1894s in 357 and 44 mag?

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lpel

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I recently acquired two 1894s. One is in 44 mag the other in 357 mag. The 44 slugs at .429 and the 357 at .3565. Anyway I am looking at shooting cast boolits out of them as I have all the equipment except for molds. I have a bunch of questions if you would like to entertain me.

I am struggling with wether to powder coat or traditional lube. I have never powder coated before but it seems to intrigue me for some reason. I am very familiar with traditional cast, size and lube.

So I would have to buy some kind of toaster oven and powder coat. Has anyone tried the Princess Auto powder? How did it work out? Where are you getting your powder coating from?

Anyone using Lee TL molds for either of these calibers? How are they working out? Are you using Lee TL or powder coating? What's working for you?

I have spent allot of time on Castboolits doing as much research as I can there. I have been casting for pistol for many years but took a break as I was not shooting pistol that much recently. Have many pounds of mostly 1 pound wheel weight ingots on hand.

Thanks for looking and possibly sharing.
 
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The 44 slugs at .429 and the 357 at .3565.
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Lucky you
Most of the ones I have heard about are over sized ie 359 -432
Unless you are trying to shoot them at warp speed
water droped cast should work fine

some of the better results shooting pc have also been using lube on them

pc is another step = more time
 
PC will made your bullet a bit larger, which can be a good thing especially with micro-groove rifling.
I've switched over from traditional lubes completely.
Less sticky, less smoke, less fouling and some very good accuracy.
I've bought but haven't tried the PA powder yet. I've found that even a thin, blotchy coat can work well.
 
Hey, get your powder coating from Emerald Coatings. It's pretty much what all the local reloaders here use. And you can buy it in 1lb containers, which will last a long time.
$11 a lb, is reasonable pricing. Search for tool blue on their site.
And yeah, i'll echo the comments already, that 357 slugged really tight.
 
Both lever guns have the correct diameter bores.
Powder coating your bullets will give them a very hard, durable coating suitable for most applications including pistol caliber lever guns & carbines.
Emerald Coatings "Tool Blue" is the easiest to use and the learning curve is short. Results are outstanding. A big benefit is that powder coating also coats the base eliminating lead vaporization by the burning powder....
 
Tool Blue seems to be the colour that works for everybody.

OP, ww alloy dropped in water should be fine. If you powder coat you could go softer even.
Even with Lee TL bullets you might (probably) have to size the powder coated bullets to get them to chamber. Powder coating adds a couple thousandths to the bullet diameter.
 
Most conventional thought on the "other site" is that sticking with a primary color works best, any testing with metallic or fluorescent colors have been disappointing for most.

I have 5 lbs or so JD yellow I got for $10 as "surplus" from a commercial coater that has worked very well for me, no blemishes at all.

I have mixed primary colors such as red/yellow, red/blue, blue/red and in all cases didn't receive a "pure" blended color, rather more of a freckled splatter pattern from each color...still complete coverage and they worked just as good.
 
lpel said:
I recently acquired two 1894s. One is in 44 mag the other in 357 mag. The 44 slugs at .429 and the 357 at .3565. Anyway I am looking at shooting cast boolits out of them as I have all the equipment except for molds. I have a bunch of questions if you would like to entertain me.

I am struggling with wether to powder coat or traditional lube. I have never powder coated before but it seems to intrigue me for some reason. I am very familiar with traditional cast, size and lube.

So I would have to buy some kind of toaster oven and powder coat. Has anyone tried the Princess Auto powder? How did it work out? Where are you getting your powder coating from?

Anyone using Lee TL molds for either of these calibers? How are they working out? Are you using Lee TL or powder coating? What's working for you?

I have spent allot of time on Castboolits doing as much research as I can there. I have been casting for pistol for many years but took a break as I was not shooting pistol that much recently. Have many pounds of mostly 1 pound wheel weight ingots on hand.

Thanks for looking and possibly sharing.
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I had my best results in 1894 44mag using powdercoat (tool blue), i use accurate mold that drops .433 and is 256gn. The lee mold (TL430) dropped at .430 which my rifle didn't like.

433265M2.jpg
 
Thanks f55. What did your barrel slug out at? Where did you get your accurate mold at? Any idea how much the powder coating adds to slug diameter?

Thanks jet hunter. Guess I'll have to give that a try. Great information.
 
lpel said:
Thanks f55. What did your barrel slug out at? Where did you get your accurate mold at? Any idea how much the powder coating adds to slug diameter?

Thanks jet hunter. Guess I'll have to give that a try. Great information.
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I dont remember/think i slugged the barrel, i tried tl430 and accuracy was bad, so the only way for me to get bigger bullets was a custom mold. The powdercoat adds 1 to 2 thou for a single coat of tool blue, I also had to hone out my lee sizer to .433

Mold is from accuratemolds dot com

They are in usa, so its not going to be cheap with exchange.
 
"How much will PC add to the dia" is one of the most often asked questions in a conversation on powder coating and really there is no set answer...different powders add different thicknesses as well as different methods of application can vary the thickness. I have used a "Glass Black" from emerald that adds a 3 thou coating every time but a "red" from them has only added 1.5 thou, both with the shake & bake method... however when I coated with an elctro-static gun the red was only 1 thou and the black remained at 2-3 thou.

One of the very good benefits of PCing is that you can keep adding coats to "smaller than your barrel bore bullets" to make them fit whatever dia you desire, personally I have taken .452 pistol bullets and Pced up to .459 and shot them in both a 45-70 and 45-90 with astounding results.

Another benefit to Pcing is that not so much attention must be paid to alloy composition...It doesn't matter if it is soft lead or hard it all rides on the PC , leading just ceases to be a problem.
 
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