Yesterday's Weapons Forums

While looking for a die set Comrade SwihartMark wanted, I found my NEI double cavity 44 mold that drops 320 grainers made from straight linotype.

I'm a big fan of Elmer Keith and read with interest his theories relating to heavy bullets. He spoke of sizing down 45-70 bullets for use in 45 Colt. He felt mass and momentum would kill better at long range. I haven't anything to validate that theory, but a slow bullet will certainly damage less meat.

So I tried the bullets in 44 special as shown here. Fired with my 4 3/4" Ruger single action flat top revolver.


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On the left is a standard 240 grain load. The right hand case is marked to show how deep the bullet sits. There weren't any loads listed for this bullet so I looked up the heaviest bullet data in Lyman #49. They show a starting load of 4.0 grains Titegroup with a 255 grain cast bullet. I went with 3.0 grains of that powder here & no signs of pressure at all. It was comfortable to shoot and accurate.


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I managed this group @ 50 yards & am happy with it. Of course I forgot my chronograph but will take it when I go back out this Thursday. I'll try for a better group pic, too. I had a couple better groups, but they were messed up by flyers from other cartridges.

I recently got a 10" 41 mag barrel for my Contender & tried it, too. 210 grain JHP over 18.0 grains of 296 w/magnum primer. Primers showed pressure but extracted easily. The load came from IHMSA's accurate handload book. Back in the day if you shot a perfect score, you mailed in your load & got a hat pin or something similar. That load was the consistent winner for 41 mag.

Way happy with the group!

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Also took the M1 clone I recently scored and... not much luck with a 50 yard group. I had visions of murdering pasture poodles with it, but I think it will just be my beer can killer.

Overall it was a fun couple of hours! I'll be sure to take a tripod & chronograph Thurs & have solid data to post.

Life is good! SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

Went to the range again with chronograph but no luck. I ran 3 30 Herrett loads over it and was getting velocities in the 8900 fps range! Which I'm hoping is related to using it under a covered range and doesn't mean I need to buy a new chronograph.

Still getting good accuracy but no velocity to report. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

ive not thought much of it myself but i appreciate your post , have always gone heavy in my cowboy loads when others suggested saving on lead , i like the heavy bullet , even tho im not looking to 'kill' anything but steel targets with it ,

Hogger
Don't know what type chrono you have, but the "sky screens" need light to see the bullet. Also make sure you have chrono at least 10' in front of muzzle. Muzzle blast will mess up the readings, and black powder close to chrono makes a big mess.
One last bit of advice, make sure that the bore is in the center of the sky screens. A .22-250 will ruin a chrono at 4100fps. just that fast. And don't ask how I know, not a topic for discussion, and hasn't been for years, LOL.

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"Like a tank with it's tracks blown off, my turret still swivels and my cannon fires, so whenever the fight kicks off, I'll likely live or die right there, where the fight begins and ends"
John Connor

Aha! I suspected as much! I'll set the rig up & take it out in the buttes for 5 shots & record velocity. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

i always wake in the morning to learn something new , this is well worth learning and ive accomplished my goal for the day , LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY , now to retain it - gettin harder every day these times were not what i imagined for my later life , im still quick and on top of things but those trivia things take a minute to retrieve from the archives , i do learn new things every day at work - im a boomer in the millennial age after all , computers were not even invented till i was old , so my young work teammates are teaching me every day ,

my wife reminded me recently we won a trivia pursuit game years ago because i knew what a davit was - i reminded her that i thought everyone knew what a davit was back then , so much of life revolves around what you do in life , it came natural to me - but back then i did not realise what i did not know , thats why i endevor every day to learn something new , even if i forget it i can say i once knew it ,