Help ?? .429 or .431-.44mag

[THEPLUMBER]

I recently loaded some .44mags, and noticed they were .431 dia. I usually load .429 dia. and all my charts just show .429. This company [Lassercut] says there more accurate. These are a 240gr. cast. Did I screw up?

[Lloyd Smale]

nope cast bullets need to be bigger then .429 to really work well the the 44s .430 or 431 are what you want. As long as the ammo will chamber in your gun you will be fine.

[Mikey]

I will 2nd Lloyd's response.  Cast slugs are at least 1/1000th overbore to seal and maximize the accuracy of the barrel.  If these chamber, see how they shoot.  If your groups are larger than you want or expected, slug your bore.  If your bore measures .429, use .430 diameter cast slugs.  If your bore slugs .430, then use the .432 slugs.  HTH.  Mikey.

[Castaway]

Like the masters above said, it won't hurt to load them and they'll probably work fine, but the proof is in the pudding.  Shoot them and see.

[THEPLUMBER]

Thank you all very much. I really appriciate the advice.

[jd45]

THEPLUMBER, are you talking about Lasercast Bullets, from Oregon Trail?  Just curious, jd45

[stuffit]

It depends on the throat size of your cylinders.  If the throats are 0.431 then your bullets need to be that size.  If your throats are 0.429 then that's what the bullets will be when they leave the throats irregardless of what size they were when they went in.   At this point in ideal revolver dynamics the bullet enters the forcing cone and on into a barrel of close to and no larger than that same diameter.  A slightly over sized bullet  at this junction will usually not lead to serious inaccuracy but, at practical revolver velocities with cast bullets in the BHN 10 - 14 range, when the bullet leaves the throat into the forcing cone, it probably goes up iin diameter a thousandths or so anyway, so, again, the bullet size most desirable for your revolver depends on the throat size.  Closed breech firearms have entirely different dynamics from what goes on in a revolver.
Ideally, your bullet diameter should match your cylinder throats which should be the same as or only slightly larger than the bore diameter. 
 
stuffit

[THEPLUMBER]

I guess I'll have to get some more tools to measure up my guns. And yes in fact, they are lasercast bullets. I bought them because they were the only .44 bullets they had in stock. I'm really not familiar with them, but they offer a money back guarantee on the accuracy, so I figured how bad could they be! They also guaranteed them not to lead your barrel.Have you used these bullets?

[jd45]

I bought some .454" 300gr flatpoints for my .45 Colt 1892 replica rifle, cause I heard they'd shoot better than .452" bullets, but I haven't shot many so far. And they don't group as well as the .452" 310grLFN's I got from Leadheads. They might, I just gotta play with powders, I guess. jd45

[jd45]

I forgot to mention I just got a 6" 629 from my brother. I slugged the bore & chamber throats, got .429" & .431" respectively, so am gonna order some 250gr, .431" Keith-style SWC's from MontanaBulletWorks pretty soon. I really like the .45 caliber 270gr version, ( and so does my USFA SA) they offer.  jd45

[THEPLUMBER]

My son went to the range this weekend and shot 100 and. They seemed to shoot very well out of his Tauris .44

[1sourdough]

 From what I can tell the 44 mag varies in throut size more than other handgun cals(357 etc). I bought some hardcast bullets a while back for my Super Redhawk. After talking to a knowedable guy he steered me to .432 size when he knew it was for my Ruger.

[gypsyman]

Consistency in throat size is probably one of the main reasons revolvers are so difficult to get accurate loads. If one or 2 of the chambers are looser or tighter than the other one's, pressure will be different. Bullet will leave the barrel at different velocity, different point of impact. Maybe the gun needs to take a trip to a gunsmith to get all the throats sized the same. Couldn't hurt. We keep trying peace, it usually doesn't work!!Remember(12/7/41)(9/11/01) gypsyman

[jd45]

I'm taking my S&W 629 to a smith on the weekend to have him replace the rear sight blade. I think I'll talk to him about reaming the throats while he's got it. They seem to be a loose .430 from the Hornady 265 FP I pushed thru one of them. Like to get them all uniform, if possible. jd45