Using round nosed 44 caliber bullets in tubular magazine.

[Bazoo]

I am looking at getting a pistol caliber levergun in 44 magnum. Mostly I'll shoot less than magnum loads though. My query is; are round nose 44 bullets, such as the Lee 429-240-2R, safe for tubular magazine use?

I have used round nosed factory jacketed ammo in my 30-30, and I'm comfortable with that, but also large rifle primers are harder to set off than large pistol primers. And 30-30 is less likely to stack right on the primer than the shorter pistol caliber cartridges like 44 special and magnum.

My gut tells me its safe, but I also would like to know if anyone else has done it.

[racepres]

BTDT.. No Problems whatsoever... I suspect an extreme point, on a very hard Boolit may be Problematic... But, I also suspect Common sense would prevail in such an extreme scenario as that..
Note the Radius on that fat round nose.. actually pushing on the outside of the cup/anvil.

[HWooldridge]

I used to shoot a pointed 200 gr bullet in a 44-40, only because someone had given me a box of 500 cast bullets. Before loading in the case, I would set each slug on a metal table and tap the point with a 1 lb ball peen hammer. The resulting flat would be around 1/8 -3/16 in diameter and never seemed to hurt accuracy at the ranges I was shooting (which was seldom over 75 yards).

I don't think you'll have any problems, but you could do the same thing with the Lee version.

[725]

When I size, I choose a fixture that results in a flat (small meplat) on my RN boolits. Fast, easy & uniform.

[Bazoo]

Thanks for the replies.

725, thats not a bad idea, thanks. I'll file that away in the memory banks.

[murf205]

Bazoo, the Lyman 429667 is almost like having your cake and eating it too. A little round and a little flat for "smackability". It does have a slight bevel base but I'm betting Tom @ Accurate could fix that if a good sharp flat base or GC suits your fancy. Keep us posted, this sounds like fun!Attachment 311173
I just checked his catalogue and this is a a twin of the Lyman, almost , but I think I would rather have his than Lymans.

[sukivel]

When I size, I choose a fixture that results in a flat (small meplat) on my RN boolits. Fast, easy & uniform.

Yeah I’ll file that away to memory as well!


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[Bazoo]

That's the version I was looking at too murf. Thanks.

[trapper9260]

What I do is when I lube and size the boolit I would use a flat top punch and that would take the point off the RN and have no problems. Since i have to size and lube them anyways . You can control more of the flat point this way also.

[georgerkahn]

I am looking at getting a pistol caliber levergun in 44 magnum. Mostly I'll shoot less than magnum loads though. My query is; are round nose 44 bullets, such as the Lee 429-240-2R, safe for tubular magazine use?

I have used round nosed factory jacketed ammo in my 30-30, and I'm comfortable with that, but also large rifle primers are harder to set off than large pistol primers. And 30-30 is less likely to stack right on the primer than the shorter pistol caliber cartridges like 44 special and magnum.

My gut tells me its safe, but I also would like to know if anyone else has done it.

I have both a Henry Model H006 Golden Boy .44 Remington Magnum and a Harrington & Richardson Model 155 Shikari chambered in .44 Remington Magnum and pretty much ALL I shoot are cast round nose bullets. My only "modification" was -- at least on one box of 20 I loaded -- I believe recoil moved the bullets in a tad. As this raised red flags to me vis an increase in pressure -- I took those yet unfired and put a roll crimp (Redding die) on them -- supplementing/complementing (?) the Lee Factory Crimp die I had vis my initial loading. Since, I have used the roll crimp on these. Re handgun -- I have a Ruger Super Blackhawk in this calibre, and while the initial loading worked well, I did not see any negative change(s) from the roll crimp. But, to be 110% up front, this is but a "perceived" result: NOTHING "scientific" (e.g., Ransom rest, chrony results, etc.).
I have had zero "safety" issues, again, using round nose cast bullets in lever rifles.
geo

[mdi]

Early on reloading for my 44 Magnum Puma, I placed some handloads in the bench end to end to see how the bullet noses lined up with the primers of the cartridges in front. With a rimmed cartridge, the nose is a bit off center, below the center of the primer, so I felt OK. But the best bullet I reloaded for my levergun was Ranch Dog's 240 gr and 265 gr RNFPs...

[17nut]

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Tubular+Ma...&t=ffsb&ia=web

[fecmech]

Some years ago after acquiring my first .357 lever gun I did an experiment. I loaded a half dozen cases with primers only and set them in a vise. I then held a round nosed bullet (WDWW) with needle nose on the primed case and smacked the base with a small hammer. I changed bullets many times but all I succeeded in doing was ruin a half dozen primers, none fired. I know it has happened because there's pictures out there but I'm not going to worry about it.

[quilbilly]

When I size, I choose a fixture that results in a flat (small meplat) on my RN boolits. Fast, easy & uniform.

A few years ago when I started to cast for my 30/30, I discovered that the cowboy seating die from RCBS actually put that small meplat on my round nose 160 gr boolits. Maybe the same is true with the 44 caliber seater die. If my alloy is too hard, I learned that it was a sign my alloy was too hard for my purposes both hunting and targets.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

In my experience with many lever guns, round nose bullets were the only type that would feed without a jam.

[muskeg13]

I've posted this several times before. Rossi Puma .44 Mag debris after a 23 May 2004 magazine tube explosion. This was no amateur experiment, but was a serious injury producing incident requiring multiple surgeries. The bullets being used were plain base commercial cast 200gr rounded flat nose with a very wide meplat, much wider than the diameter of the large pistol primers. While it shouldn't have happened, it didn't matter that day.

[racepres]

^^ Wondering aloud if Rifle Primers were inadvertently used??
Yours??? More to this Story??

[GONRA]

GONRA's GLAD I don't own any tubular magazine guns!

[Rockindaddy]

My friend Ken had a Winchester Model 71 that he converted to 450 Alaskan. The recoil was quite violent. the magazine tube would slide forward and work its way out of the forearm. There is a small cross pin that retains the magazine tube. Yhr magazine tube would still slide forward out of the forearm. He decided to AcraGlass the forearm and magazine tube in place. While shooting his punishing loads the magazine detonated and the forearm exploded. He was driving 400 gr Speer flat points about 2400 fps. His left hand required extensive surgery but his hand was permanently damaged. We figure that one of the cartridges had a high primer that went off in the magazine tube. 450 Alaskan recoil is severe. I doubt your 44 Mag will exert the same recoil forces. For me, all my lever guns get flat point boolits! Why take a chance?

[muskeg13]

^^ Wondering aloud if Rifle Primers were inadvertently used??
Yours??? More to this Story??

Federal 150 Large Pistol, Unique 10.5 gr, new WW cases. Nothing special, but 6 rounds in the magazine went off in a chain fashion (although it seemed instantaneous to me). You can see where each round went off in the tube by the bulges. Once the gas volume built up, with no place to go, the rear of the mag tube pulled free of the receiver and flared out, spewing fragments and blown parts rearward. The mag plug (follower) hit with enough force to punch through my cheek and knock out and break teeth (seen in the photo). The muzzle end cap/plug and mag spring went flying downrange, never to be recovered. Some sizeable case fragments propelled rearward imbedded themselves deeply in my forehead and cheek, others, along with unburnt powder grains barely broke the skin and could be removed with tweezers. There was enough force in the movement of the lead slugs to deform the loading gate and at least one bruised the skin over my right collar bone. A magazine tube explosion is neither a myth nor is something to lightly dismiss.