Mold diameter recomendation .44 Ruger Super Redhawk

[Animal]

I slugged my throats and bore today and this is what I came up with:

Cylinder:

1. .4315
2. .4320
3. .4320
4. .4320
5. .4320
6. .4315

Throat:

Groove: .4295
Lands: .4160

Don't know if I should round those two .4315s up to a .432 and go with that?

I'd like to try a Lee 6 cavity mold to start with. I'm just unsure about the size.

[btroj]

I use .432 with good results. I would suggest you do likewise.

[Animal]

Interesting. I noticed that .432 isn't that common, at least on Midway USA.

[randyrat]

Get as close to .432 as you can..I always have problems when a mold cast under .432...I have one mold I would like to drag it on a string back of the truck and then take a hammer to it:evil:. It leads every time I try that boolit (.431 and that is stretching it.).,,Other molds that cast fat enough don't lead my pistola (Super Red Hawk).

[btroj]

I was lucky enough to get an over sized Lee GB Keith mould years ago. That sucker throws a .435 bullet so I have plenty of ability to shoot them fat. I size to .432 and it works great in my SRH. Doesn't lead, good accuracy.
I found that sizing to .430 or .429 gave lots of leading in the rear of the barrel.

[Animal]

how consistent are the measurements I posted? Is this pretty much how everyone's SRH looks? I thought it was odd that there are so few .432 molds available for such a popular firearm. It looks like NOE, MP and all the 'underground' mold manufacturers have them available.

On MidwayUSA's site, you can't even click on a diameter for selecting a size range in .432. The closes stops at .430 and the next size up is over .450.

[btroj]

I have a Star so I could order any size I wanted.

Contact either Lathesmith or Buckshot here, they will make what you need.

I have never measured the throats on mine, I just picked .432 and it worked.

[MT Gianni]

I have a Redhawk that the throats measure from .4291-0.4295. I assumed they all ran that way.

[Larry Gibson]

There is a trade off of accuracy if a cast bullet, especially a softer cast PB'd bullet, is too much oversized to fit the throats and has to be sized down as it enters the forcing cone and barrel. This is why we see the older really oversized .45 throats on Colt SAAs give only mediocre accuracy with bullets sized .454 - .455+ being shot through .451 groove diameter barrels.

I've shot lots of cast through .44s and .45 revolvers that were not sized to the throats that gave just as good accuracy and no leading as those sized to the oversize throats. Many times the smaller bullet actually gives better accuracy. Yes I know that is heresy on this forum but it is none the less true. I do try to size to throat diameter IF they are within .002 of the groove diameter. If not then I size at .002 over groove diameter at the most. In my .44s I regularly size to .430 and all 3 of my current .44 magnums and many others I've shot such sized cast bullets in shoot as well as they will shoot. I just traded off a 429244 to a friend with a Ruger Super BH because with bullets cast with that mould and sized to .430 shoot into 4" at 100 yards for him. The throats of his Ruger also run .432 +/- (pin measured). I got one of the oversized GB moulds previously mentioned to use cast bullets that "fit" the .435+/- throats of my Hawes .44. That they did but when shot through the .429 barrel the accuracy was very, very poor. Hard cast .429 commercial cast were more accurate. Sometimes "fit" is not king but a court jester dressed like the king. I sold that mould and use .430 sized cast in the Hawes and it shoots very well.

Additionally the nominal diameter for most .44 cal moulds these days is .429. With the correct alloys most commercial .44 moulds will drop as cast at .430 or larger. they will do very well in the .432 throats of your revolver if sized .430 - .432 if you cast and load them correctly.

Larry Gibson

[Animal]

Mr. Gibson, you have an interesting point. What I might do is purchase a box of 500 cast boolits from my LGS. They are 'no name' boolits and tend to have very inconsistent sizing. If they will be anything like the .357 mag boolits I bought from them, they should have multiple sizes within one box. I'll pick out the ones that measure out at .432, try them out, then try a few smaller... and so on. I'd hate to buy a mold that I'll regret, this might be a good way to determine what works.

[Larry Gibson]

Animal

Not familiar at all with those commercial cast. However, if the lube is good that should be a worth while test.

Larry Gibson

[Bigslug]

Got some recent experience here with a like-new early '90's Redhawk I acquired.

I STRONGLY advise you to get to your local tool & die shop and pick up a few pin gauges that cover the range likely. What I found was four chambers that were .432 and two that had a tiny burr or ring within the front 1/16th" to 1/32nd" which kept the gauge from passing all the way through. 10-15 fire-lapping slugs on top of 3 grains of Bullseye in the offending two holes got everything to .432".

[Animal]

Animal

Not familiar at all with those commercial cast. However, if the lube is good that should be a worth while test.

Larry Gibson

The lube sucks on those boolits. I've had to sort out the boolits by size, take the ones that fit my throats and melt the blue lube off. I then pan lube them in 60/40 beeswax/vasoline. They performed flawlessly in my .357 with 12.4 gr of 2400. Hopefully they will do the same for my SRH.

[Animal]

Got some recent experience here with a like-new early '90's Redhawk I acquired.

I STRONGLY advise you to get to your local tool & die shop and pick up a few pin gauges that cover the range likely. What I found was four chambers that were .432 and two that had a tiny burr or ring within the front 1/16th" to 1/32nd" which kept the gauge from passing all the way through. 10-15 fire-lapping slugs on top of 3 grains of Bullseye in the offending two holes got everything to .432".

I'm not familiar with a 'ping gauge' or the process. Would you mind explaining this process to me in more detail?

[cbrick]

A pin gauge is a precision ground tool used to measure hole diameter. My set came in graduations of a tenth of a thousand of an inch. Find the smallest that will just barely slip into the throat and you'll know the hole diameter. I used to slug the throats but the pin gauges are much faster and far easier.

Rick

[427smith]

I haven't had any luck with Lee's casting much over advertised size. seems like the molds I bought 15 or 20 years ago cast larger than ones purchased lately. I have 7 44's 6 rugers and a smith, they all get .431 dia. and they shoot as good as I can. good luck and have fun

[Larry Gibson]

The lube sucks on those boolits. I've had to sort out the boolits by size, take the ones that fit my throats and melt the blue lube off. I then pan lube them in 60/40 beeswax/vasoline. They performed flawlessly in my .357 with 12.4 gr of 2400. Hopefully they will do the same for my SRH.

I've washed of the many time useless hard wax and relubed thousands of commercial cast. Though I use a Lyman 450 lubrasizer it sounds like you do well with pan lubing. If the lube on the commercial cast isn't totally worthless I often find that a TL with straight LLA as per Lee's directions alleviates most of the leading if not all and is sufficient. Which I do depends on the quality of the lube that is on the bullets. I have shot a lot of .429 sized commercial cast that I relubed through my Hawes with it's large throats with no appreciable leading and excellent accuracy.

Larry Gibson

[Animal]

The poor man's pan lube method has done well for me. Looking forward to a lubesizer one day.

[oscarflytyer]

Trick I just got from a Lee Tech.

If you have a (Lee) mold, and need it to cast oversize (I def have this requirement for three calibers in three Marlin microgroove barrels - they like a cast bullet +.001 - .002" oversize!), he recommended the following.

Get some cigarette rolling paper. stick it to the front part of the mold block with a spot of beeswax, as a spacer, farthest away from the handles. It will press into the mold face like a thin shim and open up the mold that small extra size amount. And the bullet will still stay round, based on where the paper is placed - at the very 'front' of the mold. Yet to try it, but pretty certain it will work.