44 Mag Hardcast?
- Thread starter Alderman
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rcmodel
Member in memoriam
No.
At lower velocity, and corresponding lower pressure, you need a softer bullet that will slug up to fit the chamber throats and bore perfectly.
A too hard bullet at plinking pressure will likely cause gas blow-by and leading.
rc
At lower velocity, and corresponding lower pressure, you need a softer bullet that will slug up to fit the chamber throats and bore perfectly.
A too hard bullet at plinking pressure will likely cause gas blow-by and leading.
rc
redbullitt
Member
Depends how hard and how fast!
44 special loads with soft/medium lead will do very well. Harder stuff will do better as you up the speed. Gas check or powder coating may be worth looking into.
44 special loads with soft/medium lead will do very well. Harder stuff will do better as you up the speed. Gas check or powder coating may be worth looking into.
41 Mag
Member
The sizes your barrels require will be more of a determining factor of whether or not they will all shoot the same bullets or not. Nominally for cast you should be in the .430-.431 range for a good fit. However you might have a nice tight barrel on one, and a nice loose one on another. I'm not going to go into the "you need to slug your barrrel" thing because it gets away from the origin of the post real quick.
That said though, on your revolvers the mouth of each chamberr should be checked with a pin guage or at least slug those with a soft lead sinker which can be shoved through pretty easily with just a tap of a smalll hammer and wooden dowel. You not driving it through the barrel and if your using pure lead if it goes in the back side it WILL come out the front side. Cylinders have a notorious history of not all being the same diameter as the bore which results in the bullets being swaged down initially before hitting the forcing cone and then being undersized when they hit the bore. This is what usuallly results in more cases of leading than being too soft or too hard. If all of the chamber mouths are matched to the bore diameter your good to go and you should easily be able to shoot the same bullets in all of them.
As to hardness, don't get caught up in having to have the highest BHN you can find, it is not required. I am running alloy which is only around a 9-10bhn up into true magnum territory with no ill efects what so ever. So it can be done, but things have to be correct in order to get there.
To answer your "plinking" question, well that means different things to different people. To most it means loads which are right on the starting data for the components used. For me it is simply whatever I am shooting at paper, might be a target load from my 45 ACP or a hunting load from my 454. Most of my shooting however is done with loads in the upper third range of data for the bullets I am using so they don't really qualify to what most would consider a "plinking" load.
For general all around shooting I would lean towards something in the 12-14 BHN range. If your pouring them yourself this would be straight air cooled wheel weight territory. If not several commercial outfits make them in the lower end range, but plenty more make them in the harder range from 18-24 as well. This makes them easier to ship without having small dents and dings from the trip. Hard bullets can be driven soft and soft one can be driven hard, but like mentioned above the sizes your cylinders require will be the determining factor there. The Contender should do well with either as long as they fit the bore. Mine takes a .432" but that is so it is .001 over bore diameter. Yours might need only a .430" but you won't know for sure unless you measure. As to "bumping up" well the softer alloy will certainly do that if the charge is right, but until you get that your shooting undersized bullets which has ill effects no matter what.
Hope this didn't muddy the water too much for you as cast bullets are a hoot to shoot. There are however a few rules that need to be followed which jacketed isn't as governed by.
Merry Christmas
That said though, on your revolvers the mouth of each chamberr should be checked with a pin guage or at least slug those with a soft lead sinker which can be shoved through pretty easily with just a tap of a smalll hammer and wooden dowel. You not driving it through the barrel and if your using pure lead if it goes in the back side it WILL come out the front side. Cylinders have a notorious history of not all being the same diameter as the bore which results in the bullets being swaged down initially before hitting the forcing cone and then being undersized when they hit the bore. This is what usuallly results in more cases of leading than being too soft or too hard. If all of the chamber mouths are matched to the bore diameter your good to go and you should easily be able to shoot the same bullets in all of them.
As to hardness, don't get caught up in having to have the highest BHN you can find, it is not required. I am running alloy which is only around a 9-10bhn up into true magnum territory with no ill efects what so ever. So it can be done, but things have to be correct in order to get there.
To answer your "plinking" question, well that means different things to different people. To most it means loads which are right on the starting data for the components used. For me it is simply whatever I am shooting at paper, might be a target load from my 45 ACP or a hunting load from my 454. Most of my shooting however is done with loads in the upper third range of data for the bullets I am using so they don't really qualify to what most would consider a "plinking" load.
For general all around shooting I would lean towards something in the 12-14 BHN range. If your pouring them yourself this would be straight air cooled wheel weight territory. If not several commercial outfits make them in the lower end range, but plenty more make them in the harder range from 18-24 as well. This makes them easier to ship without having small dents and dings from the trip. Hard bullets can be driven soft and soft one can be driven hard, but like mentioned above the sizes your cylinders require will be the determining factor there. The Contender should do well with either as long as they fit the bore. Mine takes a .432" but that is so it is .001 over bore diameter. Yours might need only a .430" but you won't know for sure unless you measure. As to "bumping up" well the softer alloy will certainly do that if the charge is right, but until you get that your shooting undersized bullets which has ill effects no matter what.
Hope this didn't muddy the water too much for you as cast bullets are a hoot to shoot. There are however a few rules that need to be followed which jacketed isn't as governed by.
Merry Christmas
TimSr
Member
I agree with this in general, but will add that often, when the bullet is a good match for the gun, the harder bullets can also work well at low pressures. I'm running my 18BRN in the full spectrum of cat fart to upper level magnum loads in .44 and .357. The 18 BRN 45 acp bullets loaded in 45LC on the other hand, blow by like crazy, surprisingly no leading though.
If these are only going to be in plinking rounds though, I'd stick with a "hard"cast BRN12 or a swaged bullet.
243winxb
Member
44 magnum cast bullets
http://missouribullet.com/technical.php The standard Hardball Bullet Casting Alloy consists of 2% tin, 6% antimony and 92% lead. With a .430" diameter. Its a good place to start with 8 to 10 gr of Unique for a "plinking" load. I have no idea what my scrap alloy is, but its hard.
bluetopper
Member
Yes.
I've been loading 44 hard cast bullets for years in several 44's loaded from very mild to full house loads and have never got any leading.
If they're sized to .430" you'll be fine.
Shooting cast bullets is not the problem some on the internet make it out to be.
I've been loading 44 hard cast bullets for years in several 44's loaded from very mild to full house loads and have never got any leading.
If they're sized to .430" you'll be fine.
Shooting cast bullets is not the problem some on the internet make it out to be.
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DM~
Member
I started casting bullets in the 60's and that's MY EXACT experience too...
In the last 40 years, I've cast them the same way, and no matter the load, they all get the same alloy.....that I test using the "Skeeter Skelton" test....my finger nail!
Here's some of my stock pile of 20 pound ingots, they are all the same alloy,
It worked when I shot competition and it's still working today, for all of my hunting loads.....for 44 mag's or my 44spl's.
DM
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