.429 or .430 diameter cast bullets in 44 mag

[cleveland48]

I have not had my chambers checked ,or forcing cone micked. But I have a ruger blackhawk 50th anniversary 44 mag.  And There is a shop close by that has cast bullets, the only one around.  They are both 240gr. SWC. one is .429 the other is .430, if I had the money i would buy them both but I don't so i'm gonna have to pic one lol.. So which works best for you with cast in the 44 mag. .429 or .430.  I've heard several say they had better accuracy out of the .430's in there rugers but i know every gun is different.  So any advice would be great. the bullets aren't swaged they are not hard cast either though.  for 500 bullets its 35 dollars so I don't know what kind of quality that would mean. so any help would be greatly appreciated guys . Thanks andrew.

[cleveland48]

thanks for the reply wayne. They hare 240 gr. SWC, and they are hard cast.  But I believe they are bevel based, it looks kinda like a boadtail rifle bullit. is that a bevel base? or are bevel bases hollow at the back.  Anyway they shot great though my gun, much better than the 240 xtps.  Gonna try them on hogs and deer this year.  I loaded them with universal, green dot, and 2400.  everywhere from 950 fps to around 1150 i'm assuming, since I didn't have time to use the chronograph today.  Since these are hardcast 240grs. Should they work well for deer and hogs? especially if I decide to keep the between 950fps to 1150 fps, or do they need to be moving a little faster since they are lighter weight?  Oh and leading was not a problem at all even with the 2400. thanks

[Veral]

  44 Revolver cylinder throats will measure from as small as .428 up to as large as .434 and possibly a bit over that on rare occasions.  Bullets must be a close fit to cylinder throats to get top accuracy, and barrel diameter must be slightly smaller than bullet /cylider throat diameter to get optimum.
  I deleted the persons answer who spoke for me, because he said throats are normally .430.  They are the size your gun measures, and there is no guess that will insure performance.

  You state in your answer to him that you are using commercial cast, so whatever their diameter is, you will just have to live with.  You have already played with a few loads and found what shoots best, and name 1150 fps as the highest velocity.  That is 22 LR speed with 6 times the weight, and the meplat is probably at least 4 times the frontal area.  Since thousands of deer have been taken with 22 lr bullets, your load certainly will kill deer just fine if you place your shots well, but probably the meplat is smaller than ideal and more speed will kill better, if you can get it without losing accuracy.

  I'm estimating, based on many commercial cast SWC's and your velocity, that wound diameter will be slightly over a half inch, and maybe 5/8 inch diameter through the vitals.  You'll need to place your shots well to get quick clean kills.

[cleveland48]

Hey veral, I just shot some of those bulk hardcast bullets I bought.  I found out they are bevel base swc.  I've heard people say that the bevel base bullets just aren't as accurate as flat based or gas checked bullets, can you tell me if you have had this problem?  Anyways they aren't wide flat nose or anything like that.  But the meplat on them is wider than a 240gr xtp.  So far I have tried them with H universal, and green dot, but right now I'm using 18gr. of 2400 and the barell does lead a little but hardly any at all, and is very easy to clean out.  Havn't got the chance to shoot them over chrony yet but maybe tommorrow.  I have shot them into a large compressed stack of wet magazines and 40 yards. Penetration was excellent and the tips of the cast bullets started to mushroom back a litte.  They mushroomed uniformly all around.  So my question to you is does this souund like it would be effective on deer?  They shoot really well, and also if they mushroom with this powder and velocity, what velocity should I shoot for in this cast to keep it effective? I'm pretty new to cast. Thanks for your time veral.  Cleveland48

[Veral]

  If you got any expansion at all in wet paper, the alloy of those bullets is pretty soft for heavy loads.

  Crank the speed up to 1400 fps if you can get it without losing accuracy, which will take somewhere around 22 grains of 296 or H110 powder.  A bit less with 2400, which will be somewhat more prone to leading than 296.  You can expect heavy leading with higher velocities, but you need more speed to make the bullets effective with the small meplat.  The meplat is awful small, from what you are telling me.  We can't compare performance of a solid bullet, by meplat of a hollow point bullet, as those are made to expand violently.  Read down in this forum, looking for any post that appears to be about terminal performance, and you'll be well informed by time you are done.  The best post is right next to this at the momemt, but they may drift apart as others post questions.