Mold for 0.434" 44-40

[Andy_P]

Does anyone make a 200-250gr Plain-base mold that will drop in the 0.434-0.435" range, or am I looking at custom?

[44man]

Ask Ranch Dog. Some of his molds for Marlins are large.

[missionary5155]

Does anyone make a 200-250gr Plain-base mold that will drop in the 0.434-0.435" range, or am I looking at custom?

Rapine make s a great .434 260 grain flat nose... I use it in my 1892 SRC (27xxx).
I load 9 grains Unigue with a dacron wad over powder... my SRC will launch this Boolit under 2 inches 50 yards all day long. My lube is 50/50 beeswax and axle grease.

Check out CASTING FELLOWS John Goins Bullet Diameter Enlarging for a super idea. I also enlarge my Winchester 205 grain Bullet ( drops at .428 ) by bumping up in a pipe I opened up to .435 using a 1 pound hammer and close fitting wood dowl. Boolet is placed base down on a flat piece of steel. Pipe inserted around boolit. Dowl inserted into pipe. Then a practiced BUMP with the 1 pound on the dowl. It does not take a heavy blow to bump my near pure lead boolets. These bumped 205´s shot 2 inches at 50 yds. 9 or 10 grains Unique . :-D

[Andy_P]

Ask Ranch Dog. Some of his molds for Marlins are large.


Rapine make s a great .434 260 grain flat nose... I use it in my 1892 SRC (27xxx).
I load 9 grains Unigue with a dacron wad over powder... my SRC will launch this Boolit under 2 inches 50 yards all day long. My lube is 50/50 beeswax and axle grease.

Check out CASTING FELLOWS John Goins Bullet Diameter Enlarging for a super idea. I also enlarge my Winchester 205 grain Bullet ( drops at .428 ) by bumping up in a pipe I opened up to .435 using a 1 pound hammer and close fitting wood dowl. Boolet is placed base down on a flat piece of steel. Pipe inserted around boolit. Dowl inserted into pipe. Then a practiced BUMP with the 1 pound on the dowl. It does not take a heavy blow to bump my near pure lead boolets. These bumped 205´s shot 2 inches at 50 yds. 9 or 10 grains Unique . :-D

Ranch Dog makes good stuff and his prices are good, but his bullets are gas-checked, a bit under-sized and a bit heavy.

I'll look into the Rapine, and the bumping up looks interesting.

Thanks all.

[Boomer Mikey]

You can bump bullets up in size with an RCBS lubrisizer, I do it all the time.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=8538

All you need is a custom 0.434" (or whatever) die. Buckshot can make one for you.

Just take any reasonably soft bullet you like and squeze it in the die.

Boomer :Fire:

[w30wcf]

I too have a .44-40 that requires a .434" - .435" bullet. I originally bumped bullets in my press which worked aok and then bought a 200 gr. .429" mold and had the cavities opened up by a machinist to drop .435" bullets.

One thing -- be sure that your chamber is large enough to accept a cartridge with a .434" bullet. Fortunately, the one in my original '73 was.

Good luck,

w30wcf

[GabbyM]

I added .002” diameter to a Saeco 30 caliber rifle mold yesterday. It was dropping .309 bullets with a .2995” bore ride section. I first beagles the mold to get some lapping slugs. They turned out between .311 and .312 and of course not round. Then used 220 grit lapping compound applied to the bullet bearing surface by rolling between two steel plates. I'd run the same slug in each cavity. Then re apply more compound by hand and spin the slug some more in each cavity using a variable speed drill with cut off screw chucked up. A drop of oil will help the aggregate flow free. Cleaned mold blocks and start with a fresh slug. Went through about five slugs in over an hour. Eyeballed the cavities. Nose didn't look quite big enough yet. So I used a center punch to peen two .004” dots on the bottom inside face near the alignment pins. Mounted the aggressively worked over blocks in my casting machine and dropped some boolits. .3112” round bearing surface from both cavities with .3010” bore ride sections. It's a short bore ride on Saeco #630 140gr 30 caliber plain base.

I had to use some cold blue on the very shinny cavities to get the wrinkles out of the bullets. You about need a magnifying glass to see the part lines. Very pretty bullets.

Then the fellow I was making these bullets for emailed me. Says he changed his mind and wants them sized to .308”. Oh well., the mold is the way I want it now.

My thinking was the cavities would lap out to the size of the beagled slugs largest diameter. Seams to have worked better than hoped for. Not for the faint of heart but not exactly cutting diamonds either.