Puma issues

[Treeman]

I'm seeking feedback and insight. A buddy and I ordered Pumas in .357 mag a week ago but my bud bought the .44 mag that the shop had in stock. We shot it today. Lock up is tight ,headspace seems proper, the bore is bright and filled with happy looking rifling....and the accuracy was profoundly deplorable. We both got 6-8 inch groups 25 yards with jacketed bullet loads.

Obviously there is a need to try some other loads before abandoning hope but dos anyone have any experience with weirdly inaccurate Pumas. Fore end bedding? Barrel band pressure? Oversized bores?

[Old Ironsights]

It could be one of the older ones with the overbored barrel.

Slug it. I think you will find the problem.

[Treeman]

Deliberately overbored?....or was there a bad batch with a QC problem? Was this confined to the .44 mag?

[JesterGrin_1]

Just slug it and see what you find out. As said it might have a bit of an overbore. This also runs true for Marlin in .44 Mag.

If you do not cast you might try the Hornady brand 240GR HP/XTP as they are .430 instead of others that are .429. Or if you cast you might need a .432 of which I think Ranch Dog still has the RD432-265.

Another tip would be yes check all screws and when testing loads or going for group load only 1 round at a time. :)

[NickSS]

I have a 45 colt PUMA that is several years old. When I got it the rifle shot to the right so badly that I had to drift the sight almost half way out of the dovetail to get it on at 50 yards. As I bought it for a Cowboy action rifle this was OK. It shot ok but then I wanted to use it for hunting and tried it at 100 yards. Again I had to drift the sight further left to get on and when I fired it at 50 yards it shot to the left. I knew then that I had a serious barrel problem. I sent the rifle to the warranty repair center and got it back some three months later. The delay was waiting for a new barrel. When I got the barrel back the rifle was fine and it is my favorite lever gun today.

[runfiveslittlegirl]

for a while there they couldn't figure out that you had to factor in turning the profile on the outside of the bbl would affect the final inside diameter.
there was a batch of pumas running around with marlin specs it seemed.
the chamber was close to normal and the bbl's were in the 332 range

[Gee_Wizz01]

I had similar issues with my older Puma in 44 Mag. Mine would give 2" to 3" groups at 50 yds with jacketed bullets. Cast bullets were a different story, .429 commercial cast bullets tumbled and keyholed and I couldn't keep them on a 3' square target backer at 50 yds. I was shooting these at about 1000 fps. The bore was so badly leaded it took days to get it clean, a friend let me borrow his long handled Lewis lead remover). When I slugged the bore, it measured .4305. I quit shooting cast bullets with it, until I recently purchased a Ranch Dog 265 gr mold. I sized the Ranch Dog to .432 and used a gas check. With very little load development I was shooting 1 1/2" groups at 50 yds with velocities approaching 1600 fps. The fat Ranch Dog bullets left no leading at all! This was the first rifle I had ever tried to shoot with cast bullets and it was almost my last. I had been casting for pistols for 20 years at the time and just figured all the stories about cast bullets leading up a rifle were true. It wasn't till I read some Ed Harris articles on cast bullets in various rifles that I really got hooked on cast boolits, that was in 1992. I then bought the cast bullet books from the NRA and really began to learn about cast boolits.