Lee, 44 cal. , 208 gr. W/C Mould

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Walks

Well-Known Member
I have a 35+yr old 2cav of this mold that My Dad bought from an older Gentleman at a gunshow. Got a .44 214gr RN & .44 240gr RN in the same deal. I remember so well because Dad was an iron mold; H&G, Lyman kind of guy. Handed them to Me and said "Cast up some bullets for Cowboy Shooting". Shocked the bejeesus out Me.

And Yep the 208gr WC shoots well in every .44cal gun I've ever tried it in.
Got a 6cav version from a group buy years back.
A GREAT bullet in any .44cal gun, even .44WCF.
 
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TomSp8

Active Member
I hope it's permissible to reserect this thread. I just received a 2 cavity of this same Lee 429-208 mold. These will be going into a similar revolver to Ben's, a 90's Interarms imported Rossi M720. The throats are oversized at about .433 (of course, seems to be a pattern for me....). The bullets dropped at .429 with wheel weight alloy, and with powder coat still fell through the cylinders. I, too, lapped out the cavities but still need to tweak one cavity a bit more. I also opened up a Lee .430 bullet sizer to .433/.4335. My current batch of wheel weight alloy is about 10 bhn per the artist pencil test, and these will be powder coated. A .433 sized bullet is a nice fit through the throats.
The final weight on the good ones are about 217 grains. I see several others with this bullet and since load data is so limited I am hoping someone can share their load successes. I plan to use AA#2 (I would normally use Bullseye, but I'm almost out of it) and was thinking I would start with a couple at 3.5 and go from there. Looking for the lightest load that groups acceptably. I've ordered an NOE 436x.432 rifle plug, due to the longer nose for the deep seating of the wadcutter, but still waiting on it to arrive. A pic of my M720 (Basically a K Frame 5 shot) added:
 

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Jeff H

NW Ohio
I had this mould and eventually gave it away before I knew about lappin. I was shooting Charter Bulldogsband Rossi M720, all of which had .433" throats. could not get this mould to cast over .429".

It would sure be worth the time to lap a 2C, or hit one of our custom makers up for a clone in 4C.
 
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Jeff H

NW Ohio
Ben said:
Good luck, for me , it is a fine shooting cast bullet.

Ben
Click to expand...

It was for me in the few guns I had that would handle the .429" mad diameter I could manage. I SO wanted that one to work out in the others. It really did shoot well in the Bulldogs, but leaded.

In the Smith 624 and the two or three Taurus 44Xs, it shot well and did not lead, but I didn't keep those.


@TomSp8 , If it casts too small, LAP IT! forget about the time it takes. It'll be worthwhile.
 
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TomSp8

Active Member
Jeff, (lapping) exactly what I'm working on now . Its quite a tedious procedure, as I've only done one other mold like that. I've got one cavity I'm happy with, but still need to tweak the other a touch more. I'm really just hoping for some start load advise with AA2 (or even Bullseye) based on my final weight of 217 grains. With the larger expander, I'm hoping to reduce the bullet pull a tad to about a thou but not more than 2 thou, and not swage them down while seating them. Planning to try 3.5 of AA2 and if I don't stick a bullet in the barrel I can go up from there.
 
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Jeff H

NW Ohio
TomSp8 said:
Jeff, (lapping) exactly what I'm working on now . Its quite a tedious procedure, as I've only done one other mold like that. I've got one cavity I'm happy with, but still need to tweak the other a touch more. I'm really just hoping for some start load advise with AA2 (or even Bullseye) based on my final weight of 217 grains. With the larger expander, I'm hoping to reduce the bullet pull a tad to about a thou but not more than 2 thou, and not swage them down while seating them. Planning to try 3.5 of AA2 and if I don't stick a bullet in the barrel I can go up from there.
Click to expand...

6.5 or 7 grains of Unique - however that might cross with AA2. That's what I remember. Check that against an official source before trying it.

These things don't need to go fast. 750 fps or so is plenty to clear a 3" barrel and they should shoot very well.
 
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Walks

Well-Known Member
The only revolver that I've ever owned with chambers larger the .431 was a early Charter Arms Bulldog. About 1985? It went down the road not long after I got it.
Both Colt SAA's have .427 bbl's and .428 chamber mouths. Neither will chamber a Cartridge with a .431 bullet, and some of those are a hard push fit.
 
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Jeff H

NW Ohio
oscarflytyer said:
Because of this thread (and because I have a 45 Cal WC mold), and because I am a huge 44 SPC fan, I also now have this mold. 1c. But that's ok. Yet to cast and load. I am WAY behind in all the shooting hobby depts. Got to fix that ASAP!
Click to expand...

Well, if you have to lap it, you won't have to try to get more than one cavity to match.;)

I seem to do the same thing - jump on a particular bandwagon late - just as or just after whatever it was is discontinued.:headbang:
 
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TomSp8

Active Member
oscarflytyer said:
Because of this thread (and because I have a 45 Cal WC mold), and because I am a huge 44 SPC fan, I also now have this mold. 1c. But that's ok. Yet to cast and load. I am WAY behind in all the shooting hobby depts. Got to fix that ASAP!
Click to expand...
Let's try to share any load developments since there is so little info on these!
 
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Jeff H

NW Ohio
I remember using up most of a pound of Red Dot behind this bullet in the 44 Special, but don't remember the charge. I had a 4" Smith 624 which had decent throats/bore dimensions (after they replaced the barrel) and this bullet and a Lyman 205(?) grain RFN meant for the 44/40 shot extremely well in it. I'm sure Bullseye and similar would work well, as would HP38/W231, but I don't remember using them with this bullet.

Everything else - too large throats in Charter, Rossi and Taurus.
 
Ben

Ben

Moderator
Staff member
I ( quite often ) shoot 4.0 of Bullseye or 4.0 of Red Dot in the 44 Special with a 200 - 215 cast bullet.
Not the fastest load, but accurate and still deadly.
 
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TomSp8

Active Member
Ben said:
I ( quite often ) shoot 4.0 of Bullseye or 4.0 of Red Dot in the 44 Special with a 200 - 215 cast bullet.
Not the fastest load, but accurate and still deadly.
Click to expand...
Ben, is this with a full wadcutter seated deep like the Lee mold in the original post? If so, that's exactly what I'm looking for just to find a safe place to start.
 
Ben

Ben

Moderator
Staff member
If you want to " play it safe " , start at 3.7 grs. of either R Dot or Bullseye with the Lee 208 gr. W/C. Shoot a few , examine your cases and primers, adjust as needed.
 
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TomSp8

Active Member
Ben said:
If you want to " play it safe " , start at 3.7 grs. of either R Dot or Bullseye with the Lee 208 gr. W/C. Shoot a few , examine your cases and primers, adjust as needed.
Click to expand...
Just about exactly what I planned on doing. I've seen several mentions of 4.0 Bullseye (I don't have Red Dot but see that get mentions as well), but a lot of folks are using the Lyman or Matts Bullets that dont seat this deep so I really wanted to be somewhat cautious with advise. Because my finished weights are about 217 grains, I was actually initially gonna start at 3.5 BE and hope that ended up being a real bunny fart but that the bullet would exit and primers not back out...lol....then go from there. Thank you so much for sharing! That's a big relief, sounds like I was on the right path.
 
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Jeff H

NW Ohio
That bullet isn't all that long and you don't seat it with a crimp over the front edge. Compare it to other bullets you shoot in the 44 and see what you come up with. I don't think the "deep seating" of a wadcutter is as much of an issue with this bullet as may be with others in the 38/357 line.

I'm sure I have a sample or two left to measure, but I'd have to dig them out. I sort of turned my bench upside down over the last few days moving the press over 3" and rearranging stuff, so I can't put my finger on anything immediately at the moment.
 
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