Ruger Bisley / Cast Bullet Problems

[kmittleman]

Hey Folks,


I've been loading some different recipes for my Ruger Bisley in .44 mag and have been having a bear of a time getting it to group. First let me say that the 240 gr Winchesters and Hornady's are fine ; they group at about an inch @ 25yds. However, I got some Beartooth 250 gr WFNGC that won't group at all. I've been trying to reach Beartooth, but can never get through either by phone or email. I've tried loading up and down with both 2400 and Unique and no luck. Any advice?

Thanks in advance!

-Kevin

[earlmck]

My first thought is that if you've been shooting jacketed bullets a bunch, make sure you get the copper pretty well out of the barrel before getting serious about cast bullet accuracy.

And my second thought is that, as you know, perfectly good revolvers sometimes just don't like certain perfectly good bullets.

Sorry I don't have any specific load stuff for you on this one, Kevin. Haven't worked with that bullet. My standard load for the 44 is a 280 grain wfn (plain base) that I load pretty hot with H110 and it shoots nice (but still not 1" group nice) in my Ruger Redhawks.

[shooter]

Have you slugged the barrel on your Ruger and are the bullets appropriately sized?

I have a .44 Blackhawk, and for the longest time when I first got into casting my groups were looking like shotgun patterns. I was sizing them at .429. I learned about slugging the barrel, and when I did so I learned my barrel was .430 and I needed cast bullets that were .01 bigger than the bore. I use .431 bullets now and have no problems at all. No fouling and the groups have tightened up tremendously.

Just a thought.

[Rusty]

+2 on slugging the bore. I'd also check the mouth of all the chambers. I seem to remember Ruger sending out some .44's a few years ago that had something like .430 bores and .429 chamber mouths.

[mikld]

I've had good luck with my Ruger by sizing the bullet to the same size as the cylinder throats (throats measure .431" so I size bullets to .431"). Bore slugs at about .429" so I get a perfect fit. Measure your bullets diameter and check/compare to cylinder throats (you can slug the throats just like you slug the bbl., or use pin gauges). I shoot a lot of Lyman 429421 bullets cast from wheel weights and get no leading...

[rimrock]

Can't say enough about slugging the bore so you get bullets correctly sized. And my Bisley Vaquero and me like 20:1 alloy (lead:tin) purchased from Rotometals better other alloys. But, you and your gun might be happier with a different recipe. Keep shooting. I'm on my 3rd brick of primers, and my gun still can't read my mind.

rimrock

[Thunder50]

+1 on slugging the bore. .001-.002" over won't hurt, but it is especially critical on meauring the cylinder chamber mouths. I have a Colt SAA that has a .427" bore, but has .432-.433" chamber mouths. My .431" bullets did OK, but groups shrank when I started sizing the bullets to .433" for the chamber mouths. .006" over bore is quite a bit, but thats what the gun likes. If your bore is .429" and your chambers are .431", then I would size to .431". Measure your Beartooth bullets and see how they fit in the the chamber mouths of the cylinder. I suspect they might be a bit too small.

[Yance]

After slugging your throats, slug your barrel...carefully. Pay CLOSE attention to where the barrel threads into the frame.

Many times rather than face off the front of the frame a thou or two, the wrench gorillas just torque the barrel tighter to get it into alignment. Over torquing causes the frame to act like a draw collet squeezing the forcing cone area smaller than original diameter.

Besides having CAS ream the throats on my .45 Colt Bisley, I had to hand lap between 3 and 4 thousandths of constriction out of the forcing cone area.