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44 Mag Load for Bullet

vbausell

I was going to load some 44 mag rounds with bullets that I have had for awhile.
At this point the company that made them is out of business and I cannot find into to help with the load.
Looking at the Alliance guide, there are LSWC load that max out with 7.0gr Unique.
Then they have a load for "Keith" that show max 10.0 gr.
I believe that this has a lot to do with the hardness of the bullet, and in this case I am not sure so I thought I might ask the forum.
Does anyone have any info on these bullets (see pics) and if not, what do you suggest?
I have loaded two at the 7.0 gr of Unique and they seem very light.
 

Attachments

There are a lot of variables involved before anyone can give an accurate answer. The lead hardness, the type of weapon they will be fired in. If a revolver the throat diameter of the chambers, also the bore diameter.
 
The pistol is a S&W 629-1, not sure on the specs of the throat diameter and the bore diameter. I do not have a hardness test, never used one.
I looked at the Lyman dot kit, what would you recommend?

Thanks
 
With lead bullets I use the Keith bullet with 11.0 grains of Herco . Unique seems a little too fast of burner for the 44 but every gun is different.
 
you are right in thinking the hardness of the bullet will influence the max load. The lower loads are more to prevent leading than to avoid high pressure. My opinion would be to work up on the light load and watch for signs of leading as velocities increase. I have shot my 629 with 9.5grains of unique anda hardcast bullet with no problems. 240 lswc
 
dsinfour said:
With lead bullets I use the Keith bullet with 11.0 grains of Herco . Unique seems a little too fast of burner for the 44 but every gun is different.
Click to expand...
Help me here, as I understand the "Keith" bullet is the SWC design. Does that design include a particular hardness?
 
johnfred1965 said:
you are right in thinking the hardness of the bullet will influence the max load. The lower loads are more to prevent leading than to avoid high pressure. My opinion would be to work up on the light load and watch for signs of leading as velocities increase. I have shot my 629 with 9.5grains of unique anda hardcast bullet with no problems.
Click to expand...
I was thinking of trying an 8 gr and then a 9 gr load and see how it works. Now I am interested in the hardness issue, never tested and worked at finding out how to determine the BH. I was looking at the Lyman dot test kit, any suggestions on testing equipment?
 
Best to keep SWC to 900 fps and below to avoid leading.

***** Slug your barrel and get bullets .001 over the bore dia.

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George offers a couple of options:

Hardness level with different alloys

Different sizes

Gas checks are needed for any load 1200 fps and above.

For reduced recoil loads, I used 44 special brass for a much better outcome
 
I usually don't concern myself with hardness. My lead bullets are forfun and target shooting, If I want to push something fast I use jacketed bullets. Cowboy bullets are usually a soft lead for light loads, Hardcast are hard enough for most applications, and you can get harder lead alloys and gas checks for higher velocity pistol and rifle bullets.
 
Your cast bullets need to be matched to the throat diameter of your gun. Too much smaller than the throat, you'll get gas cutting that could be mistaken for barrel leading. Your alloy is also important, even a hard cast lead bullet will gas cut if not matched to the throat diameter of you gun. A hard cast bullet will also leave lead streaks in the barrel if sized smaller than bore diameter as well. I have a Ruger Blackhawk in .44 Special that will lead badly with bullets sized at .429", at .430" it's better and bullets sized at .431" are optimal for that gun. A friend of mine has a Super Redhawk and this gun leads badly if the bullets are sized less than .433". There is a web site, the Los Angeles County Silhoutte Club (at LACS.US) that has loads of information about shooting cast bullets especially the pieces from Glen Fryxell. Other good sources of cast bullet information can be found from Brian Pierce, John Taffin and Mike Venturino.
 
Any particular mold doesn’t guarantee the caster will use a spec lead alloy (or lubricant).
There can be some differences in actual finished weights from a given mold based on what alloy was used, but you would have to intentionally run stats on known alloys to judge by dropped weights and that isn’t worth your time.

The condition of the lubricant can be affected by storage, so when old cast bullets get pulled out after long unknown storage, be observant of the lube.

What is important has been stated above, the diameter is one of the first things you will care about once a particular bullet has been selected. Lubrication and the use of gas checks come up as well. These days, powder coating can be a good option as well. It can make up for other “sins” with the alloy. I don’t recommend you coat these now since they have been lubricated and degreasing is not fun.

Unless you have the immediate need for these bullets to reach an above average performance, as in competition or critical hunting, I would use them as a learning experience to get a reading on what your pistol likes or doesn’t like.

Save one or two at random to determine hardness when you meet someone with a harness tester so you will know what it was you were using. That way if these perform well, you have some idea of what to go after when (if) things go back to ”normal”.

http://www.lasc.us/castbulletnotes.htm

https://www.lymanproducts.com/cast-bullet-handbook-4th-edition
 
I think the direction you’re wanting to go trying 8 to 9 of Unique could play out well for you, but I wouldn’t jump a full grain like that. I’d do 6 rounds each spaced .2 or so apart.

If the bullet is sized well for your barrel, you should find a great load with Unique.

If you get bad lead deposits your barrel at any velocity and you have a huge pile of these bullets, either sell them and purchase something that fits bore better, or tumble lube them with white label lube.

Super easy process. A 14” barrel I know of went from leading pig to fantastic LR single shot simply with white label lube.

Best of luck to you
 
That 7 grain load was likely for a swagged (soft pure lead) bullet. Measure the diameter of one or two of your bullets. See if they will pass through the cylinder throats with finger pressure. If they pass through, you're good. Throat size varied a lot on those S&W revolvers. If you have some Hornady jacketed bullets, they usually are .430". Try those through the throats. The only concern I would have would be if your revolver had "tight" throats, like .429" or less and those bullets were .431". Even in the worst likely case, it would still be safe to shoot them.
 
A good bit of good advice^^^^. Then some from non believers.

Size is king, period. Cast bullets can and are driven at jacketed speeds by many.
Hard cast have there place. Some folks think that solves a leading issue, when actually it covers up improper size 90% of the time.
Majority of store bought bullets with the crayon lube are made to sell. Shoot ability is second and luck of the draw.

A reduced load is no guarantee you won’t lead a barrel. Actually can be the culprit at times.

Some will say you can run jacketed and cast back and forth as you please. Well, that’s a deep subject.........I don’t like to. When I do a spotless bore is what I want.

Jacket material will strip lead, causing problems. Leading left in a bore, then jacketed run over that creates a major mess.

Now that I have you frazzled, cast bullets are not witch craft. A bit of reading and measuring will save a lot of frustration.
 
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