Ranch Dog 300/350 + 44mag pistol?

[saz]

Is anyone using Ranch Dog's 300/350gr boolit in their 44mag handgun? I am just getting Ideas as my BELOVED Lee 310 mold is now junk. It has a smaller meplat and shorter nose taking up case capacity, but with it being a TL design you could just crimp in one of the upper lube grooves right? I also see that Michael is offering his molds in plain base or half GC and half PB! That is AWESOME!!!!

Also do you think that the 350gr boolit would stabilize from a SBH? Decisions, decisions.....

[MGySgt]

Sounds like questions for Ranch Dog!

[subsonic]

Not yet, but I have the NOE 300gr copy with lube grooves that is destined for a couple of .44s in my safe. I have been looking at RDs data, but don't recall what load I was going to try.
I also have his original (not a lube groove copy) 265TL mould to play with.

[44man]

I don't know about the 350 gr. I do shoot a 330 gr with super accuracy.
But how did you ruin the 310 gr mold?
The RD 265 is a super boolit, lubed with Felix, sized .432", 22 gr of 296 with a Fed 150 primer, in both the SBH and S&W 29.

[saz]

I don't know about the 350 gr. I do shoot a 330 gr with super accuracy.
But how did you ruin the 310 gr mold?
The RD 265 is a super boolit, lubed with Felix, sized .432", 22 gr of 296 with a Fed 150 primer, in both the SBH and S&W 29.

While organizing my garage before going to Afghanistan, it got dropped off my workbench onto the concrete floor. I didnt have a lot of time to look it over but it does not close right. There is a crack in the bottom underneath one of the cavities also. It didnt help that when the mold hit the floor my 19.2V cordless drill followed right behind it.......

I was oogling one of the NOE 310 copies he had left a couple of months before, but I passed to save the money for the BFR. Oh well. The mold was never right from the beginning either. It was opened up with aluminum tape to drop a .432-.433 boolit and I had to smooth out the cavities with comet just to get them to drop. I may be able to salvage it when I get home. I love that boolit, just throwing around ideas.

[saz]

BTW 44man, is that 330 one of your own designs? Just curious.....

[44man]

BTW 44man, is that 330 one of your own designs? Just curious.....
Yeah, I was shooting for 320 gr. It is a WLNGC that I took the ogive close to 11* to match my forcing cone.
I don't know what I am doing most of the time and never know what a boolit will come out at. I was just lucky!
The hardest and most frustrating thing do do is to make your own mold but it is also a real fun thing to do. To make boolits that shoot can make a guy do flips but I would hurt my old bones! :bigsmyl2: Never call me an expert because I stare at the things and wonder what the heck I did. I have NOTHING on paper either, not a single boolit drawing.
Here is the boolit and what I shot at 200 yards with a red dot. Don't ask me to do it again either.
Anyone is free to blow up the picture and use it. I want you all to know it is DEADLY on deer.

[saz]

I wouldnt think an extra 20 grs would hurt anything. Do you?
My 44mag is primarily my carry gun in the woods- LOTS of bears up here.

[EDK]

If you aren't out in the field, I'd buy the new mould and have it sent there...just to look at for awhile...and then send it home.

I worked in the ER of a hospital in Chu Lai in 1969. Great luck for a draftee. I had some books and even small pieces of horse gear sent over to look at for awhile and then send home. (I bet the customs people inspected it and couldn't believe the APO return address.) I was a lowly Spec 4 at $300 a month, but no habits beyond cigarettes and a couple beers a week...and single...sent most of my pay home...bought two yearling Appaloosa horses and had a custom saddle built rather than an R&R...Bangkok or Sydney are my regrets at times...BUT I had those two horses for a long time.

My favorite step son goes to Afghanistan next summer. He's an E-6 National Guard combat engineer. He's been drooling on my M1A SQUAD SCOUT while talking about buying a personal ACOG (sp?) to have for his M4 when he arrives in country. If he brings the ACOG back in usable shape, we'll have to see what he wants to install it on...

:cbpour::redneck::guntootsmiley:

[saz]

My wife and I are doing the same thing you did in Nam- spend as little as possible and pay EVERYTHING off. Not easy to do with a family but we can probably get it done, if not get real darn close.

The ACOG is a great optic. I have carried one for 6 years on my M-4 now and they are about as tough as they come. I have seen them take some HARD hits and still hold zero. Now depending on what I would be doing, the M67 (aimpoint red dot) is never a bad choice, and with no magnification target acquisition is very fast and plenty accurate to 300 meters. Tell him good luck and keep his head on a swivel!

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
SAZ you do not need an extra 20grs. to kill anything on this continent. The 240 gr. has done it.
Bullet placement is the most important factor in killing power!
It does not matter how big or heavy a bullet is if you can not put it in the kill zone.
44man has probably killed more game than you & me combined with the heavy 44 bullets. So listen to what he says.
I have gone to the 265 gr. RD boolit, & do not think I will have any prob. with any critter if I do my part.:Fire::Fire: