Finally got hold of a old Ideal 185g WC mold. Need some advice
on loads for this bullet for 6" m24. This will be my 1st go around
with loading my own cast WCs. in 44special. Have always loaded
SWC and RN cast in the past, for SA Colts, fixed sight guns. Also
what is best way to seat this bullet, use crimp groove or crimp
flush?
429348 (185 gr.) is intended to be crimped in the cannellure, the nose is undersize and there is no reason or advantage to seat it in the case.
429352 (246 gr.) Same remarks.
Use the same data as for any 185 gr. cast bullet, buy the Lyman "Load Book" for "Popular Revolver Calibers", includes .44 Magnum. Reduce starting loads about 20% for .44 Spl.
cylinder throats larger than the groove size of the barrel is better than smaller . So I would not get concerned if the cylinder throats are oversize .
I would cast / size .431 . That should fit the barrel fine , slightly oversize is what you want . More important , use a very soft lead mix . Softer is better than harder when shooting full wadcutters . I like bullseye and red dot for powders with full wadcutters .
Lyman 429348 was originally made in two weights, but not marked differently. I bought a used set of mould blocks thinking that they cast the lighter bullet, and loaded them with a stiff load from the then current Lyman manual. Thankfully I fired them in my M29 instead of the triple lock target I owned at the time! The recoil alerted me that something was wrong and I did some research`where I found some older lists that showed two weights for the same mould number, 180 and 240 grains. Weighing my bullets proved that I had the 240 grain mould. I like the heavier bullet as it is not only accurate, it makes an excellent self defense load.
24-3 WC loads
Linear Mode
