Shooting unsized PC bullets ?

[Dom]

Cast up a batch of 44 cal 250gr PB bullets yesterday & powder coated them. They dropped from the mold at .430 to .431. After PC was applied they are .432 to.433. Seated one in a dummy case & it fell right into my revolver chamber with out the slighest problem. Do you think these bullets can be shot as is , or should I run them thru my .430 sizer. Thoughts from your experience ?

[fredj338]

There should be no issue shooting them as is, plenty of guys shoot unsized bullets. I personally like sizing to uniform size. All the bullets wont be the same dia & that can play with vel & pressures a bit, changing accuracy. If its just plinking stuff, who cares.

[Conditor22]

The only way to tell what your gun likes is to try them both ways and see which shoots best in that gun :)

[Dom]

Yes. Will just have to give it a try. Was just thinking shooting these bullets thru my Win 94 Legacy 44mag with it's 24" bbl. Bullets ought to be well sized by halfway down the barrel ??

[charlie b]

Bullets will 'size' in the barrel just fine. If the throat has any taper at all the PC will do it's job and you'll have no leading either.

[JWFilips]

Fatter is always better, with cast, if they chamber

[cwtebay]

Pretty sure all those fellas that loaded and cast with the Lyman or Winchester tong tools a century or more ago didn't worry much about sizing after casting!

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

[murf205]

Pretty sure all those fellas that loaded and cast with the Lyman or Winchester tong tools a century or more ago didn't worry much about sizing after casting!

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Amen to that. No room in saddle bags for a Lyman 4500! Dom, let us know how they shoot out of that Winchester.

[Dusty Bannister]

I am missing the statement that he loaded a test dummy with the largest diameter bullet to see if it would feed from the magazine and eject. Only commented that he tried "a" bullet that was PC and not sized. Good luck with that.

[Dom]

I am missing the statement that he loaded a test dummy with the largest diameter bullet to see if it would feed from the magazine and eject. Only commented that he tried "a" bullet that was PC and not sized. Good luck with that.

Hey Dusty. Yes I loaded an un-sized PC bullet in an empty 44 mag case just to see if it would chamber with out pushing on it. The bullet with PC is .433. The dummy loaded round fell right in the chamber . Not the slighest resistance. Will try & shoot today. Forgot to mention this is a S&W 629 revolver.

[Shuz]

Hey Dusty. Yes I loaded an un-sized PC bullet in an empty 44 mag case just to see if it would chamber with out pushing on it. The bullet with PC is .453. The dummy loaded round fell right in the chamber . Not the slighest resistance. Will try & shoot today. Forgot to mention this is a S&W 629 revolver.

I think you meant .433 not .453

[Shuz]

I've been experimenting with powder coated boolits in the .250 Sav. The rifle is a bolt action Savage Mdl 16. So far I have been sizing them to .258 and seeing if those without checks will shoot different than those that wear checks. The jury is still out on that.
I have been wondering if the powder coated diam. of.261 would be ok to shoot. Any comments?

[charlie b]

Why not size the PC bullets to .258 as well? You still may have to seat them a little deeper if the ogive touches the rifling sooner. If they are a bore rider design you may have to get a nose sizer.

[Dom]

Did a quick shoot today with the PC un-sized 44cal .433 dia 250gr plain base( Lyman mold ) bullets. Fired in my S&W 629 4". The load has registered just a tad over 1200 fps on my chrono in the past. All I care for as to recoil in this revolver. This is 3 shots at 25yds off hand. I'm no sharp shooter so excuse the group ( first picture ) . The 3 rounds dropped into the chamber with no resistance. The empty rounds came right out , no problem. Set up my target at 75yds for the rifle. Just didn't have time to get my 100yd target in service. See the little box I used. Fired 3 rounds in the rifle , Win 94 Legacy 24" Bbl. Did not check for velocity , so your guess is a good as mine. Like I said I didn't have a lot of time. Yes I do use my targets over & over. Excuse the tape. Second picture shows 3 hits toward bottom of target. First shot is the higher of the 3, second shot the lower hole ( hit the rock that was holding my target in place. Tore the box a bit ) , & the third is the middle hole. All 3 rounds chambered easily . Fired, extracted & ejected smoothly. Not the slighest bit of problem. Now this is not a heavy load for this rifle. It is ( this rifle ) sighted in with an LBT 265gr GC ( 1800 fps ) bullet which would be why the shots I shot hit low.284552284553284554284555 The last picture is of the bullets I used. Lyman #429421. I have had this mold at least 30yrs. After shooting the bore appeared clean & shinny. No streaks of lead anywhere. Should also mention after shooting I ran 4 tight fitting patches with Hoppe's bore cleaner thru the bore. I was amazed that I did not see even one tiny flake of lead on any of the patches. Shooting traditional sized & lubed bullets in the past has always shown some small flakes of lead on the cleaning patches. Not this time.

[Jim22]

I have been using unsized and powder coated boolits in my levergun in .357 Magnum. It's a Marlin with Microgroove rifling so I shied away from cast boolits for a long time. Someone on this site suggested using boolits sized to .360" in Microgroove guns. I didn't have a .360 sizer so I loaded them as cast and powder coated. I am sure they measured at least .360". My first groups with these boolits produced nice groups that would kill a deer as far away as the .357 Mag. rifle should be used on them. I dunno if this adds to your knowledge but it is a similar situation.

As you have discovered the cast, unsized, and powder coated boolits are forgiving and allow for accuracy many don't expect.

I am unsure of your tests. You started out referring to revolver loads but somehow changed to use in a rifle. Were all those groups shot in the rifle? How is the revolver doing?

[Dom]

The first target shows 3 shots from the 4" revolver at 25yds. The second target shows 3 shots with the same bullet & load from the rifle at 75yds.

[murf205]

Dom, do you know what diameter the throats on the 629 are? My guess is they are closer to .429 and that is the size you are sending down the barrel.

[Dom]

5 throats read .429 & 1 reads .430. Fairly uniform.

[murf205]

That's not too shabby for 25 yds and offhand. Your 265 gr LBT at 1800 is a right powerful load out of that Winchester. Have you shot any critters with that boolit?

[Dom]

Targets only have been the recipient of the Win 94 44mag. Not sure if I need/like the 24" bbl. I'm always hunting my deer & elk with a bolt rifle. I'm
ready if needed. But I also have my 45-70. Of course there is my Marlin Cowboy 38-55. Tough to pick just one. So, cast bullets for all just in case. PC bullets for my 38-55 is next on the agenda. Then start again testing them, a plain base & a GC . For this morning got to get out & get some more fire wood split. I try to squeeze in some shooting where I can.