i have some brass tumbling right now getting ready to load.
that slovenian mold/bullet in 172-180 cast. I powder coated them.
I can't seem to find any specs for a cast bullet and i was thinking about 9grains of unique. Any thoughts from anyone?
few years ago i did some in a 170 grain wadcutter but i think they were light at around 7 grains.

Hello Ron....

The mold throws some nice bullets. I've found them ideal for the 3" 657 and 4.25" Freedom Arms 97 and using .41 Special brass the Taurus Trackers.

.41 Magnum

14.0/Blue Dot/180 FP/1430/6" Freedom Arms

14.0/Blue Dot/168 HP/1380/4" S&W 657


.41 Special

8.0/Unique/168 HP/1122/4" Tracker

8.0/Unique/180 FP/1136 4" Tracker, 1186 6" Tracker


If you have data on the Sierra 170 JHP it will work with these bullets.

Ran some of the 180 FPs through this the other day...not a bad shooter so far...






The large HP on the left and PantaPoint on the right..@1380 into the water catch box...






Have a nice day Ron...

i ended up stuffing them with 8.6 grains of unique, i didn't think that would overpower them.
Looking through my stash i had some 170grain wadcutters i did years ago with 6.7grains of unique, which has to be a pretty puny load.
I like that deep cavity hollowpoint, i did them in red, blue, and green.
come to think of it i just loaded some of those 170grain sierra couple of weeks ago.
I closed my eyes when i saw the picure of the revolver.

okay, i will bite, didn't take long did it.
the revolver? custom?

...revolver...what custom revolver??

RJM
That is a nice looking "bodyguard" what make model and barrel length please> '"Thank you for your time. Cheers NC

Dittos, let's hear the story!

I am looking for markings, but do not see any.

Let's see the other side.

Looks like a 2" Redhawk....

There was a lot of talk a few weeks ago about a new Redhawk in 41. I think Ron was party to that discussion. I forget the barrel length mentioned. Might have to look it up.

Looks like Davidson's has a bunch of those short barreled .41 Redhawks.

http://galleryofguns.com/genie/Defa...=41M&fin=&sit=&zipcode=59701

Yep, found it. We were discussing a new 4.2 inch Redhawk in 41 a few weeks ago.

Another Davidson's exclusive -- they still have 7 of the 4.2" avail.

http://galleryofguns.com/genie/Defa...=41M&fin=&sit=&zipcode=59701

Kind of overkill for the 41, IMO.

A 5 shot GP-100 would have made more sense, but getting Ruger to do it is another thing.

I said a 5-shot GP 100 or L Frame long ago
4"
AS
full underlug.

...I didn't want to be the one to tell Ron that he could buy one right down the street from his home place.

Besides being in my favorite revolver caliber, I bought it because 1) Ruger is about the only company coming out with new .41 models and want to encourage them to make more 2) Being a limited edition over time one won't loose any money on an investment one can enjoy.

Been so busy working for a friend haven't even had time to sight it in and decide what would be the best load for it...

Bob

davidson's is actually walking distance from a house i use to own, now it's about maybe five minutes. The other side of the story is the building they are in. I was envolved in the original loan workup for that building, which another pretty well known gun company was going to use then decided not to. Davidson's moved in and have been there ever since.

I have maybe in a few days a rather special ruger 1911 headed my way. If i get my paws on it will post some pictures.

these are those powdercoated 41pills:

Damn, Ron

Those are too pretty to shoot.

that powder coating could really change things. It's rifle related not handgun but i have a number of 35caliber rifles. I have a 170 grain .358 mould coming in, and i was thinking 358norma magnum, 350remington mag, or just the 38/357 marlin. or the 35remington.
I can't find any specs yet on putting something like that in the 350rem mag.
I do have some .375 molds, i intend to powder coat for the 375 winchester, curious to see if you can run to the higher levels of velocity without leading.
As rjm suggested using the specs for the sierra 170 grain in this lead bullet, my load of 8.5grs unique is light. I am going to hav to pull out the chrony and some water jugs to see what happens by stuffing them a little fuller.

Nice looking ammo Ron...would you send me an email with where you get the product and how you apply it...

Thanks...Bob

already sent it bob

Got it....thanks....

Ron, looks like you are getting ready for Christmas. Put some little LED lights in them and you have it made.

Why?

Takes the place of lube to prevent leading.

Edit to add: and it looks really cool!

https://gunsmagazine.com/hail-the-41-magnum/

So, why not just shoot copper jacketed bullets exclusively?

Not as pretty...

DF

Because not so very long ago, store bought bullets of most sorts were pretty hard to come by. With a mold, a sizer, some powdercoating material, some wheel weights, and a hot stove you can make your own. You can play with the hardness of the lead and tailor the bullets to what you want to do. Soft bullets at low velocity will still expand where a jacketed bullet wouldn't. That equates to less recoil. Essentially, it's just something else to play with.

In theory it'd be cheaper to cast your own, but it never really is.....

well, among other things, those copper jacketed bullets cost money.
And i doubt if you are gonna find easily in a store a range of bullets for a 41magnum from 170grain to 300grain.

Oh i think it's cheaper to cast, after a while. cept you end up shooting more among other things.
I started years ago because of a 44magnum partially. And when i quit a S.O. dept and couldn't get those 38 wadcutters for 1.50 a box, i knew i had to do something.
I have picked up a LOT of brass off the desert and bought the less common stuff like 41magnum. Which will last forever if not hot rodding it. And i can make ammo the way i want it.
And over the last few years with the lack of availability of all kinds of things that bypassed the caster reloader.
The other thing i am going to do after talking about it for years are duplex cast bullets. Soft lead nose, with a hard base.
not exactly a new idea but i haven't done it.
All this stuff exposes you to a lot of the theory and practice in making ammunition to work properly which isn't a bad thing.

one thing that is relatively new. Traditionally you didn't run lead bullets, mostly, at jacketed velocities.
but after screwing around with powder coating pistol ammo, i am about ready to go to rifle ammo. My understanding is people are running lead powder coated bullets at normal rifle velocities without leading issues.
That opens up a whole new world.

I got my .358429 lyman mold in to throw 170grain bullets. Will start on them hopefully next week, and powder coating them.
In addition to 38special/357magnum, can you say 350remington magnum, 35remington, and 358norma magnum?
it isn't like there has been a lot of availability in that caliber range available in the last few years in the 180grain class.

Very interesting.

this is going to be "tested" this weekend. The RP nickel brass was obtained as part of an estate liquidation a few years ago, had been sized and primed with cci primers, and left in that condition. Back in the 60's. the projectiles are 358156 which cast to about 160grains, over 2400 at 13grains. Not a top load, but it ain't weak either. They are going down range in that revolver and in a rifle.
cost?
negligable for the brass, lead was throwaway, cost was a few cents for the powder and primer. Primers were obtained back when you could get them for 9bucks a thousand.
I bet i don't have two bucks a box in this stuff.
and that is why one reloads, casts, and abhors paying the money for jacketed ammo. i should add by using various alloys/lead combinations i can control hardness from somewhere around 8 or 9 on the brinell scale up to the high 20's.
people have been experimenting with various lubes to get lead going as fast as jacketed with some success. I think powdercoating is a better idea. I have a really old lyman two hole mould in 50grain for .224 throwing a really sharp tipped spitzer. I think it was made originally for .222 or something like that. It's on the drawing board to work up for an a.r.15.
This probably isn't really needed but it negates being at the mercy of having to buy the projectiles. I remember getting .55grain winchester fmj's for 25dollars a thousand. Try that today. As to this stuff i can probably do ten boxes for about the price of one box at cabella's with better bullet selection too as they have made a lot of different molds for this caliber for a long long time. And the first bullets in the magnum were lead.

Cast is more fun and may in some cased out preform jacketed. The picture below shows what soft lead 280 gr powder coated bullets will do at around 1050 fps out of a 5 1/2" 45 Colt barrel. Weighed after recovery shows less that 12 gr loss of bullet weight.



After 90 some rounds there was no leading and the barrel looked new after one swipe with a wet brush and two dry patches.