Well, I decided I was not going to buy the reloading components offered at local auction. They were obvious to my eye to be 44 mag SWC lead lubed bullets, but when a couple thousand were going for $20 and included a 25 lb bag of 7 1/2 shot, I couldn't resist.

Got home and found a label on the boxes. A couple boxes were commercially labelled .430 but miked .4285 and a couple marked .411 miked .4085. So what do you do with a couple thou undersized lead SWC bullets. Maybe the .4285 would work for 44-40, which would require me buying cases, reloading dies and a new gun.

Charlie

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Charlie

My Ruger Vaqueros in 44-40 used .427 bullets and .429 would not chamber! If the bullets average 200 grains and you have 2000, that alone is 57 pounds of alloy, plus the shot!

Ivan

Get a wood mallet and drive one down the barrel and see what it looks like. They may be ok. Are you using a mike or dial indicator? It may be wrong if dial indicator.

Well I solve one problem and created another. Thinking that lead bullets don't typically shrink, I pulled out some nosler partition 308 bullets and they mike at .306. Nice huh.
My super douper electronic micrometer is off 2 thou in the .300 to .400 range. Doesn't look to be damaged. And to think I sent some lead swaged 45 Colt bullets that said .454 on the box, back to Hornady because they miked .452.

I don't suppose an electronic micrometer can be adjusted if it is reading wrong. I have a button to rezero it, but that doesn't help. I'm thinking a 2 mil coating of tru oil on the jaws???

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Charlie

Mike the bullet and then 0 it out and close and see what it reads.

Ok. The 308 nosler bullet miked at .306, hit the zero button, closed the jaws and it reads -.306.

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Charlie

Sounds like it is reading ok. I measure mine in the middle of the measuring device. I use a couple of Midway but I have real mikes for backups. If it reads all the bullets .002 under ????

Might be a suprise to some, but lots of bulleys do not mike as advertised/labeled. Helps to check, even differing lots of same bullet/brand.

Hey Charlie, I don't have an electronic dial caliper but rather the old mechanical dial gauge type. But I got to thinking that even if it measures electronically, it still has to have some mechanical gears or wheels to measure the movement of the jaws, right? If so, look for anything in the track the measuring wheel in the part of the caliper that could be interfering with the movement of the measuring gear or wheel or whatever that caliper uses. I know that my old school dial caliper was giving me problems for a while until I thoroughly cleaned the track for the measuring gear out on mine.

Just a thought to possibly check.

Jim

I can zero it out with the jaws closed, then measure a bullet and it is 1.5 to 2 thou short. Haven't tried an intermediate range item to mike. If someone knows what some common items mike to, maybe coins etc, I could check mine against these measurements at varying points, ie width of a dime, quarter, etc.

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Charlie

Do you have any feeler gauges? Anything of known thickness really. Your calipers may be off by a bit but they may still be useful for comparing one bullet to the next.

I started using precision measuring tools in '69. I have used plain old analog/mechanical 1"-4" mikes, depth mikes, and dial calipers. Never has a mechanical measuring tool gone "haywire" and give me odd readings (I had a Starret 1" micrometer for 30 years before it was stolen). I have had two digital calipers and both decided to mess with me. One had a wandering zero. One had a tendency to switch from inch to metric, whenever it felt like it. I used, didn't own, an electronic digital 1" mike and it too would jump it's zero around. Getting a "feel" for using a micrometer and/or dial caliper may take some time, more for some than others (I worked with an apprentice and he believed mikes are used like c-clamps, tighten the spindle down tight against the part "to remove any play". He used my tools once, and only once.). Call me a caveman if you want, but in all my years of measuring, I have never had a cared for (not dropped or dirty or misused) mechanical dial caliper or micrometer go crazy...

Even an overseas manufactured analog micrometer is easy to use and tend to be accurate enough for thousandths.

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Front sight and squeeze

If you are willing to sell the .428 bullets, my 44-40's I use in SASS would be very happy to use them.

Randy

Digital micrometers are a little more accurate than a yardstick...

Melt them down & start over.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

I have good mech dial caliper at the cabin and will bring them home next trip up.

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Charlie

Too bad about the size of all those bullets....................... but

a 25 pound of lead shot at HALF the price is a good deal !!

Great size for small game or trap loads.

Saved the bullets, threw away the mike. Bought a $15 outside micrometer at local pawn shop. 44 bullets measure .430, 41's are .411, and nosler 308 bullets are .308. And all is right with the world (except for the corona Wuhan Chinese virus).

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Charlie

Digital calipers use what is called a linear encoder. No moving parts other than the jaws. If the encoder goes, it ain't coming back. Disassembly and cleaning with solvent on the vernier and the sensor may help, but I doubt it.
I love my digital calipers and micrometer, but like you I have mechanical backups and I keep those clean and protected.

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I'm with her

close the jaws on a piece of paper to clean the jaws. then close and check the zero on the calipers.

by the way you should do this before you use a micrometer.

Good post by mikld. Get a good quality dial caliper if you want dependable, accurate measurements.

This is how I keep apprentices from asking for my calipers.

Attached Images

Starretr.jpg (31.5 KB, 74 views)

and you really confuse them by giving them a metric calipers on top of it

It doesn't really matter, they can't read either of the scales. Sadly, however, after passing my Biblical allotment of "threescore and ten" I have to resort to reading glasses to use them myself.

You are concerned over 0.0015"??


Actually using a micrometer or a caliper??

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Still Running Against the Wind

Give it to someone you don't like.

Yes.

I was using a dial caliper, now I'm using a micrometer.

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Charlie

Sounds like the anvils are out of parallel, not easy to fix get a new set.

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Bob
Sic Semper Tyrannis

https://saami.org/wp-content/uploads...sting-Copy.pdf


4230-.0060=0.426

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Still Running Against the Wind