klw
04-16-2007, 05:48 PM
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?
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?