44 Wadcutter Mold Feedback Request

[Thin Man]

I am looking into ordering a new mold for the 44 Special and 44 Magnum calibers. My interest is for a full wadcutter design that has about half of the boolit seated inside the case and the nose half extending outside, rather than having most of the boolit inside the case. Weight should fall in the 240-260 grain range and I have no preference between plain base or gas check design. I see offerings from Accurate, Arsenal and NOE, then the discontinued Lyman. I already have a Lyman 429348 (180 grain) but now want a heavier design. If anyone out there has experience with a mold in this description I would love to hear feedback from you about your experiences with these boolits. Thank you for your comments.

Thin Man

[mtnbkr]

I am looking into ordering a new mold for the 44 Special and 44 Magnum calibers. My interest is for a full wadcutter design that has about half of the boolit seated inside the case and the nose half extending outside, rather than having most of the boolit inside the case. Weight should fall in the 240-260 grain range and I have no preference between plain base or gas check design. I see offerings from Accurate, Arsenal and NOE, then the discontinued Lyman. I already have a Lyman 429348 (180 grain) but now want a heavier design. If anyone out there has experience with a mold in this description I would love to hear feedback from you about your experiences with these boolits. Thank you for your comments.

Thin Man

You could probably go to Mountain Moulds and use their mould design tool to modify an existing design. I would start with a WFN design and expand the meplat to near maximum.

I did that with the attached pic. I chose a Tangental Ogive bullet, set weight to 260gr, and increased meplat to 97%



No idea how it would shoot, but it gets close to your idea I think.

Chris

[redhawk0]

I have a WC mold from Lee (discontinued) its a LEE 90334 and its 208gr Flat Base. I shoot it fully seated but you could have it slightly extended outside the case if you wanted to.

It shoots very well...I occasionally see it come up on Ebay but its pretty rare. Keep your eyes open for one...I don't think you'd be disappointed with the 208gr.

redhawk

[ioon44]

I have that Lee 208 gr WC mold in a 6 cav I haven't used it much but keep thinking about casting some more with it.

[Drm50]

I just got the MP 44 HBWC mold from group buy. 2 cav with HB cores and cores for solids. I have only poured it 6 times with pure lead. Nice bullets, crisp detail. I to have 180gr Lyman 44 cal mold. The solid comes out aprox 248gr. I have several 45wc molds from 180-200gr and a 242gr Lyman button nose WC that out shoots the lighter WCs. It can also be shot at 850fps and still accurate. I will be shooting the HB in 44sp S&Ws and the solids in 44 mags.

[Bookworm]

I have a WC mold from Lee (discontinued) its a LEE 90334 and its 208gr Flat Base.....

redhawk

I have that mould also.

I was wandering about at the Wanenmacher gun show in Tulsa last year, when I stumbled on a table that sported several moulds, in boxes.

When I say several, I mean about 50.

I rooted around in the stack, found a few I wanted. One of them was that 44 wadcutter mould.

Keep your eyes out, they do exist.

[gwpercle]

Take a long hard look at NOE mould 432-237-WC PB BL4 (432432). The 237 grain weight is close to 240 grains .
I have similar design moulds in both 38 cal. ( 360-160-WC PB ) and 41 cal. (413-215-WC PB)
in every 38 special , 357 magnum and 41 magnum I own this design is extremely accurate .
With a set of HP pins this design makes a for a hard hitting round.
Cast solid they make accurate target loads . Might want to consider this much overlooked WC design...it's an accuracy sleeper and not many people recognize it .
Gary

[too many things]

if you don't seat you need to use something to keep powder down
would not try that

[Thin Man]

Thanks to everyone for your comments and suggestions. All are appreciated.

I currently have 26 different 44 mold patterns which include RN, RF, SWC and WC nose profiles. Bases vary between plain and GC. My purpose for wanting a boolit that has only about half of its total length inside the loaded case is to increase the powder column to allow heavier charges without running into pressure challenges. My current WC molds include the Lee 160 grain and Lee 208 grain designs plus a Lyman 180 grain mold. These are lighter than my goal and don't reach the weight I want to try. Yes, I could and have used the various SWC patterns for this venture but I am interested in a heavier (than I now have) full WC design.

Just this morning I was reviewing (for probably the 20th time) the different manufacturers offering and saw that NOE is offering reduced prices on his molds. This places his products at a very competitive position. Among his offerings is the 432-246-WC which is right on top of my stated design goals. Being retired and without full time work and income these issues matter more than before. For now this looks like the winner. My fondness for 44 caliber revolvers goes back a long time. Many years ago I competed in 3-gun handgun (rimfire, centerfire and big bore) bullseye matches. For the centerfire and big bore matches I used a S&W M28 Highway Patrolman wearing a S&W M24 barrel (full conversion by Ron Powers) and loaded the Lee 160 grain WC. This combination was more accurate than I was but between the both of us we won more matches than we lost. Now I am relegated to recreational activities and NOE's boolit will most likely make me smile. Whatever mold I settle on, I will follow up with accuracy reports.

Thanks again to all who offered their input on this project.

Thin Man

[alamogunr]

Not sure why I'm posting this since I've never used this mold and don't want to sell it. I have an Old West Mold that is a .44-250 gr with a full wadcutter profile. IIRC, this was a group buy years ago. I haven't looked at it in several years but my Excel list says it is a 2 cavity brass mold. I think I'm going to have to get it out and try it.

[Thin Man]

alamogunr, I used to review all the catalogs and auction sites looking for that "just right" design that would suit my interests. Wadcutter designs are intended to be seated deep in the case and this limited the type and amount of powder charge under them. I wanted to move the base of these toward the case mouth but ran into problems with the boolit running out of room in the chamber. I had the concept of a WFN boolit but with more than a 75-80% wide nose. This all came together one day when I saw an auction for a Modern-Bond mold #358582 that was a SWC design and had about a 95% (of the bore) nose profile. Wow, a SWC on steroids. This was what would suit the call and now I have several brands and weights of this pattern. I have ordered the NOE mold and am ready to warm up the furnace. This mold has become my Christmas gift from me to me. Looking forward to the fun of load development.

[stubshaft]

I've tried a couple of versions of the full wadcutter in my 44's and was not too impressed. I found better accuracy with LBT Ogival Wadcutters.

[Forrest r]

I've been thinning the herd lately, down to these wc/hbwc molds for the 44cal's.
[IMG][/IMG]

The bottom right bullet is a lyman 429352. The older lyman reloading manuals used to list you could use the:
429421 swc
429251 rn
429352 wc
And use the same load for all 3 of them. I've tried those 429352 wc's with several different powders/hot load doing ladder tests looking for accuracy @ 50yds. Never did find anything impressive and gave up. That 429352 made 1 heck of a bowling pin bullet but @ 25ft accuracy really didn't matter.

Accuracy means different things to different people. Myself I'd consider this an average/blammo ammo plinking load.
[IMG][/IMG]

Never could get that heavy wc bullet to even do groups like that pictured above with heavier loads. Perhaps you'll have better luck than me.

[Moonie]

You should be able to find something on this page, if not you can submit a design and he will make it quickly.

http://accuratemolds.com/catalog.php?page=14

[Flailguy]

Arsenal molds makes one just like you described, 5 cavity is $80