Baco Jim 442 500

[Tgc]

Gentlemen , here are some photos of my recent firing and recovery test. I cast a few of the Jim 442 500 bullets using Rix mix lead alloy, wrapped in canson tracing paper. The cartridge is my 44 90 straight. Brass is stretched remmington 45 70, trimmed to 2.40". Primer is cci br-2. Coffee filter under power, 90 grains of Swiss 1.5 f. I compressed with a milk carton wad, then added a wad cut from a 5 gallon plastic bucket. I shot three rounds into a snow bank I made by shoveling the driveway. One of the bullets must have struck something in the snow. I added a couple of unfired bullets for comparison. I welcome any interpretation of the results from the forum membership. Tim

[DirtySteve]

They look good to me. But I am sort of new to this.

[beltfed]

The fired bullets certainly bumped up into the rifling and slumped some by virture of them being shorter now than
the unfired bullets therefore reducing the BC
beltfed/arnie

[Don McDowell]

They don’t look to bad
The real acid test will be putting them on target to see how they group

[Tgc]

I thought my alloy would be somewhat soft for best results. I'm waiting for additional lead to mix with pewter at a 1-17 ratio. The bullets base grew from .442" to .445" after firing. The bore ride section expanded from. 433" to .442". That doesn't leave much room for the paper patch. The overall length shortened from 1.39" to 1.36". I thought that the bases looked pretty good, not much finning at the rifling. Tim

[Kurt]

Tim,

My personal thought looking at those recovered bullets is the only thing I would change is moving the patch a little farther higher on the shank, up onto the ogive to keep the small portion of dry lead off the lands. It looks like you have about .05" above the shank riding the lands.
With the .442" diameter unpatched shank. Is this an original Rem Roller your shooting this bullet in? or is it a .438-.446" bore groove barrel and the bullet is patched to groove diameter? The reason I ask is that the Remingtons used almost what I call a .45 caliber in their .44-90.
But I think your alloy is good to go as is for what I see. Most of the shortening of the bullet I think was caused filling the grooves. The nose ball did not expand much from what I can see looking at the photo's but I would use a little wider patch with this alloy mix.
That bullet will do just fine with a good load. It has full rotation as it clears the carrel with out mouse nibbles and with out any sort of slippage as it enters the throat.

I have to make a snow pile again something I said I would not do again I have a new rifle and mould that needs looking at LOL.


Kurt

[Tgc]

Thanks Kurt, this rifle has been rebarreled with a badger .438"x .446" barrel. I really am impressed with the snow bank technique of recovering bullets. I hope that we get snow again this winter. But not too much! I will widen the patches a bit and patch closer to the nose. Tim

[GrumpyBear]

Following along as I just had this mold made in.445 diameter and 1.4 inches long.

My plan is to start with 16:1 alloy, when it gets above freezing, my casting set up is in my unheated garage.

[Tgc]

Grumpybear, if not too late you might consider reducing the ogive diameter by .002". That would help with being able to see the transition from bore diameter to the start of the nose. Tim

[Don McDowell]

TGC I would be cautious about lenthening the patch, you're close enough to the ogive that much longer may not give you good shred on the patch along with chambering problems.
I've also found that the longer patches will take 2-3 minutes more elevation , and I believe can also result in an occasional unexplained dirt digger.
But as with everything shooting, it's something you can try and let the rifle and target be the final determiners.