9.4 Dutch East Indies bullet

[hendere]

I'm out of my comfort range here and looking for help. I'm hoping to shoot an M91 Dutch East Indies revolver in 9.4 Dutch East Indies. I've found some info on loads but I haven't found anything that mentions what boolit to use. This is NOT the shorter 9.4 Dutch round, this one has a case length of 1.070" and needs a boolit sized to about .381" and can only stick out of the case about .220". The original was a (very) flat nosed 175 grain. I'm guessing it will need to be a wadcutter type design to be able to crimp. Any ideas?

[Earlwb]

Well about all I can say about it, is that the old 38-55 caliber used .381 lead bullets. But the bullets I see for the 38-55 tend to run from 210 grains to 260 grains in weight. You could get the Lee 379-250 bullet mold shaved off some to make a more light weight bullet. You could also get a Lee Custom mold using a Lee Conical black powder revolver bullet and get it enlarged to .381 from .375 too. But most bullet mold companies could make a custom mold as well. Another thought is to use round ball bullet molds to cast round balls. Lee makes a some of these in, .375, .380 and .390 sizes. Round balls work well and would not strain the pistol much at all. Anyway that is it for my ideas.

[Tom Herman]

Check this thread: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...Dutch-Revolver
And here is the Accurate Molds catalog: http://www.accuratemolds.com/catalog.php?page=all
Special emphasis on the 39-150D mold. The 38-175H may also be a possibility.
Best of Luck!

-Tom

[hendere]

Some good ideas, thanks guys. I’ll probably end up using either a round ball or get a custom mold in more of a wadcutter type configuration. Not much nose room on this.

[hendere]

For the record, this is what I’m trying to do.

[texassako]

I shoot the shorter Dutch round, mostly with BP. Round ball shoots OK, not great. I bought a mold before I found out about Accurate Molds. Give him a weight, that pic, and how much nose is exposed. I bet he can come up with a design. He has done similar for me several times with about that much info. If you really want it historically accurate with that hollow base, he can bore it through and make it nose pour but you have to source the pin (Eric at hollowpointmolds.com).

[hendere]

Texassako, sounds like a plan to me. I’m waiting for the dies and will probably hold off until I have those in hand then will give Accurate a yell. Thanks!

[Bigslug]

The first thing I'd be wanting to find out is if that hollow base was a functional necessity, or just how they thought they should make them.

An example of that is the .455 Webley revolvers. The MKVI that I'm most familiar with does not follow the usual pattern of the cylinder throats being bigger than the bore. Instead, they would squeeze a soft bullet down in the throat (.452" as I recall) to maximize powder combustion, after which they relied on the hollow base to puff back up to the groove diameter of .455"

In your case, I'd be wanting to measure:

*Cylinder throats, with a set of pin gauges.
*Barrel groove diameter, by pounding a lead slug through.
*Barrel bore diameter, again with pin gauges. This is less critical than the other two, probably even unnecessary, but as long as you've hunted down the pin gauges anyway, and are working in that diameter range, you might as well know.

If it turns out that the gun DOESN'T want a hollow base, mold construction will be a lot more straightforward. Tom at Accurate could knock out a flat-based duplicate of that pic, with the modern benefit of a proper crimp groove easily enough. If it DOES want a hollow base, probably start the conversation with hollowpointmolds.com to ask how they'd prefer Accurate to format the mold to suit your needs.

Finally, Buffalo Arms has been my go-to source for weird diameter lube sizing dies, when they become necessary.

[hendere]

I didn’t measure the cylinder throats but I did drop a slug through them after I slugged the barrel and they appeared to be huge. I’d certainly be happy to not deal with the hollow base.

[Bigslug]

I didn’t measure the cylinder throats but I did drop a slug through them after I slugged the barrel and they appeared to be huge. I’d certainly be happy to not deal with the hollow base.

That sounds like promising news then, and all you should need now is the throat spec. What did the groove diameter mic out to?

[hendere]

Groove diameter is .380.

That sounds like promising news then, and all you should need now is the throat spec. What did the groove diameter mic out to?