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Author Topic: Making progress on .44 Handi  (Read 343 times)

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Offline geezerbiker

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Making progress on .44 Handi
« on: October 05, 2011, 08:11:03 AM »
After my disappointing range time last week I've been working over my .44 looking for things that could be wrong.  I swapped out the scope with another rifle and in the process I discovered one of the 3 screws on the DNZ base wasn't as tight as the rest.  I wouldn't say iit was loose but it's now torqued like the other two...

I cleaned it and inspected the muzzle for signs that it would need to crown re cut but that all looked good.  Next I made up an over length dummy round and closed the barrel on it.  I do this with my other rifles to find the length to the rifling.  To seat the bullets .002 off the rifling like I do in my bolt guns, the OAL with a 240g Hornady XTP would be 1.76".  This is 0.16" longer than the Hornady book recommends for the .44 mag round and 0.205" shorter than the .445 super mag.

The dummy round has crimp groove on the bullet .15" from the mouth of the case.  I'm going to make up 10 or 15 rounds seated this long and see how they shoot.  However I'm thinking about looking for a handful of .445 SM cases to trim to 1.435 so I could crimp them for a test.  I don't want to buy a 100 cases if this isn't going to help.

I guess I could ream it to .445 SM but I don't want to spend that much on the project...  Any thoughts?

Tony
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Offline gcrank1

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Re: Making progress on .44 Handi
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2011, 08:32:24 AM »
You may not need to be crimping at all, test for groups and see. Match shooters of single shots, in the 'old days' usually didnt crimp, and some of those groups havent been bested until recently. IIRC, many competition benchrest shooters dont crimp either.
The bullet can be crimped, if needed in a grease groove, no worries. I find that my cast bullets, if of the right dia. for the throat, have enough case neck tension so they dont fall out. It can be a bit more problematic with jacketed, but FL resizing should give plenty of neck tension for those.

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Offline quickdtoo

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Re: Making progress on .44 Handi
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2011, 09:00:18 AM »
I have a box of 445 Supermag brass, would be glad to send ya a handful to try.

As for the rechamber, the GBO 445 reamer is available, it's a rifle finish reamer, will cost ya $25 and 15 minutes of your time to turn your 44mag into a 445.  ;)

Tim
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Offline geezerbiker

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Re: Making progress on .44 Handi
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2011, 10:16:16 AM »
PM sent about the brass.  If I like the way it shoots with longer cases, I will consider reaming it to .445 SM.  I thought it would cost about 2 or 3x that much to rent a reamer.

Tony
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