Nice Looking .44-40 Bullet

A couple weeks ago I placed an order for 500 .430" 215 grain RNFP bullets from Matt's Bullets. They arrived today.

L - R in the pics below: Matt’s .430 215 grain RNFP, Accurate Molds 43-215C 219 grain RNFP, Desperado Cowboy Bullets 200 grain RNFP.

You can see that the bullet from Matt's has a shorter ogive with a wider meplat than the 43-215C. This may improve performance on game.

The lube on the Matt's bullet is Carnauba Red. This works great with smokeless powder but as far as I know isn't suitable for black powder. The 43-215C is lubed with my homebrew 50/50 beeswax/mutton tallow mix. It's outstanding for black powder and smokeless (at least at mild velocities). The DCB bullet on the right appears to be cast from a Magma mold commonly used by commercial casters. It supposedly has a black powder compatible lube, but it doesn't carry enough of it for use in a rifle.

All three bullets are soft, around 11 - 12 BHN. This allows them to bump up and fill the bore on my guns as long as they aren't sized too small. They don't cause leading in my guns with my loads.

I loaded 50 of the Matt's bullets in virgin Starline .44 WCF brass on top of 8.3 grains of Alliant Unique tonight. I'm looking forward to seeing how they shoot.

Assuming they shoot well, I will probably reach out to Matt to see if I can purchase a batch as-cast, with no lube and not sized. I'll then size them to .430" and lube them with SPG so I can shoot them on top of black powder. It would be nice to have a commercial alternative to the AM 43-215C that I can load on top of BP, for when I don't feel like casting to replenish my supply.

Been on a .44-40 Loading Binge

Last week I took stock of my .44-40 ammo stash and decided that it was lower than I wanted. I have plenty of components, so I got to work. Since Thursday, I put together 250 rounds:

• 100 full power black powder loads (Accurate 43-215C bullet on top of 2.2cc of Scheutzen 3Fg)
• 50 .44 Henry rimfire-equivalent loads (same bullet but 1.9cc of powder, with a 1/8" thick nitro card in between to take up the air space)
• 100 smokeless loads (200 grain RNFP from Desperado Cowboy Bullets on top of 8.3 grains of Alliant Unique)

The smokeless loads should push the 200 grain bullet north of 1,200 FPS from a 24" rifle, a bit less from a 20" carbine, and somewhere in the 900s from a revolver.

I also put together 3 functioning dummies in Starline cases with the DCB bullets sized to .430" (as they came from DCB). Previously, I'd sized them to .429". They feed and chamber just fine in all my .44 WCF guns so that's one less step I need to take with the second box of these bullets I have. I'm hoping that they'll give better accuracy as well. Groups in the rifles have been mediocre although my Uberty Bisley shot them well.

After wrapping up I ordered a 500 count box of 215 grain .430" RNFP bullets from Matt's Bullets. The design looks very similar to the Accurate Molds 43-215C so I am hoping they shoot as well. Unfortunately, they are lubed with Carnauba Red. This is an outstanding bullet lube for smokeless powder but it's not suited for black powder AFAIK. So, they'll be reserved for loading on top of Unique, Reloder 7, IMR-4227, or Herco if I can find a pound at a reasonable price.

Loading the 150 black powder rounds mostly depleted my stash of 43-215Cs, so it'll be time to cast soon. After I cast a bunch I am planning to borrow my brother's RCBS Lube-A-Matic to size them at .430" and lube them with SPG, which should be quicker than pan lubing them.