihec 503 clone mold with the hp pins others have posted about in earlier posts. I've found the h&g#142 more versatile in a wider range of firearms chambered in 44spl. It's a thompson gc designed swc that is light enough (see keith article pictured above/lighter 235gr hbswc bullet) to do extended/long shots in the 44spl but still have enough meplat/nose to thump anything it hits. The gc design can be used in anything from snubnosed revolvers to lever actions doing 2000+fps. Typical thompson designed bullet that can be usedwith either a gc or plain based.
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just another opinion from a caster that has 30+ years with firearms chambered in 44spl that were used for nra bullseye in the 24/624's and sd in the snubnosed bulldogs. Put a lot of lead down range in the marlin lever actions (1895's)/44spl combo along with putting gas plugs with larger holes drilled in them in the ruger semi-auto rifles/44automags to use light 44spl plinking loads in them.