44-40

[hiram]

I shot my 44-40 with APP. APP site talks how the powder makes a moist lube, so I did not lube the bullets. Terrible leading. Today I used 22 gr of APP and the Lee 200 RF. These bullets were lubed. I got leading at the muzzle about 3" back. It might be the fault insufficient lube on the bullet rather than APP.

What is a 44-40 bullet, in the 200-215 range which holds ALOT of lube? Regular design or CAS, it doesn't matter.

Thanks.

[EDK]

Lyman 427666 has a nice big lube groove. Biglubebullets has a 200 grainer that was designed for black powder. BUT try some other things first.

Use a black powder lube on the boolits...no ALOX blends! LARS has a great lube at half the price of the better known stuff...I use it in my 50/90 SHILOH SHARPS.

Try using a grease cookie of the above between powder and boolit.

Try using real black powder...some of the substitutes foul worse than real black powder does.

:Fire::cbpour::redneck:

[hiram]

Thanks--

The 427666 looks very close to the biglube bullet. First I'll try the grease cookie, that's less expensive than a new mold. I've read people have brought their groups together by adding a gc. I never tried it. Now it's time.

[Springfield]

Here is a pic of a BigLube(tm) 200 and a 165 grain. They both hold more than twice the lube of a 427666.

[Boerrancher]

The few times I did shoot black powder out of my 44-40 and 45LC, I ended up using a grease cookie between a card, over-the-powder wad and the base of the boolit. It cut down on the fouling tremendously. I had previously tried it with out the grease cookie and could only best describe my bore and my results as, "a mess."

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[missionary5155]

I used to use a standard Winchester .44wcf mold (200gr) in my 44-40 SRC 1892 (27xxx) . I had to bump the boolit to .434 to shoot straight.. but never had any problem with leading with Black 2f 34 grains or 8-10 grains of Unique. Barrel is 18 inches long. I now use either Rapine 260 grain or Saeco 443 (220 grain) and get the same results. Both molds are oversized !
My lube is 50/50 axle grease and beeswax... I do not shoot black often and seldom shoot more than 10 cartriges an outing as LP primers are hard to come by.

[Jon K]

A lot of good advice from the others. Let me also say FIT the Boolit to the barrel.

These are the 3 I have.........left to right Lyman 427666/Saeco 442/420. The 442 shot great w/32.5 gr Swiss 3F/.030+.060 wads. The 427666 and Saeco 420 shoot w/34.5 gr Swiss 3F/.060 wad. No leading in any 427666 has been lapped to .429-.430, the 2 Saeco boolits drop .431-.432 sized to .4305. Cast 25:1 Lead/tin. Proper fit is important.
*note the 442 shot better w/2 wads as the base is thin, and I believe with only 1 wad, it was gas cutting.