heavy .41 Magnum bullet accuracy ?

[dot6]

Cast, sized, and lubed some 240 grain Lee SWCs and shot them through a 4" S&W m57 (older pinned and recessed no-dash model). At 50 yards they grouped only fair, and the majority of the holes in the paper target were barely oblong. They were apparently unstable and were just starting to keyhole. Loaded with 8.5 grains of Unique.
Any others here shoot heavy-weights through Smith & Wessons? How is your accuracy? I was thinking of upping the powder charge by a grain to see if the added velocity / rotational speeds would help, but I do not and will not "red-line" or max charge ANYTHING. Would drop back to lighter bullets first. Any experiences or ideas?

[Dale53]

Lyman's Cast Bullet handbook gives a maximum load with a 240 gr bullet and Unique as 10.0 grs. I wouldn't at all be afraid of another grain. However, since you are looking for accuracy try raising a half grain at a time.

Dale53

[Rick N Bama]

I'm shooting that same boolit through my S&W M657PC. IIRC, it has a 7.5" barrel. I've shot it with 8.5gr & 8.9gr of Unique with decent results at 25 yards. With my old and weaking eyes, I've managed to sneak in some groups of around 2" but most are a bit larger than that. A youngster with keen eyes could surely do better.

I water drop the boolits and lube the bottom 2 grooves with Felix. I've not had any problem with leading at all. It's a good design.

Rick

[Lloyd Smale]

dont blame the weight on the lack of accuracy. I had that mold and it never shot for crap in any of my .41s. One of my favorite .41 bullets is the lbt 250lfngc. That bullet shoots like a house a fire in all of my .41s.

[Bass Ackward]

Dot,

Load for longer range becomes more critical the shorter in barrel length you go. My .... guestimate is that is because pressure is higher when the bullet exits the muzzle. This works like a bad crown which amplifies any defect in the bullet base. A load that shoots well at 25, might not hit paper at 50. Sometimes raising the powder charge increases the pressure and does not give you the logical results you calculated.

Try it. If going up in powder charge makes no difference, then the problem is not one of stabilization. Try going up in burn rate to like 231 or bullseye. This will cause pressure to peek faster and thus be lower at the muzzle. But because this is a lead bullet, you may either need to harden it, change lube, or accept less velocity.

[7br]

If the question is "Can a .41 shoot heavy bullets accurately?" The answer is yes. I have shot a 315gr bullet out of a Dan Wesson which threw a 2" wide by 6" high group at 100 yards. I do not have any experience with the lee mould, but loads with my 235gr LBT-lfn mould is very accurate at 100" yards. I use moderate doses of WW296, Starline Brass, Federal Magnum Match primers.

[dot6]

7br,
The accuracy from the big DW doesn't surprise me in the least. I had an early 44VH with the Power Ports and have NEVER shot another pistol that could equal it for accuracy. My personal best was a cylinder full of Speer Gold Dot 270 grainers in front of a healthy charge of H110 that went into 1 9/16" at 50 yards (+/- 2 or 3 yds.) with open sights. It shot much better than I could competently operate it.
However, DW seems to have more aggressive rifling (deeper & 8 grooves if I remember correctly)) than S&W. That's why I'm asking for S&W 57 experiences specifically. Being a tight-wad, I don't really want to have to shell out for a custom mold, and other used heavy weights are hard to find and priced accordingly .

[GLynn41]

I too used the lee until I destroyed it-- I did at times get good accuracy but only with heavy loads of 296 --- A diffeneert powder or a heavier will give different results maybe not better but different. I had a 4' 57 and a 3' 657 never got much accuracy out of either one -- my DWA, redhawks, Blackhawks and S&W have all shot the ssk 285 well for me with 296-- as to custom molds when Mountain molds starts back up a cutom designed aluminum mold is $70+ __ i just got my brass 255 wfnlbtgc from him and it is nice -- heavy but nice

[Uncle Grinch]

dot6,

I have this Lee mould in a 6 cavity and found that 7.5 grains of Green Dot make a very accurate mild load in my old S&W M57 and my newer Blackhawk.

I have not been able to get it to feed, much less group in my '94 Marlin (not the FG model).

[26Charlie]

Because I had some trouble with the Lee .44's, much as you describe. It is not the weight - I've got Lyman 412174, a 260 gr. bullet, and 415175, a 300 gr. bullet, as well as a couple of NEI-SSK truncated-cone nose designs, one 240 gr. and one longer at 275 gr.
All four bullets shoot well in Ruger 7 1/2" Blackhawk, 7 1/2" Redhawk, and Marlin M1894. The two lighter ones shoot well in a S&W 4" M57 and 4 5/8" Blackhawk, but haven't wanted to try the heavy bullets in those two due to shooting high & lots of recoil.

[felix]

Typical 41 magnum twist is 18. That should be plenty for any boolit less than 280 grains even at pistol speeds. ... felix

[KevMT]

I've shot the 240g lee quite a bit because I have a six holer mold. On my mold the bottom driving band is awfully narrow and the boolits are not very round. I havn't had tremendous sucess with it until I tried 4.5 grains of trailboss under it. Now it shoots just fine and minute of can accuracy at 30 yards is easily accomplished. Kev