OAL .44 magnum

[DannyT]

Hi All,

So I’m new to reloading and have had some great advice from members on this forum.

I made up some dummy rounds yesterday after reading the ABC’s of reloading and also the Lyman handbook. I was happy with the seating and the roll crimp, it seemed to be good and in the right place on the cannelure, however I noticed that the overall length is shorter than advised in my new Lyman reloading handbook (50th edition).

For .44 Remington Magnum, it states an OAL of 1.645”, for 240 grain lead bullets, whereas mine was 1.573” with 240 grain lead bullets. Is this difference something to be alarmed by?

Also, looking at powder, my local rfd has Blue Dot and Unique in stock, has anyone got a preference out of these two for .44 magnum, lever action gallery rifle shooting?

Thanks!

[thisisdonald]

I would choose unique... I've not tried blue dot though.
Something you can try to get an idea of your chamber is to seat a bullet in a case really long, then manually feed it into the chamber and close the lever gently. Then remove the dummy round and measure from the base of the case up to the witness mark the rifling made on the bullet. Ensure the bullet hasn't been pushed back into the case before measuring.
This will help you understand the maximum oal you can use in that particular rifle

[DannyT]

I would choose unique... I've not tried blue dot though.
Something you can try to get an idea of your chamber is to seat a bullet in a case really long, then manually feed it into the chamber and close the lever gently. Then remove the dummy round and measure from the base of the case up to the witness mark the rifling made on the bullet. Ensure the bullet hasn't been pushed back into the case before measuring.
This will help you understand the maximum oal you can use in that particular rifle

Thanks for the info Donald, regarding the bullet seating depth, I was using the cannelure as a guide, is that not the best way?

[JB101]

Could be that the bullet shape is the reason why it’s shorter , are you using a round nosed or a truncated cone.
If you are using the cannelure then you should be ok .

[Turnup]

Crimp on the cannelure as you have done.

COL given is a maximum so provided it is no longer then you are good to go.

Bullet styles (RNFP/SWC/WC/RN/TC) will affect COL of the finished product but provided your rounds are no longer than the published COL then that'll be fine

It is possible to set the bullet longer (up to COL) but this will mean crimping on the bullet body and so to prevent the bullet backing into the case a firmer crimp is needed. In my experience this leads to inconsistent crimp tension which will give inconsistent breech pressures and greater variability of Mv. It will also work the case neck more and shorten their life.

[loiner1965]

i shoot around 9.5 to 10 gns of unique for a nice report and accuracy
my personnel preference of powders is tin star / true blue / unique ,
tried trailboss which is ok but abit smokey

[DannyT]

Thanks for all the info and feedback.

The bullets are rnfp so I guess that explains the difference between the OAL data in my reloading manual.

I didn’t realise that if the OAL is shorter than the data then it’s not a problem. Good to know.

Thanks again.

[thisisdonald]

Thanks for the info Donald, regarding the bullet seating depth, I was using the cannelure as a guide, is that not the best way?

Crimp on the cannelure as you have done.

COL given is a maximum so provided it is no longer then you are good to go.

Bullet styles (RNFP/SWC/WC/RN/TC) will affect COL of the finished product but provided your rounds are no longer than the published COL then that'll be fine

It is possible to set the bullet longer (up to COL) but this will mean crimping on the bullet body and so to prevent the bullet backing into the case a firmer crimp is needed. In my experience this leads to inconsistent crimp tension which will give inconsistent breech pressures and greater variability of Mv. It will also work the case neck more and shorten their life.

Exactly what Turnip said!

I think in another thread you talked about slugging the bore to find out about sizing your bullets. There is another process, which I havent tried, called chamber casting. Theres loads on youtube about it. Its typically used to determine an unknown or obsolete calibre.
It basically produces a casting of your chamber which you can then accurately measure.


Turnip mentioned that the position and lightness or heaviness of your crimp can affect pressure. Similarly, where the bullet sits in the throat of your rifles chamber can also affect pressure in the case.
If the bullet is sitting behind the barrels rifling, you will have a build up of case pressure before your crimp let's go, then the bullet will jump the gap to were it engages the rifling, then you will have another buildup of pressure as the rifling bites into the bullet. In my thinking, if you can have your bullet ever so slightly engage the rifling without surpassing the max OAL, then you will essentially eliminate one of the pressure build ups of the internal ballistics. Then it's a simple case of playing with your crimp until you get some good standard deviation results.
I hope someone more knowledgeable can chime in here, as this is just my theory based on what I hope is common sense. Like I say, I have never cast my chamber and compared it to COAL so I cant say for certain this is a viable exercise.

[thisisdonald]

FC45LC on youtube has loads of great videos on lever actions and load development, and he explains things clearly and concisely.
https://youtu.be/9OqSIoHSIRc
Also check out Gunblue490 on youtube as he is also very meticulous with his reloading and information

[DannyT]

FC45LC on youtube has loads of great videos on lever actions and load development, and he explains things clearly and concisely.
https://youtu.be/9OqSIoHSIRc
Also check out Gunblue490 on youtube as he is also very meticulous with his reloading and information

Thanks for the link, I’ll have a look.

I did slug the barrel, turns out mine is .430” Felt very strange whacking a lump of lead down the barrel with a mallet, before I had even fired the thing, but all worked out in the end.

[flanker]

I normally crimp mine into the cannelure. They cycle better for gallery rifle that way.

[DannyT]

Loaded my first ever batch tonight.

Started with 9gr of Unique and worked up to 10gr in 0.2gr increments.

240gr rnfp .429”

Excited to see how they run through the rifle, hopefully I’ll get some good groups at 25m.