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Adventures in 92

Posted: 04 Mar 2016 17:18
by kungfustyle
I ordered my Rossi 44 mag from Budsgunshop.com. Once I got the thing paid off it was at my FFL within three days, one full month for me. During this time I’ve been reading about the size of the barrels and didn’t want to get a bullet mold till rifle had arrived. First thing was to clean it up from the trip and factory packing job. One of the packets of desilica had broken open and gotten in everything. Next was to slug the bore of the gun. .432. Wow, I had heard that the newer Rossi’s were big and I got one. So NOE here we come and ordered a 290g fn 4 cavity mold to fit the gun. My first choice was to get a Ranch Dog design but they didn’t go over .432. So the mold arrives on Wednesday night and it got put through the heating cycle and was ready to start casting. However, no .433 sizing die. I did have a Lee .430 size die that decided to be sacrificed for the cause. Out come the 150grit sand paper, wooden dowel and drill. It took about 15 minutes and about 10 .440 round balls to get it to the .4325. Good enough I wanted to shoot the gun. So Thursday morning was spent casting, dip lubing and gas checking and sizing bullets.
Now the fun begins. My Lyman 44 mag reloading die has a m neck sizer that cause the case to deform and wouldn’t chamber as a dummy round. So out comes the full set of die and my universal sizing die. Now the nose on the Lyman die wasn’t playing nice with the nose of the bullet so I scrounged a semi-wad cutter nose from a 45 ACP set and we were in business. Size, flair, seat and crimp, worked, one dummy round. Put the 92 in my cleaning rack and ran the cleaning rod to the bolt face and measured it. I plopped in a lead so it touched the lands and very carefully brought the cleaning rod to touch the bullet face and measured it, 1.66 was my new col. After a few trials and errors I backed the col to 1.63 and the round would ramp and load. Lyman lists the starting load for a 300g bullet at 16 to 19g of IMR 4227, so I went right to the middle at 17.8 loaded up 20 rounds.
The gun did great, managing a 2 inch group at 25 yards and a three inch group at 50. The groups were about 6 inches high and a little right but it was a very successful trip. But this one tested me and I had to pull from just about every part of reloading to get this thing to work. Got to love it when a plan comes together.

Re: Adventures in 92

Posted: 04 Mar 2016 18:10
by Ranch Dog
Wow, that is quite a workout but if you have the time that is the way to go! I'm really disappointed in the latest reports of the over diameter bore & groove. I'm glad I bought my rifles when I did.

Re: Adventures in 92

Posted: 04 Mar 2016 18:58
by kungfustyle
I guess I could have risked the .432 RD 265g mold but NOE molds are right on and I didn't want to chance it. As it goes things worked out. Worst thing was the reloading die. I even looked on Midwayusa.com to see if there was a 44mag rifle die set. Of course there isn't, but I really had a time with the seating and crimping die. If I just flared the neck with the universal flair die, it worked, but if I tried to make the bell wide enough for the .433 sized bullets it wouldn't work. I don't know why they have to different specs for rifle and pistol. The only thing extra I had to purchase was a lube sizer die that I'm having made.

Re: Adventures in 92

Posted: 05 Mar 2016 07:03
by akuser47
Good to hear

Re: Adventures in 92

Posted: 05 Mar 2016 08:51
by Ranch Dog
kungfustyle wrote:I guess I could have risked the .432 RD 265g mold but NOE molds are right on and I didn't want to chance it. As it goes things worked out. Worst thing was the reloading die. I even looked on Midwayusa.com to see if there was a 44mag rifle die set. Of course there isn't, but I really had a time with the seating and crimping die. If I just flared the neck with the universal flair die, it worked, but if I tried to make the bell wide enough for the .433 sized bullets it wouldn't work. I don't know why they have to different specs for rifle and pistol. The only thing extra I had to purchase was a lube sizer die that I'm having made.
It sounds like you are using Lee reloading gear so what I would do is use a NOE 434PC Expander Plug for your Lee Universal Die. NOE did have a similar Powder through Expander Plug for the Expander Die but they are not available now. When stuff goes out of stock the info drops off the NOE site.

Then to cure the crimp issue I would switch out your Handgun Carbide Factory Crimp Die for the Lee Collet Style Factory Crimp Die. This is a rifle style collet die for the 44 Mag.

In that you bullet casting and handloading is being spoke here, I'm going to move this topic to the Bullet Casting forum.

Re: Adventures in 92

Posted: 05 Mar 2016 08:56
by Ranch Dog
Also thinking about the bullet Sizer stuff. NOE makes a Lee type bullet sizer that has interchangable bushings. Here is the page with the 44 Caliber stuff. The Die Body is the first item on the first page. Always something to spend money on!

Re: Adventures in 92

Posted: 05 Mar 2016 14:59
by kungfustyle
the reloading die that I have is an older Lyman set with an "m" ex-pander die. That is what was giving me a headache. The M did over did the rest just to get it to start the .433 bullet. So I tried my Lee universal and just belled the neck just enough to start the bullet, that worked. But thanks for the help.