New to Black, 44/40 loads, Rifle loves em' revolvers keyholeing.

[fourfingersofdeath]

I was advised to load  a Lee 1.3 dipper and a felt wad with a bit of lube, topped off by the polymer coated lead bullets that I have a heap of. I know pure lead bullets with lots of loobe would be a lot better, even a big lube boolit, but I have net been in a position to cast (I have a Mav Dutchman mould, which I will bring into play as soon as I get a chance, in the meantime I have to use these).

The 1.3cc dipper full of powder didn't seem to come up far enough, so I upped the ante to the 1.9cc dipper, which my Lee chart tells me should be a bit under 32Gns FFg. On went the felt wad (bit of a struggle, a spot of lanolin grease) and pop the bullet on, seat and crimp. All looked good and I went to the range today and the rifle (Uberti 1873) gobbled them up, foot of flame out the front and shot reasonable groups at 50 yards, considering I wasn't too fussy and whacked the groups out pretty quick. Once I centered the group and adjusted for elevation, I whacked out a magazine full at speed resting my elbows on the bench and they fell inside a 3" square. Brilliant, well and truely acceptable accuracy for cowboy, I was pleased and packed up and went to the pistol range next door and let rip. The loads were easy to keep to point of aim at 10Mtrs, fired one handed/duellist style reasonably quickly, but 50% of the keyholed? I have never had trouble with the pistols before, but have found the rifles a bit fussy. If it worked in the rifles in the past, the revolvers gobbled it up.

Don't know what to do now. Probably try the 1.3cc load with a bit of Polenta or Semolina or Grex (if I can find it, I have some somewhere?). The loads might have keyholed, but they sure were good at pulling a crowd.

[yeti76620]

Yo Four Fingers,
Those cartridges by chance get a "suntan" by the time ya pistol'd up?  Happened to a Pard once just like that and when we broke 'em apart all that "looobe" greased all the FF and the result was VERY DISAPOINTING!  Although, some loads where very funny to watch fall out the end of the muzzle,   kinda like a smoke-n bumble bee nose diving to the ground a few feet in front.   

Yeti76620

[fourfingersofdeath]

Nope! Loaded em last night and stored them nose down. This is a temporary load set up until I get the Big Lubes percolating, so I won't load any more than I need in the immediate future and store them in the original ammo cartons boolit down(which goes against the grain some, I'm a throw em' in the bucket or milsup ammo tin sorta person. I should of mentioned that, sorry, thanks for the suggestion though.

[Dick Dastardly]

Howdy fourfingersofdeath ,

Slug your pistol and rifle barrels.  Those heathen boolits may be just hard enuf and small enuf that the rifle will use 'em but the revolvers won't.  Many of the older 44-40 rifles had smaller bores and many of the more recent pistols had bigger ones.  Could be that the bullets are a better fit in the rifle than they are in the pistols.  If that's the case, shoot 'em out of yer rifle and get some of those Mavs loaded up for yer pistols.

Also, watch out for leading.  Bullets that are too hard and too small tend to be the ones that will lead up a barrel real quick like.

Good luck,

DD-DLoS

[yeti76620]

Fourfingersofdeath,
I might be missunderstanding ya a bit.  My Pard and I loaded up fresh loads too but the ammo box that we 's pullin from was a sun-n as we's a shoot-n and the loobe wicked up through the wad..the "lead-heads" pointing down.. into the FF and knocked the kick right out of it.  Knock a head out to look at the FF to see if it is clumpy with loobe.  Just a thought...won't hurt.

Yeti76620

[yeti76620]

After further contemplation I believe The Dark Lord of Soot is most likely on the right track..

Yeti76620

[fourfingersofdeath]

Good idea Dick, The bore snake sails through the revolver cylinders, but is a real chore to pull through the barrel, so the cylinder/barrel relationship seems ok. Maybe the pistols would do better with the 44 mag/special boolits I have. The shoots on Friday, so I'm scratching.

[fourfingersofdeath]

Fourfingersofdeath,
I might be missunderstanding ya a bit.  My Pard and I loaded up fresh loads too but the ammo box that we 's pullin from was a sun-n as we's a shoot-n and the loobe wicked up through the wad..the "lead-heads" pointing down.. into the FF and knocked the kick right out of it.  Knock a head out to look at the FF to see if it is clumpy with loobe.  Just a thought...won't hurt.

Yeti76620

The loads were virtually in the warthog class, mighty gratifying as John Wayne would have said, unfortunately going sideways. Big crowd puller, not many people shoot black at the club, late afternoon, lotza flame and smoke, I can see why you guys get hooked on this.

Anyways, it's way late here and I'm off to bed, I'll check in again in the morning in case any one else has any brainwaves. Thanks for the help.

[44caliberkid]

What kind of pistol are you using?  Manufacturer?   What size (diameter) are the bullets?  .427?  .428?  .430?

[fourfingersofdeath]

I am about to go down to the garage now and will have a look. They are Pietta Colt clones.

[Noz]

I'll betcha the bullets are too small and/or too hard. Soft bullets will bump up and fill the bore, hard ones won't. Like Dick said, watch for leading.

[fourfingersofdeath]

I didn't get to check the guns, I was going to do soms shotshell loading first, but the primers blew in my primer tube off the old Texan press and tore up my shooting hand. Got her sewed up by the tiniest cutest Little lady doctor I have ever seen, I'm ok, but won't be shooting handguns for a week or two, silly old bugger.

Anyways, I will have a bit of time to myself now and I will set up the Pro Melt again and cast up some Big Lube boolits. They wil work, I'm thinking.