Accurate 44 mag mold?

[snowwolfe]

Been a lurker for a long time here gathering equipment and alloys along the way and finally plan on starting my casting again this winter (used to help a neighbor cast when I was about 12 but that was 44 years ago!).

First up will be casting for my S&W 629. Rarely carry this hunting anymore as I live in Alaska and usually carry one of my 500's instead. So there is no reason to go to a 300 grain boolit or larger just for range use or the occassional deer. But I do want to keep the load a little stiff as it helps me stay in practice for the 500's.

Would like to buy my first mold for this revolver and am guessing something around 250 grains would do the trick just fine. Perfer a non gas checked boolit because it would just add to the cost for practice. Have a nice supply of wheel weight alloy, Lyman #2, and some 20-1 alloy from Buffalo Arms. Will be using my RCBS lubesizer with carnuba red lube as I laid in a nice supply.

What mold would you guys recommend and with what alloy? Also, what size sizer should I purchase to resize the boolits correctly?

Thanks in advance!

[Wayne Smith]

First of all, you need to measure your cylinder mouths at least and pray that your barrel is slightly smaller than they are. Then you need to look at sizers, not before you know this information. For a PB boolit one of the Keith designs would be a good starting point.

[waco]

plus 1 on what wayne said
ive been very happy with my 4 cav lyman 429421(keith stlye boolit)
19-20grs of 2400 works well and has a little "whomp" your looking for
cant go wrong with h110, or 296 either:drinks:

[Edubya]

I'll agree with the two previous posters and say that you can't hardly go wrong with a RNFP in a 250 gr+ bullet in any loacation on the globe, especially if your sending it at a speed of sound plus! I like the RCBS Keith's and the SAECO#430.
EW

[snowwolfe]

First of all, you need to measure your cylinder mouths at least and pray that your barrel is slightly smaller than they are. Then you need to look at sizers, not before you know this information. For a PB boolit one of the Keith designs would be a good starting point.

Can you measure by using a dial caliper or do they need to be slugged?

[Buckshot]

...........Yes you can use a dial caliper. Best to remove the cylinder when you do it. Check each chamber in 3-4 places, and be sure to rock the calipers to be sure you're getting a correct measurement. Ideally I'd like the boolit to be a thousandth OVER the chamber mouth if possible. It is going to be sized down traveling through the throat of the chamber but IMO it helps to properly guide the slug.

.............Buckshot

[snowwolfe]

Measured the very end of each cylinder (the end where the boolit will exit) as best as I could in 3-4 places. Measurements were pretty consistent .426 to .4265. Seemed a little small to me so I verified the calipers were accurate by measuring a couple of different sized bullets and they were right on the money.
Whats my next step?

[Wayne Smith]

Slug your barrel. Sounds like you are starting well, the barrel should be .429, but let's find out. If so, you are in hog heaven!

[Ed K]

I would say either you made an error in measuring or your throats are way too small for a bore that is likely to slug 0.429" +/-

[jack19512]

Slug your barrel. Sounds like you are starting well, the barrel should be .429, but let's find out. If so, you are in hog heaven!






Are you sure about that? If his cylinder throats are .426-.4265 and his bore is .429 it doesn't sound good to me. I thought you wanted the throats to be about the same or slightly larger than the barrel.

[Edubya]

I don't think that you're going to get an honest measurement of the cylinders until you slug them. It's not that hard to do and if you engrave each slug with roman numerals and mark the corresponding cylinder with a marker, you will be able to compare each to see if you need to have any of them bored.
Your cylinder should measure larger than your forcing cone which should slug to a larger diameter than the muzzle.
Do it right the first time.
EW

[Wayne S]

Measured the very end of each cylinder (the end where the boolit will exit) as best as I could in 3-4 places. Measurements were pretty consistent .426 to .4265. Seemed a little small to me so I verified the calipers were accurate by measuring a couple of different sized bullets and they were right on the money.
Whats my next step?

YEP, seams kinda small, just to make sure I'ld get a couple "egg" shaped fishing sinkers that will measure .427 to .430 and slug a few cylinder throats / or mouths [the end the bullet comes out of] as well as the bore. I'm sure there is a "sticky" or an "INFO" source here on how to do both safely for you AND your pistol
As to molds, keep an eye on the classifieds, and for the cost you might look at a Lee mold. IF your measurments ARE that tight [small] then look at the RCBS plain base molds, I prefer the 250 KT. As to loads, besides the 2400 as has been suggested, plus being in Alaska, I'ld look at Unique.

[snowwolfe]

I don't think that you're going to get an honest measurement of the cylinders until you slug them. It's not that hard to do and if you engrave each slug with roman numerals and mark the corresponding cylinder with a marker, you will be able to compare each to see if you need to have any of them bored.
Your cylinder should measure larger than your forcing cone which should slug to a larger diameter than the muzzle.
Do it right the first time.
EW

How would you slug the forcing cone with the barrel on the revolver? If you start from the muzzle with a lead slug and force it down it would be down sized before it even reaches the forcing cone. If the barrel was off and you started at the forcing cone the slug would be down sized to the muzzle size before it exits.

Or is there something I am missing here?

[kirb]

I run a clean rod with a brush and some cleaning patchs making it good and tight from the muzzle stoping about 1 1/4 inch from forcing cone and make a cast with creosafe.

Kirb

[Edubya]

How would you slug the forcing cone with the barrel on the revolver? If you start from the muzzle with a lead slug and force it down it would be down sized before it even reaches the forcing cone. If the barrel was off and you started at the forcing cone the slug would be down sized to the muzzle size before it exits.

Or is there something I am missing here?

I'll tell you how I did mine: I dropped a cast (stick on WW) boolit into the lubed cone and pushed it put in with a 1 1/2"x3/8" wooden dowel on the bullet and then laid a flat piece of bronze, perpendicular to the barrel and dowel, whacked the side that I wasn't holding pushing the boolit into the lands. I started to drive it all the way through a couple of inches at a time, but decided that this wasn't necessary, I had already done one from the muzzle and once I got it half way through it went easily all of the way.
I still have those slugs but the markings on the cylinder were gone when I cleaned up the gun. Luckily, my cylinder chambers sere within 0.0005" from largest to smallest.
EW

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Good advice and you can't go wrong withthe 429421, 250 gr. boolit, if you use 2400 in your ruger you should be able to do 21-22 gr without any problems, I would start at 21 and check for pressure signs, some go higher with this, but 21 gr of 2400 will stop anything in Alaska as long as you do your part. IMHO

[snowwolfe]

Found 100 cast GC bullets in my reloading room I must of bought a few years ago. They weigh (I think) 305 grains. Measured them at .430. First free chance will load them up with some 296 and see how the S&W likes them.

What do you guys think? 20 grains of 296?

[Bret4207]

I think I'd start in the 18.0 gr range.

[GabbyM]

Lyman list 44 Rem Magnum max load for their 300 grain #429650 as 19.0 grains of WW296. Start is 18.2 gr.

[Wayne Smith]

Are you sure about that? If his cylinder throats are .426-.4265 and his bore is .429 it doesn't sound good to me. I thought you wanted the throats to be about the same or slightly larger than the barrel.

Yup, you are right. My dyslexia is showing again!

[snowwolfe]

Well shucks. Maybe I just use jackets in the .44 and start casting for the .500 instead. Thanks for all the tips guys.

[Thumbcocker]

Don't give up on the .44 just yet. In my experience it is one of the easier calibers to get to shoot with boolits. Just pull the cylinder, lube it lightly, and tap a pure lead sulg through each chamber. I like to size a smidgen over the actual diamater. Hang in there.