We all in our lives at one moment, especially in retirement, making full circle in our views. When I started going on shooting ranges beginning of nineties, everybody was shooting SWC boolits. I started with friend’s Ruger 44 Flattop and S&W M29, using 429421, than I've got my first 44 Redhawk.
Few years later, I found in gun magazines some writers were suggesting that SWC is obsolete, no-no, passé, just for shooting ranges and if anybody is serious about handgun hunting, the only way is big, heavy LBT boolit, with large meplat, in front of hefty charge of H110 or W296. Since I don't use handgun as primary firearm in hunt, I was OK with existing SWC-s supplied by friends, leaving LBT and those wrist twisting loads to serious handgun hunters.
Three years ago I moved, supply of boolits died out and I started looking for a decent mold for my 44 revolvers. In fact, I did have brass mold for MP-Molds 432-256, purchased 12 years ago, but it was misplaced without casting a single bullet. Anyhow, I narrowed my choice to 432-256 and 432-640 from MP-Molds. Hoping that more knowledgeable and experienced shooters could help me make decision, I asked for advice https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...56-v-s-432-640 . Considering what others posted, and putting priority on accuracy, I ordered 6-cavity aluminum 432-256. Having a nice memories from those first days, when loading and shooting 429421, I was happy with my decision going with #503 version from MP-Molds.
Than, recently, I found something that changed my view on handgun loads for hunting; a post on another forum, stating that 454424 from 45 Colt, lunched at 1100 fps was adequate for dispatching cattle, and in that respect, certainly more than enough for deer and feral and wild boars, see https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...nother-aproach . Well, since I do not have 45 Colt revolver any more, just 44 Magnum, I was thinking about mold for boolit that will duplicate weight and meplat dia of 454424. Although, most likely there are such 44 LBT boolits, I put in noted thread my idea of such boolit.
However, bearing in mind what Murbach wrote about 454424 in 45 Colt, I started thinking about tweaking design of #503 to have same weight and meplat dia as 454424. Considering that lunching 265 grains bullet at 1100 fps from 44 Magnum revolvers in many cases is starting load for this cartridge and pressure quite bellow maximum, made this even more appealing.
So, for better or worse, here is my idea of modified #503, left, right is original #503:
I would appreciate your comments, or the link for something similar. Thanks