Boolit sizing

[Gundogblue]

Hi All,
I shoot a Winchester ( Miruko) 1892 in .45 Colt, and size my boolits to .454 with good results. I also shoot a Heritage Big Bore .45, and size the boolits for that gun to .453, also with good results. But sizing my Boolits at different size’s can be a pain, is it possible to just use one boolit sized for both the rifle and handgun, if so I’d size all my .45’s to .454. Is this a good idea, or am I better off to keep the hand gun at .453, and the rifle at .454?
Thanks
Paul

[dondiego]

Hi All,
I shoot a Winchester ( Miruko) 1892 in .45 Colt, and size my boolits to .454 with good results. I also shoot a Heritage Big Bore .45, and size the boolits for that gun to .453, also with good results. But sizing my Boolits at different size’s can be a pain, is it possible to just use one boolit sized for both the rifle and handgun, if so I’d size all my .45’s to .454. Is this a good idea, or am I better off to keep the hand gun at .453, and the rifle at .454?
Thanks
Paul

How does your handgun shoot with 0.454 boolits?

[Walstr]

Hi All,
I shoot a Winchester ( Miruko) 1892 in .45 Colt, and size my boolits to .454 with good results. I also shoot a Heritage Big Bore .45, and size the boolits for that gun to .453, also with good results. But sizing my Boolits at different size’s can be a pain, is it possible to just use one boolit sized for both the rifle and handgun, if so I’d size all my .45’s to .454. Is this a good idea, or am I better off to keep the hand gun at .453, and the rifle at .454?
Thanks
Paul

I Believe the critical dimension to consider is the cylinder throat dia. & its relationship to barrel groove dia. That .454" is "typical" but not ideal, eh.
The rifle can be more forgiving to compromise in my experience. Good luck.
Wally

[Bazoo]

I’d try both sizes in both guns regardless of how they measure.

I get better accuracy out of my Blackhawk 44 special sizing .430 rather than .431, but .431 is closer to throats. So that flies in the face of all the facts folks know.

[Walstr]

Bazoo: Roger that!

[Soundguy]

Agreed... I'd check that cyl throat. Some are tight.

[Gundogblue]

Thank for all the info, I shot the handgun with the .454’s and it shot as well as with the .453’s. I also checked the primers for pressure and everything was Ok, the cases also slid out of the chambers easily. That was my big worry that maybe the .454’s were a little big and it would create higher pressures, but evidently not.
Thanks
Paul

[Bazoo]

Minute changes in bullet diameter doesn’t dangerously increase the pressure of what is an otherwise safe load. I think RCBS manual 2? has some pressure testing whereby they tested 38 special with increasing sizes of bullets and found it made a negligible difference.

[Soundguy]

And lead lubricity is way better than copper.. Not to mention the taper at the cyl throat is a gradual swage.. And even hard lead is still pretty soft pushing thru a steel taper with a few thousand psi of gas pressure behind it.
It may have shot as well because both slugs might have been .453 by the time they hit the forcing cone...

[Sasquatch-1]

Did you check to see if you are leading your barrel after the test? An oversized bullet can cause leading.

[Gundogblue]

First off I want to thank you all for the info. I didn’t know about slightly over sized cast boolits not causing the pressures of say copper. And yes I cleaned the gun and no leading at all. I like to shoot light loads as all I’m doing is killing steel at the end of the property. The load I’m using is 5 grn of Trail boss, I don’t think you can get a much lighter load in a .45 Colt with a 250 grn boolit. But again this has been a very educational posting for me, again thank you all.
Paul

[gwpercle]

Thank for all the info, I shot the handgun with the .454’s and it shot as well as with the .453’s. I also checked the primers for pressure and everything was Ok, the cases also slid out of the chambers easily. That was my big worry that maybe the .454’s were a little big and it would create higher pressures, but evidently not.
Thanks
Paul

I've discovered that .001" in boolit diameter seldom makes any difference in accuracy or pressure . In 1967 I cast and sized 30-06 boolits to .308" because the Lyman Manual said to . Imagine my surprise when the new manual now says size to .309" ... I order .309" sizer and guess what ... no change in accuracy velocity or pressure ... Dang what happened ? and I read some size 30-06 to .310" and .311" ... but I've bought enough sizing dies .
Same thing happened in 38/357/9mm ... .357" and ,358" , made no difference in accuracy .
Gary