Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting ? on shooting cast bullets

I have a Ruger Super Blackhawk that I load for bear protection utilizing a full power load with a 320 grain hard cast. Can't remember the brand, but they are gas checked. I don't shoot these much as it really isn't fun. Years ago I purchased a box of 240 grain semi wad cutters, but have been hesitant to shoot them as they aren't gas checked.

I would be loading them with 7 or 8 grains of Unique for a low velocity, low recoil plinking round. The bullets are lubed and have a bevel base.

Should I be concerned about loading and shooting these "as is" or do I need to do something further to them?

Thanks.

Provided the bullets are properly sized and a good lube was used, they shoot superbly out of your blackhawk with anywhere between 7 to 10 gr of unique for ~700-1000 fps.

I've found some of the commercial cast bullets are undersize, are too hard and the lube the only thing the lube they use is good for is staying in the lube groove during shipping. If the bullets you have bullets that fit this description you might find that they lead terribly and accuracy is somewhere between mediocre and poor.

A few bad experiences with commercial cast bullets was one of the driving forces that got me into casting.

If I take a caliper to them, what should the measure to be the proper size in a .44 Magnum? If I do shoot them, how do you tell if the barrel is lead fouling?

Also, if forced to buy commercial cast as I am at the present, what brands should I be looking at, or staying away from?

Thanks.

Depends what they were sized at when the were lubed. Most jacketed bullets are .429 for 44 Mag. cast should be around .430 but could be .429. You can see the lead in the lands and groves. Mostly if pushed too fast the will push past the grooves and wont group at all. If they are shooting great groups they shouldn't be leading the barrel.

Remove the cylinder from your Ruger, place one of the bullets in a chamber. If it falls through it's too small, if you can't push it through with a pencil it's too large. If you can push it through without a lot of effort, it's where you want it.

If the cylinder throats are larger than your groove diameter things should be fine unless your bore/forcing cone is rough or the barrel is choked at the barrel/frame junction.

If you want to shoot plain base bullets at lower pressures a softer bullet perhaps would be better with a soft lube such as LBT or White Label Lube Carnauba Red.

Personally if I was shooting 44 Mag in the 14,000-20,000 psi range I'd use a mixture of 1/2 wheel weights & 1/2 lead. But {it's a big but} if the barrel is rough or choked or the bore diameter larger than the cylinder throats you are fighting an uphill battle.