Follow up to mbc 240 gr 44 mag leading

[mdi]

In my limited experience, I have found a good starting point is to size the bullets (or purchase) to the same size as the cylinder throats. Ninety-nine percent of modern manufactured revolvers will have cylinder throat diameter larger than groove diameter, but don't assume anything, slug the barrel and measure the groove diameter (the larger diameter of the slug). You can also get accurate measurements by slugging the cylinder throats, but I prefer pin gauges too. I prefer softer bullets, 12-14 BHN, in my 5, .44 magnums and 3, 38/357 Magnums, and I'm able to shoot them nearly leading free. I have gotten 1300+ fps with a .357 Mag. LSWC, plain based, air cooled, Speed Green lubed bullet from a 4" revolver. A slight overload of Trueblue from a moment of distraction (only made 12 rounds)...

 

[Fatelvis]

Honestly, I think pushing even the correct sized bullet to 1300fps and beyond without a gas check, is asking for leading.I would back the powder charge down or use a gas checked bullet. It sounds like there is nothing wrong with your revolver or your ammo, you're just pushing it too hard.

 

[roval]

My most likely go to load will be 10.5 unique with 240 gr swc. I chronoed it at about 1230 fps. Luckily for the past few months I've accumulated about 20 lbs of it.

 

[Bama Drifter]

Roval, I hope you found success w/ Unique. It is a revolver shooter's best powder as far as rolling a nice light target load. My pet loads for 240gr LSWC are 8.7gr of 800-X and 10gr of Unique with Starline brass. It is a joy not worrying so much about leading and makes a hundred round range session more pleasant, too!

 

[roval]

I had good experience with 10.5 gr unique when I used. It with .431 sized 240 gr swc from lasercast, same size as my chamber throats.. I still had some leading but not as much but the recoil is not too bad out of the super redhawk. Big plus with unique is that it meters well for me unlike 800x which I had to weigh individually.

Had one nice session where I tried for the 225 yrds gongs in our range. I walked it into the targets and then started getting hits.. One cylinder had 3/6 hits with iron sights, benched though.. After that cylinder I quit shooting the gongs to end on a high note. Still had some leading but much milder.

I still have 80 rds of the 800x 12 gr and 12.5. Have not shot them as I'm not looking forward to cleaning the bore. I did load some Hornady xtp 240 with 296 and will use a cylinder or two at the end of shooting the 800 x loads and hopefully they'll push out some of the leading from those bullets.

 

[LUCKYDAWG13]

pick some of this up http://www.brownells.com/gun-cleani...mbedding-bore-cleaning-compound-prod1160.aspx clean your barrel real good use two patches
if you can make it as tight as you can see if there is a restriction in your barrel

 

[slickracer]

I would go to .432" bullets. Dardas Cast Bullets offers a variety of sizes and gives a discount for Highroad members. His lube is a good bit softer than the lube used by many other casters which is a bonus.

 

[joem1945]

I had a bad leading problem with .44 mag when I used brinell #12 cast lead. Super accurate for about 18 rounds. After that it looked like a smoth bore. Yikes.

 

[roval]

Slick racer how do you get the discount. He's cheaper than lasercast so I'm more than willing to try him out.

 

[roval]

Thanks