For Elmer and Skeeter fans

[Thumbcocker]

Boolit eye candy

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[Bazoo]

Great pic, thanks for sharing. What brand and number is the bullet?

[Thumbcocker]

It is a clone of the H&G 503. 3 equal driving bands like Elmer specified.

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[Tall]

Lyman Ideal 429421 cast bullet designed by Elmer Keith. It works!

[derek45]

My favorite bullet for 44sp and 44mag.

Keith knew his stuff

[44MAG#1]

I bet Mr. Keith could hit a Mule deer at 600 yards with that bullet with a 44 Magnum.

[Thumbcocker]

The 600 yard shot on the deer was with factory loads iirc. Brian Pearce did an article in handloader where he used a period correct model 29 and period ammo that had been stored in a basement. He hit a mule deer sized target at 600 yards. That said I agree that Elmer could have done it with his boolits and loads.

One if life's great joys is shooting at rocks on a hillside with a .44 at various ranges. The boom
followed by a "tick"sound never gets old.

[44MAG#1]

The 600 yard shot on the deer was with factory loads iirc. Brian Pearce did an article in handloader where he used a period correct model 29 and period ammo that had been stored in a basement. He hit a mule deer sized target at 600 yards. That said I agree that Elmer could have done it with his boolits and loads.

One if life's great joys is shooting at rocks on a hillside with a .44 at various ranges. The boom
followed by a "tick"sound never gets old.

You remember correctly. Very correctly.
I bet he could have hit that deer 3 out of 4 with that bullet.
Even with his 4 inch 44 Mag.

[Bazoo]

The 600 yard shot on the deer was with factory loads iirc. Brian Pearce did an article in handloader where he used a period correct model 29 and period ammo that had been stored in a basement. He hit a mule deer sized target at 600 yards. That said I agree that Elmer could have done it with his boolits and loads.

One if life's great joys is shooting at rocks on a hillside with a .44 at various ranges. The boom
followed by a "tick"sound never gets old.

I don't suppose you recall the issue number or year of that article?

[Bazoo]

My only "Keith" bullet is this RCBS 44-250-K. It does well for me in 44 special, I haven't tried it in 44 Magnum yet. The front driving band isn't the same height as the other two, but it has a nice square lube groove.

[Green Frog]

It is a clone of the H&G 503. 3 equal driving bands like Elmer specified.

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How does the H&G 503 differ from the original 429421 as designed by Keith? I’ve been told the later releases (like from Lyman) had rounded grease grooves, much to his displeasure
Froggie

[Thumbcocker]

From what I have read the 503 was the last one to be blessed by Elmer. 3 equal bands, square grease groove, and tapered crimp groove. I have 2 Lyman 429421 molds and neither of them have equal bands or a square grease groove.

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[44MAG#1]

From what I have read the 503 was the last one to be blessed by Elmer. 3 equal bands, square grease groove, and tapered crimp groove. I have 2 Lyman 429421 molds and neither of them have equal bands or a square grease groove.

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I have two different H&G 503 molds. Different bullets slightly.

[Don Purcell]

I have fired 250 grain Keith bullets from at least five different molds over the years and they all shot well, some a little better than others but all good. Back in the day before CRP we could shoot a mile in some areas over plowed bottom land. Shooting far enough you could fire your .44, lower the gun and wait for the bullet to hit. Really teaches you how to hold a sight picture and squeeze a trigger plus how good your loads are.

[376Steyr]

How does the H&G 503 differ from the original 429421 as designed by Keith? I’ve been told the later releases (like from Lyman) had rounded grease grooves, much to his displeasure
Froggie

Oh, my. For more than you want to know about "Keith" bullets, go to the sticky in "Molds-Maintenance and Design" https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...-Keith-Bullets for 26 pages of kickin' and gougin' in the mud and the blood and the beer.

The short story: The 429421 as produced wasn't true to Elmer's "original" design. I remember reading Elmer's columns in "Guns and Ammo" magazine in the 1970's, and he regularly disparaged it for its skinny front band and rounded lube groove. He was much happier with the H&G 503 with its three equal-width bands and square grease groove.

[Bazoo]

I have two different H&G 503 molds. Different bullets slightly.

I'd like to see them. For that matter, I'd like to have samples of them!

[HWooldridge]

SAECO made one that was close. I have a 2 cavity at home - was always a great shooter in both 44 special and mag. I'm not where I can look at it but seem to recall the first and second bands are slightly narrower than the base band.

[gc45]

Thumbcocker helped in getting my Ruger 5.5 inch Flat top 44 Spec up and running by sending me a few of his boolits from the 503 mold. I must say, with 7.5gr of Unique, his bullets fired more than acceptable groups, impressive really. Having found an old Lyman 429421 single cavity and settling on 7.3 grains, I get acceptable groups with that as well but not quite small nor as uniform as the 503 boolit groups.

[TomAM]

Can anyone produce any evidence that Elmer really specified equal length bands?

He specified a full DIAMETER front band, long enough to fill the chambers' ball seat, but never mentioned equal lengths.

[Catshooter]

Elmer didn't call it "length", he said width. As I recall. It's in his book "Sixguns", in the bullet chapter. He made it plain he wanted three equal lengths.