44 mag bullet test
- Thread starter Brad
- Start date
He was referencing a thread on recurring a Lee mould. I mentioned that a guy should buy a lathe to save the cost of having someone else recut the mould.
I did some rough calculations
Weight control is the issue. Keeping the weight under 280 gr means a bullet with a shorter body.
If I go with a .5 in full diameter body, including GC, and a .25 in truncated cone nose I still run 280 gr or so.
The nose would have a meplat around .3 in.
I would only have .3 or so of bullet in the case. This is because my nose is .485 of a .75 in bullet. Gonna have lots of powder space.
Weight control is the issue. Keeping the weight under 280 gr means a bullet with a shorter body.
If I go with a .5 in full diameter body, including GC, and a .25 in truncated cone nose I still run 280 gr or so.
The nose would have a meplat around .3 in.
I would only have .3 or so of bullet in the case. This is because my nose is .485 of a .75 in bullet. Gonna have lots of powder space.
Ian
Notorious member
Had the same problem with this one when Tom and I were hashing it out, minus the issue of big jump from case mouth to the parallel stretch of the cylinder throat. You're accounting for the longer Supermag brass, right Brad?
Rick, this is a .357 Magnum bullet, how do the proportions compare to what you had in mind? I'm guessing basically you are recommending to copy that bullet you pictured earlier in the thread which shot so well for you?
Rick, this is a .357 Magnum bullet, how do the proportions compare to what you had in mind? I'm guessing basically you are recommending to copy that bullet you pictured earlier in the thread which shot so well for you?
Ian
Notorious member
You might want to center the tolerance on the whole bullet diameter. My mistake was ordering a mould that cast .359" with WW alloy and it casts about .3595" with my particular alloy. No big deal, right? Just size it to fit the .3585" throats. Well, the nose band is super-long and any tiny bit of displaced metal deforms the bullet considerably. If base-first sizing, it would get a sharp edge on the shoulder and almost look like an SWC. The displaced metal was never even, and it wrecked the nose shape and balance. Nose-first sizing would rake metal back into the crimp groove. My caution here is to make damned sure you're virtually shooting these as-cast because any sizing at all will screw the nose up. I can only imagine what happens in the barrel's forcing cone if the groove dimension is significantly smaller than cylinder throat.
I tried the same concept with .45 Colt but put a displacement groove in the middle of the nose band and also made it a sort of fat, button-nose SWC instead of a TC design with small radius on the shoulder. Those didn't shoot well at all in anything I tried, probably because the nose was too blunt or weak driving area on the nose bands. I think this concept you're working on is sound in theory but personally I found it impractical to execute. Hope you can figure it out and maybe I'll learn what I was doing wrong.
I tried the same concept with .45 Colt but put a displacement groove in the middle of the nose band and also made it a sort of fat, button-nose SWC instead of a TC design with small radius on the shoulder. Those didn't shoot well at all in anything I tried, probably because the nose was too blunt or weak driving area on the nose bands. I think this concept you're working on is sound in theory but personally I found it impractical to execute. Hope you can figure it out and maybe I'll learn what I was doing wrong.
I agree entirely on the sizing. I plan to size these to .430+ so I will spec it at .431 using 50/50 WW/pure.
I thought about a groove, a very small one, on the nose to allow metal movement.
I also wonder if a light coat of something like BLL would help. That is an awful lot of metal contact and even a little help in easing metal movement is a good thing. I might have to size a little smaller to leave room for the lube film.
This is a totally different experiment for me. Never designed a bullet and seeing what goes into it makes me respect those who do it. It is far easier to design a single bullet for a single gun, that is for sure.
I thought about a groove, a very small one, on the nose to allow metal movement.
I also wonder if a light coat of something like BLL would help. That is an awful lot of metal contact and even a little help in easing metal movement is a good thing. I might have to size a little smaller to leave room for the lube film.
This is a totally different experiment for me. Never designed a bullet and seeing what goes into it makes me respect those who do it. It is far easier to design a single bullet for a single gun, that is for sure.
Kevin Stenberg
Well-Known Member
Brad in the last picture. Did you make the crimp groove (.485) to make the nose of the bullet just inside the front of the cylinder? Or did you make it so the bullet was snugged to the forcing cone?
It will be approx .015 short of the front of the cylinder
I will likely use an alloy that approximates 50/50 WW/pure. I will spec it with WW at .431. My alloy should be similar to .0005 smaller. Since I want to size at .4315 it should be about perfect.
I will try to get an order in this week before we head to Tulsa. Now to decide on what material and how many cavities
I will try to get an order in this week before we head to Tulsa. Now to decide on what material and how many cavities