Cast Bullet Diameter ???

[Sam Casey]

I am really new at this. Looking at cast bullet maker here in MI and see that he offers bullets with multiple choice diameter .... .410, .411. .356 357 358 etc. How do I choose. Lite 41 mag from S&W 57? Which for my M19 S&W? Thanks

[Leatherhead Bullets]

Your best bet is to slug your barrel to get its true sized. For your .41, you could also try getting samples of a couple that he offers for the .41 (.410, .411, .412) I am guessing the .411 or .412 will be fine.

[Larry Gibson]

Shot lots of my own cast and commercial cast out of several M57s, a M58 and several Rugers BHs with .410 sized bullets. For many different M19s S&Ws a .358 sized cast bullet always was best. You can measure the throats of the chambers with slugs or with pins to get down to the nitty gritty but having done so too many times to count over the years. I just go with .410 for my .41s and .358 for my .38/.357s.

Larry Gibson

[fredj338]

Bigger is better, you can always size down but small is small. Also know that final dia is alloy & casting temp specific. So for 41mag, I would order 0.412", 0.358" for 357mag/38sp.

[leadman]

The SAAMI spec for a lead bullet in the 41mag is .411". This has worked well in my guns and other that used my boolits.

[Motor]

All the boolits listed for 41 magnum in The Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook 4th Edition are sized to .410"

I didn't see a Lee push through at .411" so I bought the .410" size die. I am using the Lee .410" 210gr TL boolits.

Powder coated and sized .410" they are working very good in my old model Ruger Blackhawk.

Slugging the bore is a good idea. Knowing the cylinder charge hole diameters (the exit end) is also a good thing. Sometimes these bores are smaller than the barrel which causes problems with cast boolits.

Motor

[gwpercle]

My model 58 S&W shoots .410 just fine. I have never tried any other size, but have no doubt .411 would be OK. The Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook said that was the correct size all those many years ago when I got it. Didn't know about slugging then and to be honest have never gotten around to doing it. It shot .410's great so I didn't try to fix something that wasn't broke.
Gary

[Mal Paso]

[QUOTE=Motor;3383784]All the boolits listed for 41 magnum in The Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook 4th Edition are sized to .410"
/QUOTE]

Ya, and they sized 44 Mag .429".

Lyman's 4th edition is garbage. The 44 Mag stuff is worthless.

I don't think I've ever seen a commercial 44Mag/Special bullet that wasn't .430"

[bedbugbilly]

Sam - you already got lots of answers so I'll just say . . "Welcome to the forum"! Where about are you in MI?

If you are new to reloading . . . besides a good manual . . . look and see if you can find a 2nd or 3rd edition of the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook. Lot's of good information about casting, boolits, loading data, etc. in it and well worth having. I have both the 2nd and 3rd editions and refer to them all the time. I have never looked at the 4th Edition but do hear it's not as good as the previous editions - but can't really speak to that personally.

Good luck and have fun!

[Hickok]

I agree with Larry on the S&W revolvers in .357 magnum, having loaded for many, boolit diameter of .358" always works best.

[captaint]

I size .358 for my 38's and .357's and .411 for my 41 mag's. Works for me.

[Scharfschuetze]

I guess I'm in good company.

My Model 58 gets .410" boolits and all my S&W 38s and 357s get .358" diameter projectiles.