God Help Me,Boys! Cast 44 Magnum

[Hondo44]

I feel your frustration. I have never been happy with LEE moulds or straight WW lead. I have always been happy with Lyman moulds and their #2 alloy.

These two formulas will each give you 10 lbs of #2 alloy with proper proportions of lead, tin and antimony:
5.5 lbs. of WW
1 lb. 50/50 bar solder
3.5 lbs. pure lead

OR

4 lbs. of Lin-O-Type
1 lb. 50/50 bar solder
5 lbs. pure lead

Too hard of an alloy can cause leading due to the bullets not upsetting to fill the chamber throats and allowing gas to blow by the bullet and soften the sides enough to coat your barrel.

 

[CBH44]

IMO, Lee molds will cause great frustration for new casters. Virtually, all other makers,both custom and store bought, will yield better bullets with less hassle and offer greatly improved durability and satisfaction. Lee molds can be made to work properly though, but what the heck, casting is supposed to be fun.

 

[VA Shooter]

My Lee mold works great it's my Lyman that gives me fits it seperated at the bottom and I have to squeeze the handles to avoid wings. Call Lee and they will make take care of it for you good luck

 

[captainkirk]

If you find you have heavy leading after shooting those, it may be your sizer die. Often .429 is too small for rugers. The GC may save you, then again, you might get a 431 or 432 sizer next go round.


captainkirk


PS well wishes and prayers for your boy.

 

[5of7]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/index.php

Just to be helpful.....it would be in your interest to go to the above web site, register and post your experiences there. These guys have a LOT of collective wisdom to share in the bullet casting trade. They can help you with mold problems, alloy recipe, and all the other tricks of the trade to produce good quality bullets.

Good luck with it. A good hard cast bullet in a heavy revolver is much to be preferred to a jacketed bullet....in my opinion, of course. 8)

 

[steve b]

I'm with captainkirk, if you have any issues after shooting, bullet diameter would be on my suspect list. When I want to use jacketed bullets, I use Hornady for their .430 dia.. I try and find .430 or .431 in casts. This for Ruger S.A.'s. steve b

 

[Iron Mike Golf]

+1 on what 5 said.

1. It sounds like maybe your mold is not closing all the way. Check for burrs in the recesses for the alignment pins. Make sure there's no specks of alloy on the mating faces of the mold blocks. Is this a 2 cavity mold? Lee 6 cavity molds are a whole 'nother animal in terms of quality (better). Aluminum is not real strong, so baby that mold.

2. Get a micrometer for measuring your bullets. You want to know what size they drop at and what size they are after going through the sizing die.

3. You also want to know your barrel's groove diameter. You slug your barrel to learn that. Undersized bullets can lead to leading and loss of accuracy. Also check for thread constriction where the barrel threads into the frame. Lots of info on this stuff at castboolits.

4. That bullet design is not made for tumble lubing. Tumble lubing for a magnum load can be challenging. You might look into pan lubing for that bullet. TL (tumble lubing) plus GC (gas check) might just work for some loads with that bullet. I think others have done OK. Lots of folks TL revolver magnum loads for shooting in leverguns.

6. Another good resource: From Ingot to Target http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_Contents.htm

7. Also Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook

 

[Ruger4Life]

Yeah 23.5 gr of H110 is a little hot and may cause sticky extraction of the spent cartridges.

My hunting load consists of 21.0 grains of H110/W296 and Oregon Trail's 310 gr GC True Shot. I have no leading and awesome accuracy. Used this load to take 5 deer over the past 2 years.

 

[smorin2]

Hello,i've found that with my 7 1/2" SBH that i needed to size my cast bullets to .431. I've also had better results with slower powders and 245-265 grain bullets.5of7 gave good advice about castboolits.com,there's a wealth of information available.

 

[smorin2]

I have 7 different molds for my .44"s.The iron RCBS,Lyman and Saeco and the aluminum Lee's.I run my iron molds differently then my aluminum molds. I find the aluminum mold works well at around 600- 650 degrees and i usually use 2 Lee molds,alternating between them as i cast to keep them from getting too hot.The Lee molds work good but to me they need to be treated gently,i close mine slowly making sure the halves are lined up.I use a mallet on the sprue plate and never strike the mold to loosen the bullets.Keep your mold close to the spout of your pot,putting the mold on the base will be messy and ineffective.A casting themometer will help. Good luck,casting is a great part of reloading.

 

[contender]

Ok, you need to come to one of our Forum gatherings. We might be able to help you a bit with proper shooting instructions. Trying to "control" the recoil is not going to help your accuracy.
Plus,, you seem to have started out using heavy thumper loads in your 44. I always suggest a person try different loads for accuracy first. Start at the lowest charges listed for the bullet/powder combo & work up slowly.
I had one 44 mag Redhawk that LOVED a lighter (not max or close to max) load of IMR 4227 with 240 grn bullets.
It's no fun if it's not accurate.

 

[Groo]

Groo here
That bullet is a might heavy for a starting caster..
I would suggest 230 to 260gr range.
Lee molds are rather small for the bullet size and can overheat quickly..
Some keep a damp rag on the bench to cool the mold every few
cast.

 

[Corbi]

I am using that bullet crimped long in Winchester brass, Winchester LP primers, with 17 grains of 2400.

About 1170 fps out of my 4" Redhawk. Real pleasant to shoot.

Corbi

 

[xtratoy]

I have several LEE molds and found that by taking some of the bullets that turned out good and putting a superfine rubbing compound ( toothpaste ) and spinning the bullet in the closed mold makes the mold after cleaning it up drop some very nice bullets consistently. You have to put a screw into the sprue end of the bullet and chuck it in a hand drill and go at it. My 6 cavity mold was about to see how hard it could hit the wall before I took this approach to it. Now it drops 6 perfect bullets each time it gets up to temp. It has worked on all my Lee molds.

 

[M'BOGO]

As for your comment about sizing, and bench movement made me think (on the bright side, I'm far enough away that you can't possibly get hurt). When sizing, you are wiping the hardened surfaces off of the sides of the slug, thus negating the hardening effect of the waterdropping. At the same time, that is why they are so hard to resize...

Also, if you decide the .429 is too small, the Lee size dies can be opened up on the cheap with a metal rod, and some wet dry sandpaper, hold the power tools. There are threads on Castboolits that detail that.

Also there is a sticky over there in the mold maintenance and design section, about Leementing molds. It shows you what to look for, problem wise, and how to address different things, xtratoy touched on one thing.

Sometimes it takes a couple of sessions for a mold to season, before it starts to throw good slugs. Unfortunatly, the two holers having the handles attached don't allow you to throw them in the oven to "pre-season".

 

[Iron Mike Golf]

As for your comment about sizing, and bench movement made me think (on the bright side, I'm far enough away that you can't possibly get hurt). When sizing, you are wiping the hardened surfaces off of the sides of the slug, thus negating the hardening effect of the waterdropping. At the same time, that is why they are so hard to resize...

Also, if you decide the .429 is too small, the Lee size dies can be opened up on the cheap with a metal rod, and some wet dry sandpaper, hold the power tools. There are threads on Castboolits that detail that.

Also there is a sticky over there in the mold maintenance and design section, about Leementing molds. It shows you what to look for, problem wise, and how to address different things, xtratoy touched on one thing.

Sometimes it takes a couple of sessions for a mold to season, before it starts to throw good slugs. Unfortunatly, the two holers having the handles attached don't allow you to throw them in the oven to "pre-season".

Odd. I did not know that only the outer .001" of the alloy was hardened by the quenching. I am in your debt.. . .

It's not just the outer .001 jnch. That's why heat treated bullets don't expand as easy as air cooled.

Also, it takes weeks for a quenched bullet to reach max hardness. Right after air cooling or water dropping, the hardness is the same. Next day, you'll see a couple BHN increase in the water dropped.

Size them within a couple of days of casting and you won't have difficulty owing to hardness..

 

[M'BOGO]

I really have no idea what this means, do you? "(on the bright side, I'm far enough away that you can't possibly get hurt)".

That was me commenting about my thinking. I think too much, often over analizing, and my father used to say I could screw up an iron ball with my bare hands .

I know that there is much to learn about casting, and that I'm no expert. Not thinking that that I'm an expert, or sage, more thinking out loud.

At this point the only slugs that get water dropped, are for autoloaders that will bounce around a feedramp, and don't need sizing.

 

[louiethelump]

If anyone mentioned it, I missed it, but the line up pins on the Lee mold are supposed to be lubed, or it will do exactly what you described in your first post and the two mold halves will not come together. They advise in the instruction sheet that comes with the mold to just touch a bit of bullet lube to the pins (they are steel) when they are hot and the lube melts onto the steel pin. The molds will then fit together properly if they have not been sprung from someone treating them like they are steel mold blocks. I have used a lot of Lee molds and with great success. I found that you have to run the lead a bit hotter with them than with the steel molds. Also, are you following the instructions and dipping the CORNER of the aluminum mold block into the melted metal for a few seconds to bring the mold up to metal temperature before you start? If you do that, you will get good bullets from the second pour. (first pour never seems to get it) and you also have to smoke the molds, as stated in the instructions that come with the molds. If you do what the instruction sheet says, they work great.