Difficult 44 Magnum Extraction

[klw]

About 25% of all the shooting I do is with one of my various 44 magnums. REALLY like these S&W Performance Center revolvers.

This year, however, I was having problems. I had decided to try a new set of matching bullets in my 357 and 44 magnums. I picked Ballistic-Cast bullets, #921 for the 357 and Ballisti-Cast #943 for the 44. Got a year's supply of each cast up, inspected, weighed and ready to go. BUT the 921's wouldn't load properly. No matter what I tried the case buckeled. Went back and read the Ballisti-Cast catalogue. This isn't a 357 magnum bullet?! It is a 357 Maximum bullet. Not sure I would have understood the implications even if I had notice it when I ordered the moulds.

So now what to do/ I did try everything. Different sizing dies. Different powder charges and powders. Nothing worked. Until I seated the bullet upside down. That worked.

So I seated the 44 magnum bullets upside down as well. All is right with the world. Accuracy is pretty good too.

But there was one remaining problem. In the 44 magnum, chambering the rounds was hard and extraction was near impossible. I worked on solving this a lot. And then yesterday I noticed a possible cause for the problem.

I am also shooting some SAECO bullets. Lubricating and sizing them on the same L/S er. And the other bullets are much shorter. Wondered if I could be failing to full length size the 943's. Didn't look like it but, well... If I was missing just a little bit of the bullet's length that might account for my problems.

So I readjusted the l/s to be sure that the entire bullet got down into the die AND I ran them through twice, once from each end.

Today I tried these. Accuracy improved NOTICEABLY! Chambering and extraction was a snap.

Wonder why it took me so long to think of this?

[felix]

Kenneth, quite simply it is called age, my friend, short for being a member of the over-the-hill gang. Nice to have you aboard. ... felix

[klw]

Kenneth, quite simply it is called age, my friend, short for being a member of the over-the-hill gang. Nice to have you aboard. ... felix

Senior moments get longer as you get older. BUT you are technically, according to the U.S. Government, not OLD until you are 65 so I've got just over two years to go.

[Dale53]

klw;
People need to be grateful for those that have problems, resolve them and then share the solutions. I haven't had this particular problem but I MIGHT have had. There are all kinds of things that we collectively can solve much easier, by sharing, than any single one of us can do by him or her self regardless of how smart we think we are. That is the POWER of the Forum.

Dale53

[felix]

Right on Dale! Kenneth, bd for me 8...26...41, so I qualify. ... felix

[DLCTEX]

Evidently I have to reach 66 1/3 to be considered old, according to SS. 4 1/2 years to get there. DALE:confused:

[Dale53]

Dale;
This Dale must be REALLY old. I'll be 72 my next birthday (June 4). Today, at the "Y" i lifted 22,000 lbs (yep, 22,000 lbs). Not bad for a "fat ol' man", Huh?:mrgreen:

Dale53

[44man]

Boy, I am not going to get involved in the age thing! Us old coots have some scruples ya know.
Back to the boolits, the .357 and .357 max boolits are one in the same unless you are trying to use very heavy ones in the .357 that stick out the front of the cylinder. What diameter are both caliber boolits coming out? You never said. I have never crumpled a case even with grossly over size boolits. I have no idea what is going on without more info. The S&W's have very tight chambers and throats and boolits need to be the right size so they will chamber. Loading a boolit backwards will put it too deep in the case and raise pressure.
I would say both guns need the boolits sized to throat diameters.

[KYCaster]

Dale;
This Dale must be REALLY old. I'll be 72 my next birthday (June 4). Today, at the "Y" i lifted 22,000 lbs (yep, 22,000 lbs). Not bad for a "fat ol' man", Huh?:mrgreen:

Dale53


WOW!! 22,000 reps! I don't have that much patience...YOU DA MAN, DALE!:mrgreen:

Jerry