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Substitute for .375

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crazyjennyblack

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Ok, call me impatient. Cabelas has backordered .375 round balls. I hate nothing more than a backorder. Went to my LGS today, no .375 roundballs. Looked on Midwayusa, no conicals or roundballs - both Speer and Hornady are out of stock.

I have an 1851 from Cabelas on the way, should be here next week. I wanna shoot it!!! I don't want to wait until almost October for Midway or Cabelas to get some in. What are my options? Anywhere else I can buy them for under $20 per 100?

Also, I found that I can order 500 cast lead .365 93 grain bullets from Midway, meant for the Makarov caliber. Would these work, or is .365 just .01 too small to swage right when going into the chamber?
 
Ballistic Products shows OOOO (thats 4-O) buckshot in stock for $35 a jar. About 600 or so balls. It is .382 diam, rams a bit firmer, but works fine in my 1851s.
 
Thanks so much, Pete! I just ordered a bunch, and a box of conicals too. I don't have a .375 mold yet, but I'm going to get one since I already cast my 45's.

I'm still curious though, just for knowledge's sake, whether a .365 cast makarov bullet would work or not..... anyone tried it?
 
I kinda figured that would be the case. Just curious, is there a general difference between brands (original Colt, Colt re-issue, Uberti, Pietta, ASM) as to what size projectiles these guns prefer? I've noticed that it's typically between .375 and .380. What are the lower and upper limits that are typically found?
 
Jenny take a nipple out then drive a lead slug into the chamber. You can then push the slug out to measure the diameter of your cylinder.

I am not expert in this but I would think you would need a ball at least 0.004 bigger than the slug.

You can do the same thing to the barrel but measuring the slug is another matter as most of the Colt's have an odd number of grooves making measuring difficult.
 
My Uberti .36s -- an 1851 Navy that I bought in the mid-90s and an 1862 Pocket Police that I got last year both shoot better with .380s than with .375s. The Navy shoots patterns with .375s. (The PP probably would too, but the furthest I've shot it is 7 yards).
 
Jenny, I'd recommend getting a gang mold for buckshot, you could cast 3 cylinders worth of roundballs with one pour. I've been considering getting one so I can make buckshot for 16 and 12 gauge reloading, possibly even swage them down to use in .38 plinking loads (I don't have a .36... yet) and Lee makes gang molds for 0000 buck.
I WAS going to buy a .375 mold for the above cartridges but I bought a new .32 instead, otherwise I'd just mail you some.

Hope that helps! :)

~Levi
 
I know I have meantioned a defunct brand of lead bullets on the THR rifle and revolver boards and now I do so here.

Albert's was a brand of swagged lead bullets that I really liked, but which seem to have dissappeared right after I found them. Some where I still have a news print catalog of their products. I never handled or shot any of their C&B bullets which they called Ball-ets, IIRC

These featured a round front end looking like the front half of a round ball, then came a belt of slightly thicker proportion than where the equator of the ball would have been and then a short cylindircal tail with a slight hollow base in it.

I read one or two favorable reviews and then they just up and dissappeared.

The were offered for both .36 and .44 C&B revolvers and being very soft lead should have loaded quite well.

I always wondered why no one made a set of casting blocks to duplicate the design as a cast bullet.

Anyone of the other more seasoned shooters remember what I am writing about?

Any experience?

There was also a set that had the ability to swage round lead balls by an outfit called Seneca Run (like the competition) This was done with a hammer and a dead surface and no other fancy gear was needed other than a way to melt lead to cast the slugs to be swagged.

Again they seemed to disappear as soon as I got wind of them but it looked like a neat idea and I can not imagine the sets cost to much to make up.

Any memories? Any experience?

Thanks for letting me wander a bit more even if this is on topic sort of.

-kBob
 
midway just had a flyer on rainier .357. I believe they were around 89.00 per 500, or around 17.00 per 100. I don't remember what grain or if they were round nose or semi wad cutter but I'm pretty sure they were in stock.
 
kBob, I know of what you're talking about, I can remember trying some on my '58s but they were in .45 they called 'em Ballettes. I thought sure I had an empty box around but I'll be darned if I can find it. I don't remeber if they were any more accurate than my hand cast rbs. They looked like a round ball in the front, but they were oblong with a hollow base.
 
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