cast bullet for 44 mag revolver

[drags]

What is a good cast bullet for  44 mag. for hunting and plinking? I'm interested in both the gas check and plain base. I'm interested in buying them from casters and casting my own. Most of my hunting would be deer hunting.
Thanks Joe

[Blackhawk44]

The Magma 240gr from most casters is fine for plinking and practice.  Lyman 429421 or RCBS 250-K molds for the good loads.  Even a mag speed, you won't need gas checks if you cast these correctly.

[Tom W.]

Rcbs 44-245-swc is a good one, and Lee C429-240-SWC works well for me.

[Graybeard]

I really don't like most of the commercially cast 240s from the magman moulds for one simple reason. They are almost universally bevel base. I hate bevel base bullets with a passion. In fairness many of them do seem OK at shorter ranges and for plinking. I'd never use them for serious work tho.

One of my all time favorites from a mass production manufacturer mould is the Lyman 429244. This is a GC mould that will drop them at about 242 from really hard linotype or closer to 250-255 from Lyman #2 alloy. The Lyman 429421 is much the same but a plain base. No the design isn't exactly the same.

I really like the discontinued Lyman 429640GC mould. It drops about 270-280 grains and is a super choice. Accurate and hard hitting.

If you really want the best check with Veral Smith of LBT and let him make you a WFN 280 grain mould.

GB

[Lloyd Smale]

my favorite would be the lyman 421429

[Turk]

Drags,

I currently cast 10 different 44 Mag. bullets 210 gr. to 327 gr. wts. PB and GC.  Types SWC Keith Types, Auth. Keith, LBT FN, WLN etc.   I personally like a gas checked bullet over a plain base my experiece shows me they're more accurate.  But PB are plenty accurate for hunting.  All the bullets I cast will give excellent accuracy from 100 yards plus for whitetail with the exception of the 210 SWCGC I cast.

My personal favorite is the  Lyman # 429244 which is a 255 gr. SWCGC with Lyman #2 I use a different alloy and mine are a little lighter.  From 100 yards this bullet will give bullet to bullet accuracy from a rest.

I think Dry Creek Bullets carry's this bullet.

Have a good day.

Turk

[wener]

i have shot competetion and hunted with 44, the gas check are always a good choice and for real dammage use a jacketed bullet but overall the cast one's are the way to go! alot of time's it doesn't matter i if you use a plain or bevel one is gonna be just as accurate as the other of course your wide flat nose bullet's have more of a bearing surface and may be more accurate but it depends on a few factors just like anything else! what im finding now instead of a slower burning powder such as win.296,acc.#9,h110 and a few others, is try some unique, 10 grs. with a 240gr bullet and what's really fun is 215gr. plain, bevel or gas check. the groups are really tight with the plain and bevel but they get a little tighter with a gas check. im using a S&W mod. 629 and sizing the bullets to at least .430! rugers are notorious for using a slightly larger one! If you wanna do some real dammage i have a 310gr. gas check bullet with a pure lead nose and a hard base. the nose isn't glued or melted together so you get a bullet that will out perform any jacketed bullet. :-)

[Nobade]

I haven't found any commercial casters who will make .44 bullets big enough. I have three Super Blackhawks, and all of them have cylinder throats at least .433". The .429 and .430 bullets commonly available are worthless in these revolvers, but my .433" Lyman #429421 Keith bullets are extremely accurate and don't lead the bore. That little difference in size makes a tremendous difference in performance. So, the only use I have for commercial .44 bullets is in my Ruger 77/44 rifle - at .430 across the grooves it shoots them fine.

[340wby]

ok Ill admit it Im one of those crazy guys with dozens and dozens of bullet molds that shoots easily 10,000 plus reloads over any given years time, yeah the wife would totally freak out if she had any idea what the total cost in molds,dies, ETC, was.
the point is Ive tried almost all the comom bullet types,
youll get the best bang for the $ useing a 44 bullet cast with a gas check in the 280-310 grain range, by that I mean, find a mold that casts a bullet about .002 over your bore size and start working up a  load with the ammo over all length set at the max functional length, H110,296 and blue dot are normally accurate powders.

http://www.leeprecision.com/catalog/browse.cgi?1048375825.1905=bullmol2.html



http://www.neihandtools.com/catalog/frame.html

these all work very well at dropping game, normally I load them over about  20-21 grains of H110
the 295grn NEi and the 310 LEE have proven to be exceptional on deer and hogs, both are cast from approx 94% wheel weights/6% tin