43-287 Resurrection

[gman]

Figured I would continue this subject without further adding to the clutter of Brad’s original post. Someone can move this if they feel it should be once it’s rolling. Brad and I exchanged bullets for testing. I wanted to best duplicate what Brad was trying so I ordered some 445 brass and trimmed to fit my SRH which I will name SRH2. It is the newer of the 2 that I have. Brass is trimmed to 1.321. At this length the cylinder will close and rotate without any contact with case head. Next post will show how far into the throat Brads bullet goes with a dummy round. I also made a dummy round with the NOE 432-640 in 445 brass. Comparing to 44 brass it seats it further into the throat. Including picture of full 445 case with trimmed case, 43-287 seated. I believe I included a 44 round for comparison. Hopefully this rain will end and maybe I can shoot some groups before I go back to work Thursday. Lots of brass yet to trim.

 

[gman]

 

[fiver]

just a side note:
you guy's are breaking my heart cutting up perfectly good 445 cases.

it will be interesting to see a parallel.

 

[Brad]

Send me a perfecly good 445 Revolver and I will stop!

I'm anxious to see what you get Gman. If our weather mellows for a while I will get out and see how the bullets you sent do in my revolver.

What kind of loads are you planning to try?

 

[gman]

I’ll shoot your 21.5 H110 load for comparison to what your seeing with recovered bullets. I’m really curious to see what 2400 will do so I’ll load some of that. Probably along the same lines Ian shot in his M29. Will check locally and see if I can get a pound of N110 since Rick has suggested. I have lots of 4227 and may try. Out of curiosity those trimmed cases fit perfectly in my SBH Hunter and chamber the 432-640 dummy round. 43-287 is too long but I knew that would be the case.

 

[Rick]

Before you run into the same issue Brad has did you gauge the throats and slug the barrel?

 

[fiver]

I got a perfectly good 445 unfortunately it has the 10" barrel off my perfectly good [except for a 1/2oz trigger] 44 mag on it ATM.+------------+++++++ that is Jax's first attempt at puppy typing, she has a little way's to go.

 

[Brad]

A ways to go? Looks like your typing......

Bet Jax is better with photos too....

 

[gman]

Rick, throats all except a .431 pin gauge. Run through my .430 sizer they measure .43075. I did run an egg sinker through the barrel when I first got it checking for thread choke. I’ll have to slug it again to get measurements. For what it’s worth I have had no issues with the 432-640 at this size. Different animal I know. I would have to clean the barrel to slug and I really hate to since I’ve been shooting the SL-71B lube with success and haven’t touched the barrel since. Any signs similar to Brads and I’ll stop and slug. Unless everybody thinks I should for informational purposes.

 

[fiver]

I never slug a barrel unless I see a problem.

 

[Rick]

I never slug a barrel unless I see a problem.

That's what Brad said and it took him two years to finally figure out what the problem was. The only reason to slug a revolver bore is to match with the throats. Or in Brad's case . . . Not.

 

[fiver]

true enough, it just took him that long to see a problem.

 

[Brad]

Previous bullets didn't show the problem so why go looking for it?
I think this bullet design maximized the potential errors from the mismatch.

 

[fiver]

might just be one of those touchy, touchy designs.
one of my most accurate rifle molds is also the easiest to mess up.
if it weighs .3grs too much it will smear the front drive band in the sizer.
at that point it's a wasted gas check.
when it's right the whole thing just glides down the hole and you can feel the check squeezing closed.
there isn't a lot of room for error in either the casting or sizing process.

 

[gman]

Decided to try and shoot some of Brad’s bullets before the rain this morning. This load was 18.5 gr of 2400 with a Fed 150 primer. Distance 100 yards. Struggling with winds that were forecasted at 15-20. This time of year winds are always blowing. Worse part is my trigger control was not the best. Bullets were heat treated at 450 for 1 hour then quenched.

 

[gman]

Same bullets as above. 21.5 gr 4227 with Fed 150 primer. First group was low so I adjusted scope. 4 of 6 in the second group are circled in blue. Threw 1 right and 1 left. I’ll try to pick a better day next time and try to focus better on trigger. I’ll shoot comparison groups with the 432-640 next time. Bullets all lubed with SL-71B.

 

[gman]

Just a few of the bullets recovered from the muddy berm.

 

[Rick]

They certainly look better than what came out of Brad's gun.

 

[Rick]

Are all of the bullets heat treated at 450 degrees? It is quite possible they will shoot better a bit softer, say 420 degrees for an hour for about 18 BHN.

 

[gman]

Just this batch that I shot today. I’ll try the next batch at 420.