There's nothing wrong with your .430 bullets, stick with them. It's the bullets hardness that's causing your problems. I was joking with jtcarm, about bullet fit. You actually have allot going on that is unique with the 44spl that can and will cause problems that other calibers/cartridges don't have to deal with.
The biggest issue with the 44spl is it's brass and it's pressure. I mentioned 3 low pressure cartridges in an earlier thread, the 44spl, the 38spl & the 45acp. Of the 3, the 44spl is allot harder to reload for, hands down.
The brass:
The 38spl & the 45acp uses 11/1000th's thick brass. The 44spl uses 12/1000th's thick brass. 2/1000th's doesn't sound like much but you were going to buy a bullet that's 1/1000th larger.
The max pressures:
The 44spl ='s 15,500psi
The 38spl ='s 17,000psi
The 45acp ='s 21,000psi
Here's what's truly going on:
You tested a .430 bullet in your cylinders and found that you had to push that bullet to get it to go all the way through the cylinder. That's a good cylinder/bullet fit. What you need to do is put a .430 bullet back in a cylinder and push it until you feel resistance and measure from the shoulder (.430) of the stuck bullet to the end of your cylinder. Now take a 44spl brass and put it in the same cylinder and measure from the end of the case to the end of the cylinder. Subtract the brass measurement from the bullet shoulder measurement. This will tell you how far that bullet has to travel (freebore) before it can seal anything with what's called a mechanical fit.
Mechanical fit ='s there's not enough pressure for bullet obturation so the bullet has to travel to the point in the cylinder where the cylinders tight enough to have the bullet mechanically seal it. Hence, the little dutch boy with his finger in the dike.
You pull the trigger and bang, the primer ignites the powder and pressure builds. You have what's known as a short start pressure, it's much lower than the peek pressure you get from a longer powder burn (as the bullet goes down the bbl). But it's enough to move the bullet forward and at the same time expand the brass outward. So you have the brass expand outward and seal the cylinder (soot marks on side of case ='s not good). In that mili-second the bullet moves forward and clears the case. The bullet at that point is 24/1000th's smaller in diameter (minimum) than the cylinder. The bullet either has to be soft enough to obturate/seal the cylinder or flame cutting will occur.
The 38spl only has 22/1000th's to seal and typical pressures are around 14,500 for target loads and 15,500+ for stand loads.
The 45acp also has only 22/1000th's to expand but the huge difference is the 45acp only has to travel around 20/1000th's of freebore and the base of the bullet will be in the bbl.
That's why revolver shooters get the "carbon ring" in their cylinders. You have burnt/burning gas at the base of the bullet with 20/1000th's+ difference in diameter when the bullet 1st leave the case.
A link about bullet alloy and obturation, very good reading.
Cast bullet alloy's and bullet obturation
For what it's worth, when Keith developed his loads/bullets for the 44spl. He thought 12 to 1 alloy or 12bhn (here we go again keith's 1200fps/12bhn, see a pattern here?) was extemely hard & that's what used. Another excellent link to the 44spl, it covers the bullets they designed, the changes they made and the alloys (bhn's) the people that designed the bullets used.
The .44 Special is renowned for being the source of Elmer Keith's inspiration, for giving rise to the .44 Magnum
At the end of the day you have the correct sized bullet, the problem is the bullet bhn that you're using. A 18bhn bullet takes 24,000spi to fully obturate and that aisn't going to happen in a 44spl. That's why you're not getting leading in the hotter loads. The hotter load is:
1. Expanding the bullet's base better (in the gap between the 24/1000th's space at the end of the case to the .430 shoulder point) that the lighter load.
2. The heavier load is getting the rock hard bullet through that same zone faster (faster ='s less time to flame cut).
Those are to excellent links and well worth reading. The both articles were written by a highly recommended lead bullet authority,author Glen E Fryxell.
Good luck and good reading. If you truly want to master your 44spl then repeat what the masters did and you will have their knowledge as a base to expand on.
An old beater snub nosed 44spl truck gun with 220g hbwc's turned around to make a huge hp. And one of my favorite plinkers, a 6 1/2" bbl's 624, I switch back and forth between iron sights and different reddots & scopes.
That 220g hbwc shot out of a snub nosed 44spl.
