.429 "As Cast"

[Bushrod]

If I cast and lube my bullets using wheel weights-from a Lyman 429421 mold then pan lubed will I have any problems shooting them as cast using black powder in my Ruger Super Blackhawk?

[44man]

You have a small mold but you never said what lead you are using.
WW's should expand some when aged a week or so. The SBH would do better with a .432" boolit.
You might need to do what everyone will suggest, keep them soft and let the powder expand them in the throats. Should be fine for BP. Make sure you use a BP lube. Use STP on the cylinder pin, it will give you more shots before binding.
I like shooting BP in my Vaquero and I have the Old Army. Both are easy to clean. I just take off the grip panels and remove the cylinder. I put the whole gun in the laundry tub and scrub it, hit it with real hot water, blow as much water out that I can and spray Sheath through the action.

[cajun shooter]

Bushrod, 44man is as always correct on his post but I will tell you that Mobil 1 sythenic on your base pins will work better than STP. I shoot nothing but BP in CAS matches with revolvers. I can shoot 6-7 stages with full case loads of 2F and my cylinders are spinning just as good as before I fired my first round. The other area you might want to check is your bbl gap. For BP a 006-008 is just about perfect.

[44man]

Bushrod, 44man is as always correct on his post but I will tell you that Mobil 1 sythenic on your base pins will work better than STP. I shoot nothing but BP in CAS matches with revolvers. I can shoot 6-7 stages with full case loads of 2F and my cylinders are spinning just as good as before I fired my first round. The other area you might want to check is your bbl gap. For BP a 006-008 is just about perfect.
Hey, I have to try that! :Fire: Thanks for the info.

[dubber123]

Several years ago my bro and I switched to Mobil 1 as our gun oil. The most telling was an outdoor pistol match we had last year. In the rimfire stage, only 2 of the 12 competitors guns would function 100%. My bros and mine. The temp was around 15° with some wind. The Mobil 1 still worked. It doesn't evaporate in storage either. It's the slippery ingredient in out boolit lube too. Good stuff.

[Bushrod]

44MAN I'll be using WHEEL WEIGHTS, I think they're pretty soft. I've been using Cleanshot or American Pioneer Powder. Was thinking of trying them un-lubed. With a full load of APP I think I'd get around 850-900 fps.Any danger in shooting UNSIZED

[NSP64]

No danger unless they drop really big (.435) and your barrel is real tight (.427). Have you slugged the barrel to know what size it is?

P.S. Welcome!

[38-55]

Bushrod,
No danger. I wouldn't go the unlubed route though.. You'll have a mess you'll regret.. I shoot alot of 'unsized' as cast bullet through most of my handguns.. Only problem with bp and substitutes is the possibility of an air space under the bullet.. But as long as that doesn't happen your in good shape. Have fun and let us know how things work out for ya !
( BP cartridge's is fun ! )
Stay safe
Calvin
PS for a good gun lube.. I use 2 parts 15w-40 shell rottella T to 1 part anyol' atf.. works wonders when wiped on a weapon.. Keeps the black stuff to a minimum and allows one to just wipe off the mess.. Best lube I've ever found for the AR platform and works real good with the BP guns two.. ( just keep it out of the bore on the BP guns )

[Bret4207]

It may work fine, you won't know until you try. BP has a different burn rate and may slug the boolit up to bore diameter. Or, it may not. Were it me, I'd prefer to have boolits fat enough to use to start with. If you're stuck with a mold that's undersized, casting soft and depending on BP to "bump" them up may be your only option.

It would still be best to slug or otherwise determine your guns specs and size to those numbers. If your mould is too small, you can try "beagling" or lapping the mould or trade it off for another.

[38-55]

Hey Bushrod,
One more thing to consider... ( warning I may be labeled a heretic for saying this ) I have found that the most important consideration when casting for a revolver is the size off the cylinder not the bore size of the barrel.. Measure the front of your cylinder and match that not your bore size.. Leading will go away and accuracy will be what you expect/desire from your weapon..
For example I have two blackhawks here that have a bore size of .450-.451 . I spent alot of time trying .452-.451 bullets.. Nothing worked.. So I measured the cylinders ( I shoulda done that first as I knew better but.. ). They are .454-.455 so... I went to the classic .45 colt diameter of .454 and accuracy is what I'd expect and my leading problems disappeared..
Just a 'heads up'.
Stay safe
Calvin

[runfiverun]

no arguement from me on the size to cylinder throats not bbl diameter the bbl will re-size whatever is crammed into it under 10k pressure

[mooman76]

Yes, no argument unless you got that odd gun with a cyl smaller than the barrel which would lead no matter what size bullet you use until corrected.

[Bushrod]

Microed the front of the cylinder, measures .428
I've been shooting .429 cast from National Bullet Co. but they went out of buisness.
Just figured that bullets dropped from a Lyman 429421 would cast at .429 am I wrong?

[MtGun44]

Not an unreasonable expectation - but you are wrong. While the NOMINAL diam
should be .429, the actual as cast diam will depend on casting alloy, casting temp,
actual mold manufacturing variations (which can be huge altho they are usually reasonably
close to the intended diam) and how long after you cast them you measure them -
oddly enough they can change size with age and hardness, too.

No offense, but how did you measure the cyl? It is tricky to do and many get it wrong
without using gage pins or driving a soft lead slug thru and measuring that very carefully.
If your cyl mouths are indeed that small, you should slug your bbl, too. If the throat is
smaller than the bbl, you can have the throats sizing your boolits down and then undersized
boolits arriving into a larger bore - not good for accy and usually causes leading, too.

Once you establish for certain that you have undersized throats (ideal is about .001 larger
than the groove diam of bbl) you might want to have them reamed or lapped up a bit.

I had a Ruger BH 45 Colt/45 ACP that had severely undersized throats and I reamed and
polished it up to .002 over groove diam and it does very well now. I actually gage pin
checked both cyls prior to buying it since too small throats is easily fixed and too large is
not easily dealt with - in severe cases you can have trouble coming up with large enough
boolits to suit the throat. Ideally you want boolits the same size as your throats or .001
to .002 larger, and the throats about .001 larger than the bbl groove diam.

All that said - with jacketed you can get away with some pretty astoundingly bad fits in
these areas and get acceptable performance. If you want to shoot cast with no leading
and top accy, you have to have the dimensions pretty near right and fit your boolits to
them.

Good luck.

Bill

[44man]

I can't add a thing. The fellas have given you good info, make sure you follow all of it.

[Slow Elk 45/70]

One suggestion to add to all the good info you have gotten. If you are casting WW , you might consider cutting the WW 50/50 with pure lead.....at the velocity you will be shooting at you can stretch your WW alloy and maybe help the boolit bump up to fill the bore better.

As far as molds go, you should not "Assume" anything.....way to many variables