.44 SPL bullet choice

[gcf]

Veral -
My situation as follows: I have a real sweetheart of a 4" S&W 624 in (of course) .44 SPL. Gun had a very low round count when I bought it. Lockup seems quite good. Ditto for the trigger. Cylinder throats are all the same, but a bit large at .4325" - .433".

I bought a box of WW SuperX 246 RN initially, that shot well. Low power, but one ragged hole.

Never has shot .432" sized gas checked hard cast (21BHN) bullets well, unless driven pretty hard. By hard, I'd say 1000fps or so.

Bore lapping 50 rnds helped, but still....

Bought a couple hundred 240 WFN-PB / .431" / #2 alloy / air cooled 15 BHN, from a gent of good reputation. He tells me that these bullets are cast from a genuine LBT mould, & that he uses only LBT Blue. I tend to believe him, as he spoke highly enough of you, to believe otherwise.

I'm happy w/ the bullets, except for the sizing. Little bit to much leading. His comment was that he can't get a full .432" (as ordered) out of his mould.

As a work around to the undersize, I have been bumping the bullet diameter up to .433" on my press. Not ideal I know, but accuracy has improved enough to make even ME smile, & there is no leading to speak of. So you know, I've been working w/ Unique, but have had much better result w/ VV N-330.

My thought is, that w/ your soft blue lube (my order went in today), & a softer LFN (10 - 12 BHN) bullet - even at .4315" as cast, I will get better results over a wider range of velocity.

For the record, the WFN bullets seat to about .158" from the end of the cylinder... I can provide more info as needed - your input would be much valued.

[Veral]

  Your little pistol looks like it would fit perfectly in my pocket!   I love those guns!

  Since your loads are light, bullets MUST be large enough to bump up to seal of powder gas, and the preferred method is to make them to provide a tight fit in the cylinder throats, which means .4325 minimum in your gun.  Since powder capacity is far more than adaquate for the loads you are using, you might try shooting bullets which are .433+ in diameter, seated so they don't contact the cylinder throats.  These will plug all blowby as soon as they start moving, and will generate slightly higher pressure due to the deeper seating.  A LOT higher pressure if you seat the bullets you show so they can be crimped over the ogive, which means probably back off on the powder a tad. 

  If you have a good quantity of the 240 WFN pb left and would like to experiment with softer,  and if you can relube them.  Place a few in a kitchen oven, run the temperature to 375 degrees, and turn the oven off.  When they are cool, relube and shoot them within a few days, while they are still real soft, which will be about 10 bhn.  They will bump up great at that hardness.

  Bear in mind that when bullets bump up enough to seal off powder blowby, (which causes leading because it sweeps the lube groove bare of lube) only the base expands, and the nose remains undersize.  Accuracy will improve, but that doesn't fit into the recipe for top accuracy.    To drive tacks the bullets must be large enough to fit tight from takeoff to muzzle, and I've always had best results if they are hard, like 16 bhn minimum.  20+ bhn preferred, as obtained with water quenched wheel weight metal or linotype.

[gcf]

 
 Your little pistol looks like it would fit perfectly in my pocket!   I love those guns!.....

...... Bear in mind that when bullets bump up enough to seal off powder blowby, (which causes leading because it sweeps the lube groove bare of lube) only the base expands, and the nose remains undersize.  Accuracy will improve, but that doesn't fit into the recipe for top accuracy.    To drive tacks the bullets must be large enough to fit tight from takeoff to muzzle, and I've always had best results if they are hard, like 16 bhn minimum.  20+ bhn preferred, as obtained with water quenched wheel weight metal or linotype.

Veral -
Thank you for your input, & for the kind words. This 624 is probably my favorite hand held shooter at this point. Hence, the reason for my obsession of note.

Your point regarding the the use of softer bullets in order to "bump up" w/ pressure, is well taken. Hadn't considered the fact that the nose would be un-changed in diameter....  Interestingly, I have noted that when lightly "bumping" a 15BHN PB bullet up on my press, I have been able to increase the .4315 to .433 - on all bearing surfaces.

The trick seem to be, keeping the nose (I use a sawed off 45 Colt case as a cap) & base concentric.....

I have found a gent that has an LBT WFN-PB mould that, that he says will drop bullets at .4335". Assuming that to be the case, & using LBT  blue, would you recommend hard bullets (16 - 20) as mentioned above for "plinkers" as well as full power loads?

I'm primarily interested in accuracy here, but would like to have the ability to perforate a hog (or some such) - should the occasion arise. When possible, I like to work up both light & heavy loads, w/ the same bullet.

[Lloyd Smale]

veral i like you more and more every day. Ive been preaching for years that my best accuracy comes from a properly sized hard bullet in a properly sized gun. I here people all the time saying that softer bullets are better. Only thing ive ever seen them do better is compensate for a lousy gun. Ive have never once in all my load development saw where a softer bullet outshot a harder one in a gun that was set up right.

[Veral]

  You missed a little when you said they compensate for a lousy gun.  They only partially compensate!
 
  Many shooters recommend soft bullets because they don't do their homework and set things up right.  When one doesn't have things set up right it will take many times as much load development to get reasonable accuracy than it would to get super accuracy when things are right.

[Lloyd Smale]

I agree totaly. I dont care what bullet design you shoot or what size you size it to or what alloy you use. If you dont start out with a gun that was manufactured properly to start with your fighting an uphill battle. A few minutes measureing out a gun and a few dollars trying to get it right at a competant gunsmith will sure save alot of time at the loading bench. With a little work and a properly made mold most any gun can be made to shoot extreamly well. I cring when i hear people preach the old soft bullets bumping up theroy. To me its about like turning the radio up in your car because its making noise instead of fixing the problem.

[Graybeard]

Veral you must have big pockets if that gun will fit into them.  But they sure are nice guns.

[Veral]

  Up here in God's country I wear a heavy Carhart jacket much of the time..  The side pockets would hold that tiny thing with nothin showin, with a small flashlight and pocket knife alongside!.