3x .44's

[Krag 1901]

I have 3 .44's a 29-2 8 3/8", a 629 5" and a 624 6 1/2". I bought some .430" .44-40/.44 Spcl 205 gr boolets and tried them in the cylinder throats. They dropped right thru the 29 and 629 but hung up just a bit in the 624. Here in the CB I learned that the boolets should be just a bit larger that the cylinder throats.

I don't have a .44 mold or sizing dies, yet wanted to shoot~200 gr boolets so what should I get? I'm thinking .432's would fit all of them. I don't know if I can but .432's at my LGS?

I was loading a few .44 Spcl with 700x and Unique and had a lot of trouble with my Lil' Dandy dropping consistant loads. 700x seemed to be worst and wondered what you guys might recommend in a mid range .44 powder for better charge consistency?

[Thumbcocker]

I shot a lot of Keith boolits in. 44 magnum guns over 7.0 of 700x which was very clean burning and about 1000fps.

As far as boolit size; in a perfect world all boolits would be sized to fit the individual revolver chamber mouths. In my world I size to .431 for all .44s.

If you are buying store bought boolits they can be problematic if undersized, too hard, and lubed with the horration lube most of the manufacturers use. You will almost certainly get leading with that combination.

I would slug the throats on the revolvers and get a boolit as close to that as possible. If they are undersized try some liquid lube over the factory lube. With plinking loads there is not enough pressure to get any slugging up.

Another option is swaged boolits. Hornaday makes them . They are soft and lubed with a dry powder stuff. They could be tumble lubed if necessary but usually have minimal leading at 900 fps or so.

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[30calflash]

I would try what Thumbcocker stated for the start.

I've not tried the size comparison as you have. I did use a Lyman 429421 for silhouettes in my SBH, WW's, lubed with alox, .430 IIRC. Ten grs Unique & CCI primers. At the end of 40 rounds there was some leading in the forcing cone BUT rounds were hitting steel and those that didn't were called.

If you settle on one size all may not be lost, depends on your requirements whether a little leading is ok.

[bobthenailer]

I beagled a Saeco #420 a 200gr tc fb to get bullets that i could be sized @.433 dia to fit two S&W revolvers that had larger than normal chamber throats , tried them unsized and hand lubed now they shoot as my other 44 using .430 dia bullets and bought a .433 sizer die

[black mamba]

I use powder coated bullets that don't lead the bore, but if I still used cast lead only, then I'd go with .430 bullets of not more than 13 BHN and drive them to about 25 kpsi with faster powders (7.5 gr of 700X should do it); they should obturate in your cylinder throats and shoot good.

[Earlwb]

Well before you do anything, you really need to measure the bore size in your guns. What do you really have for bore size? Then you can effectively decide on the bullet diameter needed. Now then some bullets are designed to obturate or get larger when fired. So the fact that a bullet may be slightly smaller isn't a problem as it expands when fired to fill the bore up. Using a oversize bullet could result in exceeding the maximum chamber pressures.

[Krag 1901]

Well I'm not going to push the red lines with any of my .44's. The 624 and 629 seemed to have the tightest cyl's so will probably shot them most anyway. They are a lot lighter than my 29 8"er.

I just loaded some .38 Spcls and thought I'd try the .358" boolets from Bear Creek, which is sold at my LGS, in my .38's The .358's would not go thru my wife's S&W 14-3 at all! My Colt ".357" would pass them with just a slight shove but my Grandpa's Colt Officers Special wouldn't take them either. Still have to check the Dick Special and Police Positive. The Bear Creek boolets seemed to work for me when last I tried them. Maybe the .44 240's are a littel bigger? I'll check next time I go by the LGS.

I think I've got the technique to make the Lil'Dandy drop more uniform charges. I Just mounted it loosely in the holder so I could jiggle and shake th powder down when the cavity was under the powder. I was able to hold 3.9 gr 700x pretty well that way. I'll try that when I load the Unique version.

[Krag 1901]

I checked the Detective Special and a .358" boolet would pass thru five of the throats tightly, not the sixth. The Police Positive would not take the .358" boolet in any of it's throats. I guess it it not surprising that the 4" 4th Gen PP shoots very well. It is rapidly becoming my favorite .38, after I sold my Diamondback 6".

I wonder if HP-38 would substitute for Unique and measure more easily?

[Thumbcocker]

In my experience hp38/w231 meters very well.

[black mamba]

HP38 is only slightly faster than Unique, closer to Green Dot in burn rate. Oversized lead bullets don't affect pressure very much, which is why you size to the throats and not the bore. 45 Colt shooters have been using .454 and even larger bullets in .450 bores for a long time.

[Krag 1901]

I've shot many thousands of lead boolets in pistols, mostly bought. .38's I have cast didn't do too well, probably due to the Linotype I used. I now have some COWW lead which I will use and see if that makes a difference. My Lee .38's come out a little over .360". I really miss my old boolet store. When I moved from San Jose to Sacramento I lost a lot of options.

I'll try to find some HP-38 to see how it meters. I just loaded 50 158 SWC with Unique and it was a hassle to get a uniform powder drop. I like spherical powders much more than flakes!

I notice the Old Unique I was using was in the cardboard 'can' and was marked as selling for $15.20! I bought another pound of it recently which was over $30 a pound.

[Krag 1901]

I went by my LGS and no luck finding .44's with any but .430" dia boolets! However I was tipped a link to Brazos Boolets and found they had .431's listed. I'll order some of those. Their boolets seem to come Powder Coated too! They seemed to sell boolets in 15 pound lots rather than by count.