44 mag Cast Bullet Help.

[The Blackhawk Kid]

:arrow: Howdy, I have slugged the cylinder of my SBH and it reads .431 on 5 cyls and .432 on the last one. All the bullets I tried just fall thru the cylinder. Any suggestions? I have shot some jacketed with great accuracy! My load is taken from another Forum member: 5.5 grs of W231, 240 gr LSWC, WP, 44 mag case, 1.500 OAL. This load shoots great in my SS, Bisley, SBH, 3.75 bl 44 maggie!

 

[WIL TERRY]

SHOOTS GOOD !!! IF it ain't broke don't fix it !

 

[No-1]

They should fall through the cylinder.

 

[GP100man]

When shooting lead the most important thing is FIT & my fellow member you have too small a boolit !

Boolits that are to small will gas cut(pressure escaping around the boolit) from the get go , no matter how soft or hard they are & it starts the instant the base clears the case.

Ever seen the slow motion firing of the 1911 using jacketed bullets ??? Ya saw a little puff before the bullet exited the muzzle did`nt ya ??? Well that was gas escaping around the bullet ,but jacketed tolerates it better than lead , when shooting lead we must prevent this from happening or we won`t like the results .

Measure ya boolits carefully with a micrometer, I think you`ll find em undersized .
Shoot as big a boolit as will chamber reliably & the end results will be more gooder!

You don`t identify a problem shooting lead , but I`ll take a stab at it , accuracy is acceptable but falls off as the leading builds in the throats & the first inch or so in the barrel, & the forcing cone is covered with lead, the rest of the barrel is clean & shiney ???

Sound `bout rite ???

GP

 

[The Blackhawk Kid]

GP100man, you hit the nail on THEE head! Thanks! bhk

 

[LaneP]

Google "beagling" if you're interested in casting larger diameter bullets from your existing molds.

I only learned of this process about a year ago, but essentially it's placing thin, aluminum foil tape on the face of one of the mold blocks in order to expand the cast diameter.

Of what I've read, there are no venting issues associated with beagling (not even sure I'm spelling it correctly, but hopefully close) and the resultant bullets are several thousands larger than the spec'ed diameter.

Good luck!

 

[GP100man]

Beaglin a mold works , but realize the boolits are out of round & maybe to the point of not chambering reliably.

This is corrected by runnin em thru a sizer of sorts , the noses will remain out of round ,but it`s a uniform "balanced" meplat "nose"

Aluminum tape is very useful in this task , I use small strips placed like this :



It aids in venting also ,& ya may need to back down on temps to prevent/control finning or whiskers such as this:



Good luck on your venture for a phatter boolit !!

GP

 

[powder smoke]

Very Good info GP ty ps

 

[jsh]

GP100, who's mold and what caliber? Good looking rascal. 358156 plain base maybe. What weight. Looking for something like that for a 41.
Sorry about the hijack.
Jeff

 

[mikld]

Well, no offence but "fall through" aint a unit of measure. Either get some pin gauges or push a slug of mebbe .440" through the cylinder and measure it with a micrometer. If I had one cylinder of .432" would size my bullets to .432". And .001" larger than the other 5 throats won't be noticed...

Or mebbe I'd "hone" the cylinders to within .0005" of each other, but like I said, .001" prolly won't make noticeable difference...

But like stated earlier, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

There isn't much you can do if your throats are oversized, and that is rare in a 44 cal SBH, but if they are you are going to have to look for bullets that are larger in diameter. You didn't say if you are casting or not. If buying bullets, talk to the company before buying and make sure they are a true .430 or .431 or .432, whatever you find fits your gun. Gas checked bullets may be your salvation if you can't find the larger diameter lead bullets. They should perform as good as your jacketed bullets.

 

[GP100man]

The mold is a Lachmiller 162gr. swc , the boolit is a Lyman 357446

I have a plain based (GC shank was removed by "Buckshot" over on Castboolits.com) & it shoots as good as I can hold ! The 357446 likes the gas to the floor , but I have an IDEAL 357446 with a wider front band that works at plinkin pressures.