Group Buy Devastator Load

[White Oak]

I have a Lyman Devastator clone from a group buy. It is dropping at 273grs gas checked with my alloy. I am looking for a starting load for my 44 Redhawk using 2400.
I have only found data for jacketed in that weight.
Any advise would be appreciated.

[Thumbcocker]

Jacketed data will be fine.

[Tripplebeards]

What alloy are you using? Ive found accuracy greatly changes with what ever BH your using with this boolit. The harder the alloy I've tried with my devastators the faster the boolit wants to be run to shoot tighter groups in my rifle. 7.5 BH shot sub MOA with 21gr of h110. It took 23.8 gr of the same powder to tighten my groups to 1.24" using a harder alloy of 15.4 BH which is the tightest I've got it to group to date. I tried 21.2 gr of lil gun yesterday and shot a 1.273" group at a 100 yards as well. Just figured if you have these powders it's worth a try.

[White Oak]

50% COWW 50% pure lead + 2% tin. Water dropped.
I am going to start at around 17gr of 2400 and work up from there. 19gr is a accurate load with a Keith style SWC that weighs 260 with the same alloy. That load gets me right at 1290-1300 FPS.
I would like to be close to that velocity with the Devastator .

[rintinglen]

17.5 grains of 2400 will likely be very accurate

[Larry Gibson]

White Oak

My Lyman 429640HP "Devastator" cast with COWWs + 2% tin then mixed 50/50 with Pb run 275 gr fully dressed with Hornady GCs, lubed with BAC and sized .430. Using Alliant 2400 in Winchester cases with Federal 150 primers I measured the pressure in a Contender test barrel via an Oehler M43. The measured psi of 19.5 gr was 32,100 psi. The measured psi of 20 gr was 34,800 psi. The measured psi of 20.5 gr was 36,200 psi. I consider 20.0 gr of Alliant 2400 to be the Max charge with the Devastator using that alloy.

I suggest a starting load of 17.5 gr, work up to the max of 19.5 in .5 gr increments and let your Redhawk tell you what load it likes the best.

[White Oak]

White Oak

My Lyman 429640HP "Devastator" cast with COWWs + 2% tin then mixed 50/50 with Pb run 275 gr fully dressed with Hornady GCs, lubed with BAC and sized .430. Using Alliant 2400 in Winchester cases with Federal 150 primers I measured the pressure in a Contender test barrel via an Oehler M43. The measured psi of 19.5 gr was 32,100 psi. The measured psi of 20 gr was 34,800 psi. The measured psi of 20.5 gr was 36,200 psi. I consider 20.0 gr of Alliant 2400 to be the Max charge with the Devastator using that alloy.

I suggest a starting load of 17.5 gr, work up to the max of 19.5 in .5 gr increments and let your Redhawk tell you what load it likes the best.

Thank you, I very much appreciate the information.

[White Oak]

Started at 17.5 and went up to 18.5 before running out out of daylight. I will try 19 next. I have to say all of the loads are more than accurate enough to hunt with. 2" or less at 40 yards no scope.
However I am not sure I needed to water dropped my boolits. At 1,200-1,250 fps in to a dirt backstop they are not expanding much. I know Dirt is not a good judge, I will try into wet pack newspaper and check expansion before casting some air cooled.
So far looks like this boolit is going to be a good one. I am going to give it a try for muzzleloader too.

[hillbilly tom]

Will be watching this. Comtemplating a defense load for 44 bulldog based on a soft cast devastator boolit

[White Oak]

I have not be able to make this boolit shoot bad yet. Up to 19gr and even in low light this evening it is under 2” at 40yrds.
I did shoot a couple into wet pack newspaper and the water dropped 50/50+2% is much to tough for 1,300 FPS. No expansion at all. So going forward with air cooled. BTW I am using the smaller pins.

[Larry Gibson]

Might want the "big Mouth" like the original Lymans.....

225651

[White Oak]

Might want the "big Mouth" like the original Lymans.....

225651

I shot some air cooled cast with the small pins this afternoon into wet newspaper. They shed the front and left a shank expanded to around .550 weighing in the 145gr range.

Larry what do you think about changing to the large pins and water dropping?

One of my hunting spots is in an area that is close to massive thicket that holds a lot of deer. It also makes it difficult to locate a deer that does not bleed or travels any distance. It is a good place to hunt with a handgun because the shots are usually 30 yards or less. A nice sized exit hole would be a plus.

[Larry Gibson]

No need to water drop, actually I've come to prefer a 16-1 alloy.

[WheelgunConvert]

I use the original cast with pure plus about 0.5% Sn in my TC Black Diamond 50 in green sabots. 1:28 twist as I recall. No GC of course, but I have come to like it better than the 45 XTP. I did have to make a pointed starter because the soft nose was too easily deformed. I made a rod tip using those plastic beads that melt in hot water to keep the rod ferrule from damaging it driving it the rest of the way.

[White Oak]

After testing with loads of 17 thru 19.5 grains of 2400 I settled on a very accurate 17.5 at 1,200 FPS using the wide mouth version and air cooled 50/50 + 2% the bullet expanded and stayed together better at 1,200 than it did at 1,300 plus.
I sighted in 1.5” high at 50yards and spent time practicing.
This weekend we had an early antlerless firearms season and I was able to take a doe with it.
The shot was 57 steps while the doe was feeding in a food plot. The bullet was a complete pass thru taking off the top of the heart. At the shot the deer lurched and slowly ran making it 10 yards into the woods which was about 50 total yards.
228894

[gnostic]

Everything you'll want to know about that bullet...

http://www.lasc.us/FryxellLymanDevastator.htm

[Shuz]

After testing with loads of 17 thru 19.5 grains of 2400 I settled on a very accurate 17.5 at 1,200 FPS using the wide mouth version and air cooled 50/50 + 2% the bullet expanded and stayed together better at 1,200 than it did at 1,300 plus.
I sighted in 1.5” high at 50yards and spent time practicing.
This weekend we had an early antlerless firearms season and I was able to take a doe with it.
The shot was 57 steps while the doe was feeding in a food plot. The bullet was a complete pass thru taking off the top of the heart. At the shot the deer lurched and slowly ran making it 10 yards into the woods which was about 50 total yards.
228894

Congratulations on a fine shot!