Revisit a 444 camp rifle bullet?

[Canuck Bob]

My fears about a medical blood complication ending my casting career before it started have ended. 

In an earlier post you recommended a 300 gr bullet for a bear country camp rifle.  With my return to reloading and casting the cost and availability of components is an issue.  Up here they didn't outlaw handguns they just made owning and using them such a pain and cost that use dropped to almost nothing.  I believe that is how they will get the American shooter too.  They can sure make it so much trouble that a new generation of shooting voters will dwindle and not have any political clout left.  Its worked exactly the same in ALL the old British Commonwealth countries.  Ranges are full of geezers without their children.

Rant over,  I've been thinking that a lighter bullet would conserve my lead supply and be just as effective or nearly so.  I've used the 265 hornady for decades and it worked fine. What would you suggest as a good 444 bullet minimum weight or is 300 it?  That would be ok if you considered it a sensible min..

[BBF]

Hard cast 240 gr or more would work.
Consider that a number of folks here hunt with a 44 Rem Mag and use cast bullets at a much lower velocity then a 444 can throw lead.
 
Hdy 265 gr FN was my favorite bullet.

[Veral]

  Your rant is well taken here and I hope by all.  Keep in mind that the same powers who are trying to destroy gun ownership are working worldwide.  Whatever works for them in one place will be used in the others.  Also Bush and some other politicos signed the North American Union papers with Canada and Mexico while he was in office.  The big switch is already on the books and every attempt is being made to get wool over the publics eyes while they make it happen secretely, by takeover with minimal armed confrontation.  Banks already have Amero money ready to distribute.    ---  There now, your ranting could have been more severe and not been off key or out of place!

I would suggest that you not go less than a 260 gr LFN for your 444.  They have quite a large throat so bullets must be large enough to center themselves in the chamber so they start into the rifling straight.  I'd drive it around 1400 fps, personally, but 1600 is more deadly.  1400 is easy to get with a plainbase if you use LBT lube, and you can go well over that if the bore is good and smooth, as it will be if lapped.

[bilmac]

Surely you aren't going to shoot so many of them that 35 grains  is going to make a big difference in your lead budget. I'm sure that a 265 gr bullet would be pretty deadly, but a 300 gr would be just a little bit deadlier. If you are worried about black bears then it probably doesn't make a lot of difference, but if you're talking grizzlies then I would try to get every bit of penetration out of my Marlin I could.

[Canuck Bob]

Bilmac, the issue is that I want to use the same bullet as a fun load for awhile.  I'm setting all my rifles to take one cast bullet, the same alloy, 2 powders,  for everything and develop two loads.  Lo-vel and hi-vel loads and shoot lots.  I like to use my hunting rifles like a 22 off season, a pocket full of cartridges and a few tin cans so to speak.  With my 444 I can load a few heavy hitters in the tube for camping in bear country and single load my plinkers.   Trouble brews and I'm prepared but I can burn some ammo at a recoil level that doesn't loosen my teeth!!  The heavy hitters are for up close so no problems with two sight settings. 

Edit: I call it a bear rifle but after a lifetime of living and working in bear country the risk is really in people's minds.  Any grizzly can be dangerous but they sure are a solitary and secretive animal.  The average grizzly south of the Northwest Territories/Yukon/Alaska is a human wise animal.  Human interaction means dead bear and they know it.

[Canuck Bob]

Thanks Veral, I do plan to lap and use plain base at this time.  I figure if I try and develop my own skills with shooting PB cast that I can do what I want for less in my shop.  I'm getting real tired of gas checks out of stock and buying a box of 265 Hornadys (almost 50 cents each) to find out it might be the last box in Alberta and no planned production run for a year.

[Veral]

  Indeed, and the mold to use them a comprimise if they become unavailable.   Experiment will fillers between powder and bullet, always compressed.  Read my book and scroll down through the posts on this site to learn more about them.  They can take plainbase into performance a bit closer to gas checked, and are easy to use.

  Flip side of that coin is to purchase a lifetime supply of checks when you get the mold.  Many customers with the same concerns which you have, choose this option.  It is expensive if we think we'll live a long healthy life, and may leave one with a lot more checks than he'll ever use!  Of coarse powder and primers are as important.

[bilmac]

I understand the one bullet, many uses idea, I do the same thing. When I want a load for my 357 Marlin that I use much the same as a 22 then I too choose a light bullet for the same reason, I burn a lot of them.