.429" vs .430" Rem. 44 Magnum bullets
 

Does this .001" make much difference in accuracy? life of the brass?

I'venarrowed by choice down toeither the Hornady XTP or the Speer Gold Dot for hunting with my S&W 629 44 mag. The basic difference between the two is this .001". Since I'll be using open sights, I'll probably never be able shoot both and come up with a clear winner. But has anybody with a scoped revolver tried bullets that were both diameters and seen anything decisive.


Thanks
Dan

RE: .429" vs .430" Rem. 44 Magnum bullets
 

Where you really notice the difference in bullet diameter is when shooting cast bullets. Copper jacketed bullets you may not notice a dfference.

RE: .429" vs .430" Rem. 44 Magnum bullets
 

I've never found any difference shooting those bullets due to the .001" but My gun liked the gold dots better

RE: .429" vs .430" Rem. 44 Magnum bullets
 

How much, if any, difference is made by .001" difference in bullet size will depend on YOUR gun! What is the diameter of your chamber throats that the bullets must go thru to get to the forcing cone in the barrel? What is the GROOVE DIAMETER of your barrel??

Just offhand, I'd say that this .001" of bullet diameter will make no difference at all.............

RE: .429" vs .430" Rem. 44 Magnum bullets
 

I'm a firm believer that cast bullets do best .001 or .002 oversized. Jacketed I wouldn't go over .001. The only diff you may notice will be improved accuracy in most cases. Sometimes the accuracy improvement can be dramatic.

RE: .429" vs .430" Rem. 44 Magnum bullets
 

I agree with Pavo here, BUT would like to point out that the critical measurement that the bullet must be sized for is the diameter of the chamber throats in the cylinder, rather than the groove diameter of the barrel (which is also important). The bullets need to be .001" or .002" over the throat diameter, AND while the diameter of the throats should equal or SLIGHTLY exceedthe barrel's groove diameter, they should be no larger than .002" or perhaps .003" over groove.The reason for this is that upon emerging from the cartridge case,the bullets will swage up to fill the throat. When they hit the forcing cone, they will be squeezedback down to fit the groove diameter of the barrel. If the bullets are forced to swage down too much by the forcing cone/barrel, they will be deformed and can enter the barrel crooked. This effect SURE destroys accuracy.

You can pretty much predict how well a revolver will shoot by measuring chamber throat and barrel groove diameters. If a cylinder has chamber throatsrunning under to just a couple thouandths over barrel groove, it will usually shoot well, or can be made to shoot well by lapping the chamber throats to a larger size. IF the throats are alot bigger, a new cylinder is called for.

I once owned a beautiful Colt New Frontier in .45 Colt. The groove diameter of the barrel was .451". But the cylinder's chamber throats were .456". This gun never shot wel with any sort of cast bullets, hard, soft, etc., regardless of bullet sizing. It was just barelymediocre with jacketed bullets. Had to ditch the thing!