seating depth issues

Evanguy

Evanguy

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ok so the question is about bullet seating depth, Normally for any cast bullet i just seat one caliber deep and not even look at the books OAL

i have a 44-40 build on a no5mk1 receiver, when i fire my 240gr .430" cast bullets i have no issues, 950fps, so i know the rifle can shoot well.

then i bought a box of Hornady cowboy loads (725fps) and over half of them keyholed on me, maybe Hornady used .427 bullets or they were being pushed to slow, or to much of a gap before rifling, im not sure

so then thinking i should use a bigger bullet and drive it a bit harder (then i can also use it for deer hunting) i bought 200 Sierra .4295 300gr copper soft point to use.

then the issue arises

when i tried seating a bullet about .030 into the case and then chambering it and closing the bolt to seat the bullet to check out the RIFLES COL it shows the rifling is VERY far from the normal bullet location. this leaves me with a COL of 1.990 and lets say .020 off the lands so the real loaded COL would be 1.970, ok seems fine to me as its a single shot, but that only leaves 0.185" of the bullet in the case, seems its out to far i always seated the bullet one diameter of the bullet. this would be less then half of that.



so i guess my question is, is it ok to seat a 44 cal bullet only .185" deep? and if that's not ideal, what would you do in this case? pics will show exactly what im talking about pretty well


also where this is built on a no5mk1 action, im wondering if i can get away with some lighter 44mag loads, im thinking with the 300gr 0.4295 bullets in the .427 bore may be able to build enough pressure to use AA5744 as a powder, around 18-20gr starting off, the barrel is a win92 44-40 so i dont want to use 44 mag pressures but i feel around 28kpsi would be a nice middle ground.

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First thing I'd try is seat the bullet normally - 0.3" to 0.4" deep and not worry about the distance to the lands. If it shoots OK you're good to go.
 
I noticed that your cast bullet has no lube grooves

look for loads using -- bullseye or Unique for the 44/40

5744 needs higher pressure to burn Clean
 
yeah, i guess i should just try seating it normal and seeing what happens, ill seat them .350" deep and give that a go. I will try all three depths as mentioned above though, the cast bullets shoot without keyholeing, although groups are quite a bigger then i want. , I'm hoping to get 6" groups at 100m all said and done.

also my cast bullets are near pure lead and kept under 1000fps, so i don't run any lube on them and they are pretty tight in the bore, i just don't let the barrel get too hot,

and with the 5744 i was thinking i would see what type of pressures a 1/2 to 3/4 a case of that may make with the heavy bullet, but i read even in a 44mag its hard to get it burning properly. i am going to buy some H110 for a few different rounds im loading for, ill see what type of load i can workup with that. for now i have been using w231 and titegroup but i may want a slower powder with the heavy bullet and .430"
 
You could tumble lube those bullets with Lee Liquid Alox and it would likely help prevent some leading and could even improve accuracy a bit. Very quick and easy to tumble lube bullets.
 
Evanguy said:
yeah, i guess i should just try seating it normal and seeing what happens, ill seat them .350" deep and give that a go. I will try all three depths as mentioned above though, the cast bullets shoot without keyholeing, although groups are quite a bigger then i want. , I'm hoping to get 6" groups at 100m all said and done.

also my cast bullets are near pure lead and kept under 1000fps, so i don't run any lube on them and they are pretty tight in the bore, i just don't let the barrel get too hot,

and with the 5744 i was thinking i would see what type of pressures a 1/2 to 3/4 a case of that may make with the heavy bullet, but i read even in a 44mag its hard to get it burning properly. i am going to buy some H110 for a few different rounds im loading for, ill see what type of load i can workup with that. for now i have been using w231 and titegroup but i may want a slower powder with the heavy bullet and .430"
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H110 is great for max pressure 44 mag loads. If you down load it to moderate pressure (44-40) results would be terrible.

I suggest 2400 (11.5 max) or Universal (6.0 max) or Unique (7.5 max). And tumble lubing is a good idea.
 
Unique and 800x work well for stouter loads, I haven't tried Universal but should be good.
700x, Titegroup work Ok for light loads.
 
Ive been meaning to get lee alux since i cast my.first bullet. Im now into my 3rd box of primers and i5s been about 3 years now. One day i will buy some lol. I need to add it on an order so i dont end up paying more for shipping then the item. But im not having issues with leading. I was before i relaized you need the biggest bullet that will chamber.

And yeah i was hoping the h110 may burn ok around 25-30kpsi im not worried about the receiver but i dont want to ruin the win92 barrel wither. So i may skip the h110 for the 44-40 and order some 2400, ive wanted to try that for a while now. And it will be good for cast bullets.

And the titegeoup has been working well, ill keep using that until i get around to ordering more powders.

Thanks for the info guys, its good to hear it from someone who knows about this stuff.
 
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