S&W American...

[sportee]

whos got one?

Im trying to load for the cartridge and having fun with heeled bullets of the right dia to chamber. I do have a solution that works great but it gives me a flat nose bullet...Im hoping for something in a round nose.

Anyways, Im hoping someone out there has the bore dia of an original 44 american...

 

[Win 38-55]

Sportee, the bore diameter of an original 44 American is exactly the same as the bore diameter of the 44 Russian. Only the cylinders were different. I've not slugged my 44 Russian, but I shoot .431" diameter cast bullets in it and it is very accurate with those bullets.

 

[sportee]

That's what I thought I had read somewhere...

That is good news to me.

 

[Win 38-55]

If you don't care about collector's value, you could have the cylinder reamed out to fit the 44 Russian and it would shoot perfectly well with the new chambering.

 

[sportee]

Its been a thought but the cylinder is a bit pitted...I would be more comfortable with the extra wall thickness.

 

[Pete04]

If you need .431 dia. bullets. How will .442 dia. bullets work?

 

[Win 38-55]

.442 dia bullets would be way to large for these old sixguns.

 

[sportee]

The original chamber dia for these things was about .444 I have access to a 442 and a 44 colt mold...I was hoping I could get one of these to work...somehow. After days of screwing around with different slugs and brass and fiddleing with different dies and crimping i found that the 442 and 44 colt bullets just wont work...

It seems that the thing that is working the best right now is to press .430 bullets in backwards to the crimp groove. Im modifying collet crimp die so I can crimp these things without messing up the head of the bullet.

the result is a very nice 44 American load however with a flat nose...Thats why I need to find a 44 american mold...

 

[mooncoon]

The original chamber dia for these things was about .444 I have access to a 442 and a 44 colt mold.

You need to slug the bore to find the correct bullet diameter. For example I have a couple of 9.3 Dutch revolvers that take a .381 slug but the shell blows out considerably larger when shot. The chamber is not necked down to match the loaded round.

cheers mooncoon