Originally Posted by
carelesslove
Now that I am approaching 50 years of reloading & 48 years of bullet casting, I seem to finally have the time to resolve some old shooting problems.
I freely admit that I have cast, reloaded, and shot many thousands of rounds of ammo - and had thought, over the years - that I had things all figured out, only to find out that my vintage recipes really didn't seem to do all that well anymore - particularly gun-to-gun.
Let's pick one caliber, say .44 Magnum. I barely had enough money in those early days, to buy powder and primers, for one gun. I didn't own a caliper and had no concept of ever owning one. I was sizing all my bullets to 0.429" and things seemed to be working.
Then, the newer .44's came along (~1980's, along with a chronograph) and they really shot so much better & faster than my old M29-2, that I couldn't believe it. I had a 4" M629 that was 150 fps faster than my 8 3/8" gun - with no leading!
I gained access to calipers and micrometers and found out there were vast differences in cylinder throat diameters. My old pre-29's and M29-2's had throats that miked 0.432" (+/- 0.001") and my newer .44's miked dead-on 0.429".
Immediately, I bought molds that cast 0.434" (+0.0002 / -0) bullets and lubersizer dies at 0.432" and my game changed. Velocities went up, apparent pressure went down, leading went away, and accuracy improved - even with my aging vision.
Now, I actually load 2 "sets" of .44 ammo, for the two "sets" of guns.
I didn't stop there, I went on to solve my other accuracy / leading problem - my S&W 1950 & 1955 Target .45 Revolvers. These had 0.455-0.456" throats and "normal", 0.452" bullets just rattled through the oversized throats, blew out all the lube, and leaded profusely. I applied the same fix: I ordered molds that would cast a 0.456" (+0.001" / -0) bullet and sized them to 0.455" and these old guns displayed exceptional accuracy, with no leading.
I also learned that you don't have to cast your bullets "rock hard", just cast / size them for your gun's specific throat diameter and use a good, soft lube.
Y'all might want to give this a try some day. Don't wait as long as I did. It works for me in multiple calibers.
Thanks, Tom "carelesslove" Love