What is the max load for a hard cast .429240gr. bullet without a gas check to be used in my redhawk and marlin rifle.
I have unique which is dirty and win. 296 but will get what I need.


James

That's kinda like asking how high is the sky. There are too many factors involved to give a meaningful answer. How hard are the bullets? What are you shooting it in? Revolver, single shot pistol, or rifle? What is the bore diameter?What diameter is the bullet? .429, .430, .431?
The only thing anyone can tell you for certain is in MOST cases, 1000 FPS is about the limit you can push a non gas check cast bullet without begining to get some leading. All those variables I asked about have a bearing on it. You might get leading at 800 FPS, you might be able to get 1200 without leading. Try a moderate load of Unique and go up from there. Most of the time Unique will top out at about 1000 FPS in a .44 magnum.

Thanks Charley what is a moderate load of unique.

Still learning James

11.8gr of Unique is max for a 240gr Laser Cast bullet. I have shot Unique from 8gr to 12gr and found I like 10.5gr. The heavier you load it, the cleaner it becomes.

In my 40S&W, its clean as any other powder.

You can go to Allian's load data here:http://recipes.alliantpowder.com/

Doesn't the Marlin .44 mag lever rifle still have micro groove rifling ? If so it may have very poor accuracy with any cast bullet! If it does or if you get heavy leading, you can try something a technition from Sierra told me and it helped but wasn't a complete fix. He said to coat my bullets with Lee Alox liquid lube and let them dry on wax paper. This is in addition to the lube that came on the bullets. Another step that can help is to use an over powder cardboard wad, and fill any unused space with shot buffer powder. I cut my wads from a beer carton with a 7/16 hole punch I got from Harbor Freight and use a snugg fitting rod to seat the wad. This works for 45-70 and with a size adjustment should also work with other calibers

A guy that runs a local gun shop told me to shoot a jacketed bullet ever
once and a while to clean lead from the barrel, is this a good idea or will it hurt the barrel.

James

Funny, "Everybody" knows you can't shoot cast bullets in Micro-grove rifleing. Everybody, that is, except those of us that actuallydo it. Wth Microgrove or multigroove rifleing, the most important thing is bullet diameter. Bullets need to be at least .001 or even .002 OVER groove diameter. IME, slightly softer bullets do better than very hard bullets. Use a good lube, or combination of lubes,like the Lee liquid alox over other lubes as mentioned in the earlier post. Just be SURE your bullet diameter is large enough.

I'll have to give that a try, never had any luck before.

I've shot 240gr keith style bullets over 1400 fps with very little leading. They're heat treated linotype.
I have a marlin 1894 .44mag that is 4 or 5 years old and it has cut rifling.