Oversized Bullets?

[pdcrig]

After reading reviews of Bayou Bullets I decided to buy some of their 200gr .452 SWCs for my 625-4. I'm concerned that they don't drop free through my cylinder. They won't pass through as they measure about .453 with the coating on them. Do I need to be worried about excessive pressure? The coating should have enough give to get through right? If so, what's the point of the coating if it rubs off passing through the cylinder chambers?
Any advice is appreciated.

 

[stan v]

Can you push them into the cylinder? I mean easily, without force.

 

[elpac3]

should not be an issue. With revolvers the bullet should not drop all the way through the cylinder but should stop just short of passing all the way through. This is the "plunk" test for revolver bullets. You would rather have a bullet sized .001 over rather than .001 under. The bullet will align as it starts leaving the cylinder then be "sized" as it passes through the forcing cone.

The HiTek coating will not scrape off in the cylinder or the barrel. I have been shooting the 200 grain SWC .45 cal. HiTek bullets in my 1955/45 for quite a while now and have had excellent results with a 4 grain load of Red Dot.

 

[pdcrig]

Stan V. Not a chance. It's the same with the .44 bullets I bought for my 629.

 

[Joed49]

I used to produce and sell cast bullets. To be accurate the bullet should not fall through the cylinder. It is supposed to need a little help exiting the cylinder. If you can push it through using a pencil you're good to go.

 

[pdcrig]

I'd have to tap them through with a dowel or something. I think I'm going to give Bayou a call and see what they say.

Thanks guys.

 

[arjay]

Tight is good.Loose will shoot patterns rather than groups

 

[cowboy4evr]

I will recommend you buy Veral Smiths little handbook titled “ Jacketed performance with cast bullets “ for about $15 . He’s at LBT Molds . This will answer all your questions about shooting cast bullets . He is a well recognized authority on cast bullets in revolvers , semi autos and rifles . You need to disregard others opinions and just buy the book . It will be the best $15 you have spent in a long time . Regards Paul

 

[fredj338]

With lead, bigger is better. No real pressure issues with normal loads, but if it bugs you, you can get a sizing kit from lee & reduce them. Just be sure you are measuring correctly. Doesnt take much to miss 0.001".

 

[gwpercle]

Load up a dummy round , no primer , no powder. If it will chamber then load up some with powder and primers and test them at the shooting range. They might be very accurate .
The coating and lead are soft and will be sized on firing, first by the cylinder throat then the barrel . As long as the loaded round will chamber usually the load will be OK.
Only maximum loads will develope any pressure problems. Typically bullets are sized .002" over cylinder throat or bore diameter .
Tight fit beats loose fit seven ways to Sunday.
Gary

 

[scattershot]

A few thousandths of an inch willl make no discernable difference in pressure. I once had a revolver rebarrelled. It was in .45 Colt, amd the new barrel was marked as such, but it was actually a .429 barrel for a .44.

Other than kicking like a demented mule, there were no ill effects from the two rounds I fired from that gun. That was a .452 bullet through a .429 barrel. I don’t know what would have happened if I had continued to shoot, though.

 

[DWalt]

Don't worry about overpressure. Slightly oversized bullets will always squeeze down. In Hatcher's Notebook he relates a story about firing .45 ACP in a M1903 rifle. Nothing bad happened, the .45 bullet just squeezed down to .30.

 

[reddog81]

It should be fine. A little tight will have better accuracy than a little loose. I cast bullets for 3 different 45 ACP revolvers. I've found best accuracy comes if I size to .452 and then powder coat. This ends up with a bullet around .453. I'm not positive about excess pressure but I've seen people mention that it'll add about 300 to 400 PSI. I know it's easy to resize a lead bullet from .453 to .452 manually. Lead is soft.

 

[Joed49]

I'd have to tap them through with a dowel or something. I think I'm going to give Bayou a call and see what they say.

Thanks guys.

Not a bad idea to call them and be safe, I can't fault you on that. They're going to tell you they should have resistance though. It's that fit that sets them up to enter the forcing cone properly, and that is where accuracy comes from.

If they are a good company they will give you a wealth of knowledge in your conversation.

I was lucky when I started shooting cast bullets, most suppliers were more then happy to pass knowledge on. After about a year of buying cast bullets I started casting my own. And after another year I was getting phone calls from people asking if I would sell my bullets. And that's how I started a business casting bullets. I did very well with it until the component shortage, then quit.

Hope those bullets work well for you.

 

[Toolguy]

You can shoot a jacketed bullet that is .002 oversize with no problems. In fact, I do that with one of my main match guns. It has a .355 Walther barrel blank (in their catalog that is the barrel for .357, they don't even make a .357 barrel) and I shoot 125 gr. JHP 38 special loads in it. In a ransom rest, these loads are shooting 3/8" groups at 25 yards and just over an inch at 50 yards. Cast bullets are even more forgiving. Bayou Bullets is a high quality product, made by Jerry Miculeck's brother, Donny.

 

[dave1918a2]

If You read P.O. Ackleys chapter on pressure, He explains that the bullet is fully sized once in the bore and that He observed only minimum pressure increase while the bullet was being pushed into the bore. In Your case I would not even consider the size difference. The bullet will be pushed into the bore and most of the small increase in pressure will exit the cylinder gap.
I shoot .454 sized bullets in all My 45's, .431's in My 44's and even put some 7mm's in My .264. Wondered why they were so hard to seat. Figured it out when I got home and looked at the box on the bench. Couldn't figure out why this load was about 3/4 inch low.

 

[DWalt]

"even put some 7mm's in My .264"

It would surprise me that you would be able to fully chamber such cartridges.

As I have previously mentioned, many .318" German M1888 Commission rifles were converted to fire the .323" 8mm JS military cartridge during WWI by simply expanding the chamber throat to compensate for the greater cartridge neck diameter. The bore diameter remained the same.

 

[zeke]

Just started using store bought coated bullets in 625-3. Yes they measured .453 and did not leave any coating behind. Very clean/accurate and will be detail cleaning revolver a lot less than regular store bought lead bullets. Used regular charge of 5.8 gns hp-38 in starline 45ar case with 200 lrnfp's. Come spring may chrono them to see if velocitys changed much.

 

[rwsmith]

Bayou and Missouri

Bayous and Missouri are my favorite bullets. Never had a problem with them.

 

[pdcrig]

Thanks guys. I spoke with Dennis at Bayou and he took great care of me. Very good customer service. I'll load these up and drop my charge by a grain or so and see how they do. My cylinder is measuring at .4515 - .452 and the bullets are about .453. I think I'm good.

 

[fredj338]

Not a bad idea to call them and be safe, I can't fault you on that. They're going to tell you they should have resistance though. It's that fit that sets them up to enter the forcing cone properly, and that is where accuracy comes from.

If they are a good company they will give you a wealth of knowledge in your conversation.

I was lucky when I started shooting cast bullets, most suppliers were more then happy to pass knowledge on. After about a year of buying cast bullets I started casting my own. And after another year I was getting phone calls from people asking if I would sell my bullets. And that's how I started a business casting bullets. I did very well with it until the component shortage, then quit.

Hope those bullets work well for you.

Well yes & no. If the throats are smaller than the bore, accuracy will suffer with lead bullets, coated or lubed. So tight fit in the cyl throats can be really bad for accuracy.
I have a RBH 45 colt. The cyl throats were 0.450", bore is 0.451". Once I opened the throats to 0.452", accuracy got about twice as good.

 

[Kiwi cop]

A few thousandths of an inch willl make no discernable difference in pressure. I once had a revolver rebarrelled. It was in .45 Colt, amd the new barrel was marked as such, but it was actually a .429 barrel for a .44.

Other than kicking like a demented mule, there were no ill effects from the two rounds I fired from that gun. That was a .452 bullet through a .429 barrel. I don’t know what would have happened if I had continued to shoot, though.

Mmmm, a .429/45? May have become an instant classic custom caliber.