After decades of handloading for rifles, I am just beginning my quest to reload for my 38/357, 44 Mag, 45 LC and 454 Casull. I am starting with my 454 Casull and then will move to the others. I plan to load hard cast bullets as the main purpose is for bear defense in the mountains and for plinking and familiarity with my rounds. We don't have a pistol/revolver reloading section; so, I figured the topic would best be addressed here.
Having said that, my research has lead me to a couple of issues I've never faced with my decades of loading for rifles. In researching reloading for my 454 Casull (Ruger Super Redhawk Toklat) I repeatedly come up with assertions that I need to "slug your barrel for size and you may need to ream you cylinder throats". I'm all about safety. I've also read that using a caliper is not accurate enough to do this. So, onto the questions. First, do I need to "slug my barrel"? If so, how is that done? How do I determine if it is needed? I see on some bullet manufacturers sites that my 454 Casull cast bullets actually do come in different sizes based upon my actual firearm's measurements. Can someone shed some light on this/these subjects for me? Thanks in advance.
I will note that after using multiple different factory loads of a large variety of bullet types and sizes, I've experienced no malfunctions at all.
