How to get bigger boolits!

[Watermelon Wine]

I 'slugged' my bore yesterday and I think I found out why I've been calling my gun "Lightning" (...because it only rarely hits the same place twice...)
The bore seems to be at least .433!
I think I attached a photo of a few projectiles and their dimensions.

From left to right:

Lee .430-310 (.430),

Hornady JHP (.430),

Unknown but shoots great! (.434)

Lee .429-200 (.4295)

Lee 200 grainer whacked on the head with a hammer and expanded to .435, then pushed through my 44 barrel from the muzzle. After this process it measured .433

Unknown 200ish grainer that always shot like cr@p, (.427)

So how should I make my two Lee molds throw bigger boolits?

I've read about 'Beagling' but I'm kinda wondering if anyone has had any luck holding the block in a four-jaw chuck and trying to polish it bigger with emery cloth or something?

Or will I destroy my molds?

[462]

I would beagle first. It's quick and easy to do, and is reversible. After you are casting the correct size boolit, you can lap the mould, using a fine grit lapping compound, thereby making it permanent.

[Watermelon Wine]

I'll try it, but it just seems like the boolits produced will be .434 across the wide point and .430 at the narrow?

[mooman76]

Check your bullets to see what the mould is actually dropping. Just because it is a 430 mould doesn't mean it throws that size. I'm sure from what you said they arent throwing 434 but you will know where you stand and what you need to get to. Search for lamenting. That will increase your size and may you can do a combination of lamenting and beagling. You can actually lament it a few thousandths no problem if you do it right.

[Watermelon Wine]

Well, there's nothing quite like increasing your size by lamenting!

Sorry, I didn't make my first post clear, the boolit sizes listed were as measured, not as advertised, the Lee .429-200 actually seems to throw half a thou' over the advertised diameter. (I can only resolve to half a thousandth with the digital verniers I was using.)

The boolits that did shoot well turned out to measure .434 but they were given to me without the mold and I cant get any more so must get my Lee molds up and running before I run out!

The .427's always shot like ****, I might just melt them!

[AZ-Stew]

Try a different alloy. I believe softer = larger.

Now, about the Lee-menting and Beagling...

I've always thought Beagling would produce oval cross-section boolits, too. I've never had to enlarge a mould, so I've never had to use the technique. It occurs to me during this thread that if you were to Beagle a mould to arrive at a boolit that's slightly oval, you might be able to use that oval boolit in the Lee-menting process to restore the mould to producing round boolits, but with a larger diameter. As I said, I've never had to use the procedures, so I'm just proposing a possible solution.

Regards,

Stew

[lwknight]

I would look for another barrel.
I had a Ruger P-95 that came with a .3568 barrel and later got a .355 barrel on gunbroker for $25.00 or so.
Now I can get use of any 9mm mold.

I got in the habit of using the 2-6-92 alloy on my .429-240 mold to make the boolits drop out at .431 instead of .429 that I was getting with lower Antimony content.
I don't see getting .434 out of a .430 mold by tailering the alloy. Its just too much.

[462]

Any beagled out-of-roundness will be corrected by either a sizing die -- if using one -- or the barrel. Beagling works.

[randyrat]

In order to get an extra .0035 over what it is now your gonna have to beagle, if i'm using the right term, or should i say use some aluminum duck tape to make your bullet bigger.
The stuff i have use had no name and i bought it at a discount store. I used tinny strips of it to make bigger bullets, i let the barrel fix any oblong shape it had.

I could be wrong, but i think beagling is the way to go.

[mooman76]

Actually softer comes out smaller.

[lwknight]

Actually softer comes out smaller.

Yes , more antimony makes bigger boolits.
Lead or lead with tin only, shrinks.

[lathesmith]

I've "beagled" some of my molds, sometimes for a larger boolit, and sometimes it also helps my molds release a little easier. However, the most I can reasonably pick up by doing this seems to be around .002 or so, trying to beagle .004 may be a little drastic.

To get the largest slugs possible from your molds, go ahead and beagle them, but also try and cast with the mold "bare". Don't use any mold release or smoke in them, as either one of these will reduce the size of your slugs. Out of round isn't nearly as bad as undersize, in fact out of round rarely hurts anything at all, especially in pistol boolits.

lathesmith

[outdoorfan]

This is what I would do:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=88083

[Watermelon Wine]

Well I started with pure lead and have just been throwing all sorts of things in on top, old boolits, old sinkers, lead roofing sheet, even shot boolits that had been through rabbits and dirt!

Last casting session my boolits seemed to change and they're harder so I think I've finally 'contaminated' my pure lead with some wheel-weight sinkers or something... My little camping stove can't quite keep the new stuff hot enough to cast well so I havn't made any high quality hard boolets yet to be able to measure.

I havn't been sizing either but after reading here about all the things I didn't know I didn't know, I could possibly build a sizing die, right after I get some bigger boolits!

@ lwknight, (about the new barrel option...) I'm actually thinking this might be a pretty time/cost effective option, particularly since I'd try to rectify the 1:38 twist problem at the same time!

[lwknight]

Thread drift alert:
Ok, I'm not real up on specific barrel twists in revolver/pistol calibers but I thoughtt hat 1-38 was standard for the 44 cal. So what is the norm and what is the problen with that?

[Watermelon Wine]

Re: Twist rate thread drift, that's fine, my BIG problem is more accuracy, Boolit size being too small for the bore is a sub-problem within the big problem. So any thoughts are appreciated.

Those .427's must have some funny alignments in that .433 bore. Group size used to be about 6 inches at 50 yards

As far as twist rate is concerned, you are right, 1:38 IS pretty usual for a .44, however, it seems to have come about more because of tradition than anything else, round-ball muzzle-loaders became .44 rimfires then .44-40's then .44 magnums and boolit size grew from well, round balls to 350 odd grainers and even bigger that may no longer be properly stabilised at 1:38.

So IF a faster twist exists, I'd probably take it.

Oh yes, and the problem in question is a rifle, not a pistol, so my target for all this development is minute of rabbit at 100 yards, not minute of elk at 50!

[lwknight]

Now another "Q" comes to mind.
If your bore is .433 , what about the cylinder throats. Will they allow a .433 to pass
without being sized down?

[Watermelon Wine]

Is a cylinder throat in a revolver? Or do you mean some dimension within the chamber?

My .44 magnum is a single shot rifle built on a martini cadet action (sort of like a falling block but hinged at the rear) with a barrel about 20 inches long. I originally built an anschutz style free-rifle stock for it but sort of over-estimated it's accuracy potential because of the 1" bull barrel it was sporting. It is now getting a nice slim classic hunting stock.

I am toying with the idea of casting the chamber and building my own mold with a wide meplat that may help centre the projectile in the leads (leades?) like they try to achieve in benchrest shooting... Perhaps I set my sights too high!

[lwknight]

My bad. I was thinking revolver.

[fecmech]

Don't dismiss the "beageling" out of hand, it works very well. If you don't have access to the tape I would be more than happy to send you some. Only takes about 5 minutes to accomplish.