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[Jbuck]

Please forgive my complete lack of knowledge, been reloading since 1971 but always used jacketed bullets. Lets say I slug my Ruger SBH and get a dia. reading of .429, should I then buy a mold that cast boolits of say .430 and size them down to .429 or should I try to get a mold that drops them at .429? My son and I bought a SBH apeace with consecitive serial #'s are the chances good they will slug the same dia? Are there any disadvantages to gas checks other than the cost? I am really impressed by the looks of the keith style cast boolits (Lyman 429244) and am thinking of ordering one out, but need a little, no a lot more education before I do. Thanks

[lbaize3]

If your barrel slugged at .429, then you want to shoot a .430 boolit. If your boolits drop from the mold at .430 you can simply cover them with Lee's Liquid Alox, You should be able to get pretty much all the velocity you need with the LLA. I think there are more advantages to gas checks when using heavy loads, others will disagree with me. That subject may simply be a matter of opinion. With the Keith style SWC boolit, your size, alloy, lube and velocity will determine if you get leading or not. There are other factors to consider, but those are the basic and most common ones. I shoot a young ton of 44's each year. My favorite is the 240 grain SWC or the Round Flat nose cowboy boolit. SWC in my pistol and RF in my rifle (feeds better...).


By the way, I have a SBH, too. Shoots great with the 240 grain SWC plain base and stout loads of Unique or Universal Clays. I also shoot the 310 grain gas checked boolit with good loads of AA #9 or 2400. I imagine AA4100 would be good, too, but have no experience with that powder.

[GRUMPA]

Well first off I'm glad you slugged the barrel, most don't even get that far. In reference to the diameter size your after it's generally .001-.002 OVER the slugged diameter. This cant be confusing to some but it seems your kinda half way there already.

For my stuff (which slugs at .429) I use a boolit sized to .430 and so far so good, and all with gas checks. 1 of them is a hand cannon and the other is a rifle so my stuff I make work in both and for what I do they work better than I can aim off hand. On a rest it's the sweetest thing I've shot (both of them) but I really don't have that much experience with a lot of what the world has to offer in the caliber anyway, just some.

Don't take for granted that both of those hand guns will be identical just because of the serial numbers, treat it as if it were an entirely different 44mag all together.

All of what I cast is always water dropped Wheel Weights (WW for short) with 1% tin added that gives me an average of 25 BHN after 48hrs.

Since I was kinda lucky right off the line with my size I only had to purchase just 1 sizer in .430.

[.22-10-45]

Hello, Jbuck. Even more important than bore slug measurement is the cylinder mouth dia. I try to size to at least this dia. or at most .001" over.
When I was shooting in IHMSA, I used a S&W 57 .41 mag. I never got any leading shooting pretty heavy loads of H110 with Lyman 410429 plain base. Alloy was range scrap & tin.

[PacMan]

Be aware that the Lyman mold may not cast a bullet of .429 much less .430.
Some have had luck,not me, shooting bullets grove dia. or .001 over thru cylinder throats that are .002 to .003 over grove dia.
Slug your cylinder throats and get a mold that will cast .001 over the largest throat and you will be on your way. I really doubt that any Lyman mold made today will get you there.

As info i have two RBHs in 44 cal. and the cylinder throats on both of them mic. at .432 or larger.
Dwight

[williamwaco]

Over a period of many years, I have bought, sold,and traded around two dozen .44 Mags from three different companys. I have never seen a .44 Mag that did not work perfectly with .430 bullets.


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[PacMan]

Over a period of many years, I have bought, sold,and traded around two dozen .44 Mags from three different companys. I have never seen a .44 Mag that did not work perfectly with .430 bullets.


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Please define perfect.
thanks

[Wolfer]

My 429-421 drops at about .4295, or it did before I lapped it. My Lipseys 44 spl has 429 grove and 430 cyl. It didn't shoot bad I just felt it could do better. I've got it dropping now at 432 but haven't shot enough of em to form an opinion
PS I've tried beagleing molds and it works pretty good!

[Buckshot]

..................A revolter is kinda like 6 different guns :shock: Congratulations on slugging the barrel, as that dimension is really good to know. Now you should check the cylinder throats (as mentioned by 22-10-45). You generally can't "Get a mould to cast .001" over" whatever the throat is. Moulds of the same design can be as much individuals as the firearms they're used in. One may drop s slug at .432" and the exact same design form a different run may drop it's boolit at .430".

You can size down, but you can't size up. What you CAN do is to go to a more highly alloyed (harder) mix to increase size. Of course if it drops small with a linotype equivilent alloy, you're kind of stuck. A heavier charge is another way to increase a design's size via obturation at firing. Softening up the alloy some will increase the slug's tendancy to upset (obturate). Going to a softer alloy may sound like a conflict that won't work. Most complaints about commercial cast is leading. Most commercial cast (non-custom casting) uses a hard(er) alloy and if not using an upper end load leading can occur due to lack of obturation.

I have a friend who had a Ruger BH with a barrel having a groove of .451" and the chamber mouths were .449". I don't recall if he'd actually sent it back to Ruger, but he WAS TOLD by the folks at Ruger that the throats were "Within Spec"!:mrgreen: Getting a revolver to shoot cast well may sound like a daunting task. I suspect that very few are actually impossible to get shooting at least fairly well. The vast majority will easily do well without much voo-doo involved. Some are simply as eager to please as a spotted puppy. I have a K38 S&W like that, and cherish it highly.

Look at it as a journey. Some are easy with few steep grades and at the other end it's all steep up hill with some switchbacks thrown in to test your perseverance :roll: Happily they ALL have an end.

.................Buckshot

[beagle]

The greatest quest with the SBH is finding a bullet mould of the proper design that will cast bullets big enough. That's one reason we "beagle" moulds to increase the diameter.

My ideal mould would be one that would cast a .432-433" diameter bullet of the design you want to shoot.

My SBHs like bullets sized .431" and a sized bullet will barely go through the cylinder throats at this diameter when shoved with a dowel.

I have a custom .432" sizer and old Ideal 429421HP that will throw .433" bullets so I'm happy. I have tried loading bullets at this diameter but they start to drag a bit on chambering so I dropped back to .431" and get good accuracy.

Walt Melander at NEI once wrote when casters were quibbling over bullet diameter. "Load the biggest bullet that will chamber freely. When the pressure hits the bullet, it will swage to fit the dimensions existing."

I'm a firm beleiver in that theory and also that bigger is better as far as diameters are concerned./beagle

[MtGun44]

Fit is king and too small is a problem, too big is not a problem - as long as it will chamber
like beagle says above.

Way more problems from too small and too hard than from too big and too soft.

Oh, yea - 429244 is NOT a Keith design. Elmer dispised gas checks, that is a Thompson
design.

Personally, I have found no benefit in handgun ammo from gas checks. Real Keith
designs like Lyman 429421, or H&G 503, or RCBS 44-250-K can be driven at full max
pistol velocities with relatively soft alloy (8 BHN or more, wwts ar 12-14) with no
leading and great accuracy from most handguns.

Bill

[williamwaco]

Please define perfect.
thanks

Perfect in this instance means, accuracy better than I can hold and ZERO leading.

for definition of ZERO leading, see:

http://www.reloadingtips.com/pages/leading-zero.htm



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