knifemaker
10-08-2012, 02:08 AM
I have recently purchased a Ruger blackhawk in 41 mag. I also purchased a 4 cavity mold from Accurate molds for a 220 gr. Keith style SWC. I requested it to drop a .413 boolit using wheel weights.
First off the Kudos for Ruger and Accurate Molds. Slugging the Ruger cylinder showed that 5 chamber throats were at .411 and #6 at .4115. The barrel groove was a consistant .409 and no restriction at the barrel-frame junction. Could not ask for better in a production revolver for shooting cast boolits.
Upon miking the boolits from the Accurate mold. I measured 4 boolits picked from random from about 300 boolits I casted about 3 weeks ago. I measured 4 places while turning the boolits 45 degrees. every measurement was dead on at .414. I contribute the added 1 thousand to adding about 2% tin to the wheel weight mix. Now I know why they are called "Accurate Molds".
Now to the rant. I used a Lyman .410 sizing die to size and lube the boolits. I loaded the bullets and used the crimping groove for my overall lenght. I noticed that seating the loaded bullets into the Ruger cylinder resulted in the boolits not fully seating by about 20-25 thousands resulting in the case rim dragging on the breech face and stopping the rotation of the cylinder in the gun.
I pulled the old reliable 1 inch starrett mike out and started to do some measuring. As I said above the cast pre-sized boolits were a consistant round .414. After running them though the Lyman .410 sizing die, I found my problem. The smallest reading I got on the sized boolits was .410 and the largest reading was ,413 on five boolits measured. The darn sizing die, purchased 2 months ago, was out of round by 3 thousands and causing the front boolit driving band to jam into the throats and not fully seat the entire cartidge into the cylinder.
I was lucky and found in my stash pile another Lyman .410 sizing die that I had bought years ago and forgot about when I got the new one. It sized at .411, not the .410 as marked, but it was not out of round.
To you new guys getting into casting, one of the best things you can do for yourself is buy a good 1 inch mike to measure your boolits and when slugging the cylinder throats and barrel groove diameter. I have three calipers, but they are not as accurate as a good mike is. I have used that mike to solve a few problems when trying to work up some very accurate loads for my rifles and handguns. I will be thinking twice in the future on purchasing any more Lyman sizing dies. I will go RCBS or custom. I have about 5 RCBS dies and none of them are out of round. On about three Lyman dies I have, they did not size to the dia. as indicated on the die. Either oversized or undersized on one die I bought. They need to tighten their quality control .[smilie=s:
First off the Kudos for Ruger and Accurate Molds. Slugging the Ruger cylinder showed that 5 chamber throats were at .411 and #6 at .4115. The barrel groove was a consistant .409 and no restriction at the barrel-frame junction. Could not ask for better in a production revolver for shooting cast boolits.
Upon miking the boolits from the Accurate mold. I measured 4 boolits picked from random from about 300 boolits I casted about 3 weeks ago. I measured 4 places while turning the boolits 45 degrees. every measurement was dead on at .414. I contribute the added 1 thousand to adding about 2% tin to the wheel weight mix. Now I know why they are called "Accurate Molds".
Now to the rant. I used a Lyman .410 sizing die to size and lube the boolits. I loaded the bullets and used the crimping groove for my overall lenght. I noticed that seating the loaded bullets into the Ruger cylinder resulted in the boolits not fully seating by about 20-25 thousands resulting in the case rim dragging on the breech face and stopping the rotation of the cylinder in the gun.
I pulled the old reliable 1 inch starrett mike out and started to do some measuring. As I said above the cast pre-sized boolits were a consistant round .414. After running them though the Lyman .410 sizing die, I found my problem. The smallest reading I got on the sized boolits was .410 and the largest reading was ,413 on five boolits measured. The darn sizing die, purchased 2 months ago, was out of round by 3 thousands and causing the front boolit driving band to jam into the throats and not fully seat the entire cartidge into the cylinder.
I was lucky and found in my stash pile another Lyman .410 sizing die that I had bought years ago and forgot about when I got the new one. It sized at .411, not the .410 as marked, but it was not out of round.
To you new guys getting into casting, one of the best things you can do for yourself is buy a good 1 inch mike to measure your boolits and when slugging the cylinder throats and barrel groove diameter. I have three calipers, but they are not as accurate as a good mike is. I have used that mike to solve a few problems when trying to work up some very accurate loads for my rifles and handguns. I will be thinking twice in the future on purchasing any more Lyman sizing dies. I will go RCBS or custom. I have about 5 RCBS dies and none of them are out of round. On about three Lyman dies I have, they did not size to the dia. as indicated on the die. Either oversized or undersized on one die I bought. They need to tighten their quality control .[smilie=s: