Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Lead bullet sizing dies?

So my chambers in my 629 are .429 while most Inexpensive lead bullets are .430. You can buy .429 bullets from Montana that seem to Shoot pretty good I’m my pistol, but about $165 with shipping for 500. I can buy cheap Missouri cast bullets for half that but they are mostly .430. Has anyone used a lee precision bullet sizing die? Am I just wasting time and going to have to buy the more expensive bullets? Hope someone has been there and done that! The load is just 9.5 grains of unique, CCI 300 and star line brass.

Depending on barrel bore & cylinder freebore diameters in you S&W 629 44 Mag-

Shooting the sized/lubed .430" diameter boolits is your best option W/O sizing down to .429" diameter.

Swaged bullets are softer compared to cast boolits.....generally.

Cast with or without gas checks in the 18-19 Bhn hardness range can & have been run faster than jacketed boolits in my handguns for the past 35+ years.

I used a 44 Mag for about 30 years with a Super Blackhawk, a couple of Hawes Western Marshals, a Model S&W 629, a Model 29-2 and a couple of Redhawks. I'm guessing 200-250 pounds of .430 cast bullets went through those revolvers with excellent accuracy and no ill effects. Does your 629 spit, not shoot them well etc.? Just curious here.

To answer you question, I have used the Lee sizing dies. They are simple and work great. Very fast. miles

I use the Lee bullet sizing dies, and have been using them for many thousands of cast bullets since that's most of what I shoot. Be aware they can all use a little polishing on the inside; some emery cloth wrapped on a split dowel in a cordless drill works great. I've never yet seen one of those sizing dies that was ready to use out of the box; you can force bullets through them but they aren't right.

With that said, as Dans40x pointed out, for .429" cylinder throats a .430" bullet is just about right. I'd shoot them without sizing, but would also want to know groove diameter in the barrel. If it's not smaller than .429", your results may be less than optimum.

Have to shoot a few to see, you might be surprised if you don't change anything. Cast bullets can be funny sometimes, as can the gun but fit is everything. Good luck, you'll get there.

Dick

Sarge, I am going to say "I don't know what I don't know". I bought a used 629-6 with the lock from a dealer, shot it and found the barrel was over torqued because the bullets hit way left, sent it in to them they retorqued the barrel sent it back, and it shot off bags at 25 yards to the center but not so well, and this is with 240 XTP's, and 250 LSWC from Missouri bullets over Unique or 2400 or H100 and various amounts, burned almost all the xtp's about 300 LSWC's in this gun. Took it in traded it for a brand new 629, on cleaning the gun when I got it home I noticed the barrel had chatter marks in it that could be seen at 3X with a good light. Checked the chambers with fishing weights found them to be .429, bought 100 .255 grain LSWC montana bullets .429 took it out and it shot decent groups, all to the left. Spoke to the owner of the gunshop I frequent and he said "yep we have had two other customers complain about the same thing on brand new SW revolvers". Wrote SW a letter asking what the hell happened to you guys describing my experience, sent the gun in, got it back with a new barrel, a new yoke that they had test fired it and no further information despite me asking them to send me the test target...nada. The barrel looks clean, the gun with 10 grains of Unique and 255 shoots to the center about 5 inch groups the best I can do with it. I am in the process of installing a patridge front sight as the red ramps suck and am now just looking for a way to shoot it cheaper. In my opinion what may be most sad and why SW apparently is going to this new two piece barrel is that they cannot do enough quality control on the older style barrels before they leave the factory and most people may not shoot far enough or decent enough to catch it. There is no doubt that over the last two guns I have owned both 629's that smith screwed the barrels on too tight. At some point I need to buy a 2.75 inch 69 with the new barrel configuration as I believe this is going to be there go to and best method moving forward.

629 with .430s. Rugers with .431.

jimmyp, I've been reading your posts long enough to have a decent impression of what you're looking for here, and what might be more complicated than you want to get into. With that in mind - if you're going to shoot cast, buy powder coated bullets and save yourself the trouble of getting lubed cast bullets just right so they work well. You'll have a much easier time getting powder coated cast bullets to shoot well in that gun.

Sorry I don't have a brand recommendation, since I cast and coat my own I don't buy them, but there are a number of places selling them online now.

You're chasing something that requires full commitment.

Start casting and buy sizing dies. You won't know until you do.

I of course would buy thousands of .430 and shoot it like a handgun.

maybe 500 of the Montana's then and go .430 instead of .429 as a start...I don't need another hobby like bullet casting

The cylinder throats are .429", not the chambers, correct?

There is absolutely no harm in using a cast bullet that is slightly larger than the cylinder throats. In fact I size my cast bullets .360", .432" and .454" respectively for my .38/.357's, .44 Specials and 45 Colts. The ONLY change I saw by increasing bullet diameter was a reduction in leading ahead of the forcing cone.

if you drive a soft lead fishing weight thru the cylinders the lead mic's .429 so I am assuming the chambers (end of cylinder" toward the barrel is .429). I had heard from Montana bullet man that if you shoot a larger than chamber size bullet it would be less accurate. His reason for this was it smashed the bullet down going through and then it had to reexpand to seal the barrel. Not sure of his logic but I tried it.

Check with Dardas Cast Bullets. He can usually accommodate things like that at no extra charge.Shipping is on the Medium USPS flat rate box. I think it is less than $15 for up to 70 pounds

Dardas looks to be out of business but thanks.

If he was speaking logically, it sounds like he was referring to some revolvers (like Ruger 45 Colt) tendency to have cylinder throats smaller than the barrel. In that case, shooting a smaller bullet doesn't help either; the problem is not the bullet being oversize for the throat, but the throat being undersize for the barrel.

If anyone tells you that a cast bullet slightly larger than throat diameter will be less accurate, don't follow their advice. .001" or so larger bullet diameter is about perfect.


You mentioned not wanting a cast bullet hobby - that's why I suggested buying powder coated bullets earlier. They are easier to use and you'll be able to just shoot them without worrying about the minutia of how to make traditional cast bullets shoot well.

in one of my old lyman cast bullet reloading guides, it gives in many cases two or three diameters with a suggested best one for various calibers.
part of the issue, colt .45 comes to mine, is through the years various barrel sizes.
mostly, the recommendation i have followed is sizing a cast bullet to at least one thousandths over barrel diameter. thus if barrel is .429 make it .430. this is for cast bullets.
mine are pretty much old prelock guns, don't have any of those super screwed on barrel guns, but i have read of bulges from that right behind the forcing cone.
I have a smith 25 in 45 colt. they have been discussed as being inaccurate due to barrel/throat diameters. I cast to .454 or .455 for that gun and it works fine. the nominal diameter these days is .451. I have measured some smiths where the six different cylinder holes were all different.
quality control isn't always there.
I had a bankor punta period handgun, still do, with rough cylinders where it wouldn't eject the casings. after i had it polished, works fine.

Rule of thumb is .001 over throat diameter.

Yours is .429
Bullets are .430.


You are where most people would expect to have success.


Shoot the darn thing.
Make sure your powder charge choice matches the hardness of the bullet.

.430 should work fine for you.

Solid information here.

The barrel must be tighter than the throat, and both tighter than bullet diameter for best accuracy. I use the RCBS lubrisizor with a heating pad and a semi hard lube for the 41 mag. I want 1/1000 over throat diameter.

The 41 mag has an advantage over other revolver cartridges in that across the board dimensions do not change much between manufacturers. I use a .411 sizer die very successfully with three cast bullet weights in 41 for a Ruger SBH, two Smith 657s, and a Taurus Tracker.