Question on paper patching in a revolver

[lostchild]

     I have a raging bull in 454  could i paper patch 44 cal bullets up to 452 and safely shoot them in my gun?  These are 300gr hard cast.     If I how can I do this?     Thanks in advance....lost

[John Boy]

I have never heard or shot PP in a revolver but presume they will shoot safely.  But accuracy with be poor because of the cylinder gap to the forcing cone will be probably tearing the patch.  But, try it and see what happens

[Nobade]

What you're proposing won't work. Taking a .430" bullet to .452 or so is too big a jump. You want to go from bore size to groove size, i.e. for the 45 revolver you'd want bullets that were around .446" or so. I'd trade them with somebody who has a 44, and get the right bullets.

BTW, I have heard of folks having good results patching bullets for revolvers, especially ones made of things other than lead like lexan, but have never tried it myself. 

[jpuke]

I patched for a 45 Colt years back using a 43 Mauser mold from Lyman:

http://www.lymanproducts.com/lyman/bullet-casting/select-mould-rifle.php?styleRef=cat18#anc

Unpatched diameter was .446 and bullets cast around 340-350 grains if I remember right.  They shot well but I never got around to really getting the velocity up.  The only real "hurdle" that I can think of is the roll crimp if you want them to stay put in the cylinder during recoil and that's just a matter of getting the patch cut to the right length.  I never had a problem with the roll crimp process cutting the patch where it extended past the end of the case.

You've piqued my interest again, I may give it a try if I find the time.  It's tough to paper patch for a handgun, you go through the ammo so much quicker and that just leads to more work - that's the reason that I quit loading PP's in my revolver.