Stevens 325-B .30-30

Several years ago when Ruger introduced their Ruger American Ranch Rifle in 7.62x39 I had immediate case of the wants. I have a large supply of the caliber and it would be very useful here in Pennsylvania. However, I generally don't buy right handed bolt action rifles unless they are a classic or military surplus. So, I've held off on getting one.

However, yesterday I got my hands on a suitable alternative in another caliber I stock with similar ballistics. It's a right handed boltgun but for this case I'll make an exception. It's a Savage Stevens 325B in .30-30 Winchester.

In 1947 or '48, Savage Arms' Stevens subsidiary introduced a new rifle, the model 325. It was designed to appeal to returning GIs who'd gotten used to shooting bolt action rifles and was chambered initially in .30-30 and .22 Hornet. After a few years it was renamed the Savage 340 and in addition to these two calibers, was chambered in .222 Remington, .223 Remington, and .225 Winchester. Savage sold the 340s until 1985.

These rifles used modern manufacturing techniques including many stamped sheet steel parts, to help keep the cost down. Instead of walnut the stock was made from birch. It sold for $38 in 1948, which an inflation calculator tells me is worth about $656 today.

The Stevens is rather plain, but a serviceable rifle. I imagine that many of them were working guns on farms. Over on the Gun and Game Forum, member Outpost75, who owns a Savage 340A in .30-30, described them, "These are good, sturdy, accurate little rifles, if a bit "agricultural" looking."

This Stevens 325B in .30-30 followed me home from the Oaks, PA gun show yesterday. It's in excellent shape for a 76 year old gun. It's stamped on the top of the barrel near the receiver with a B inside of a circle. This appears to be a Savage date code indicating it was built in 1950.   The bore and crown are spotless. Along with the gun I bought a Chicom SKS sling. I like these because they are simple, light, quiet, and easy to adjust.

The unloaded rifle weighs 7 lbs. but feels a little lighter to me because it balances very well. The barrel is 21" long, and the length of pull is about 13-5/8", which fits me nicely.

If you're enamored with Jeff Cooper's scout rifle concept one of these would be a good scout-ish platform, keeping in mind that it cannot be rechambered for .308 and scope mounting requires a side-mounted rail. You won't get stripped clip loading but because it uses detachable box magazines, that's moot, IMHO.

The detachable box magazine feed also makes these ideal for truck gun usage. You can keep a couple magazines loaded and locked in a separate container from the rifle, but quickly load it when required.

The standard scope mounts for this series of rifles mounts to the side of the receiver, due to the split bridge design. My rifle was built before Savage came out with their side mount so it lacks the drilled and tapped mounting holes. However, it is drilled and tapped for a receiver peep sight. I setup a search on eBay to see if one turns up.

For now I'll rely on the open iron sights. Another possibility is to drill and tap the receiver ring for a short section of Picatinny rail and mount a small dot sight on it. That would help preserve the rifle's handling while giving a much better sighting arrangement.

Something to keep in mind if you buy one of these is that the bolt has only one locking lug, relying on the root of the bolt handle to act as a safety lug. Compared with, e.g., a Mauser, Mosin-Nagant, or Lee-Enfield, the action is relatively weak. That said, it is plenty strong enough for factory loads in the calibers for which it was built.

The Stevens feeds from a three-round detachable box magazine. I like such magazines on hunting rifles because they facilitate easy loading and unloading, and with a spare magazine in your pocket you're set for a day's hunt. I ordered a couple reproductions from Numrich Arms, which may require a little final fitting.

The magazine is also a limiting factor on those who want to use spitzer bullets in the .30-30. While rifles with tubular magazines can't use hard-tipped pointed bullets because of the risk of unwanted detonation in the mag, the short length of the Savage / Stevens pretty much limits cartridges to those with the same length as factory loads. Here's the mag filled with Remington 170 grain Core Lokt factory loads. You can see there isn't much room for a longer bullet.

An interesting feature on my rifle is a .30-30 case head inlet into the right side of the butt. The pictures I've found of the Stevens lack this so I'm guessing a previous owner put it there. Pretty cool.

The .30-30 cartridge is great for shooting cast bullets, which I plan to do. So I slugged the bore by driving a .32 caliber lead bullet through the barrel and then measuring the groove diameter, which came out to .30905". I have some .310" bullets from MOD Outfitters I'll be trying in the Stevens after I get the chance to load some .30-30s.

In my wanderings online to search for info about the Stevens 325 and Savage 340 rifle I ran across these two articles by Leeroy Wisner, which are worth saving if you have one:

• Stevens 325 and Savage 340 Bolt Action Rifle
• Gunsmithing the Savage Model 340 Rifle

And also this site:

• The Savage 340

I've always thought this series of rifles was neat and I'm happy to have finally acquired one. Now all I need to happen is for the weather to warm up so it's normal Southeast, PA winter instead of feeling like I live on Hoth, and I'll get to shoot it.

Winchester 94 "Old Red"

I ordered this 1935-vintage Winchester 94 Sporting Rifle from a Gunbroker seller last Saturday and picked it up yesterday, along with a couple boxes of Remington .30-30 170 grain JSP ammo. To pay for it, I put a couple of other guns that were gathering dust on consignment.

It's drilled and tapped to accept a tang sight, one of which I may add.

Overall it's in excellent shape for a 91 year old rifle. The bore is excellent with sharp rifling, no pits, and a good crown. It was very clean. After I hosed out the old congealed oil the action works smoothly. The wood is sound and except for nine decades of dings the original varnish is in very good condition.

It should be a fine shooter and I plan to take it into the woods after whitetail next Fall.

There are 6 notches cut into the bottom of the stock (disclosed in the GB listing). The left side of the butt bears the initials, "RED," so I've named the rifle "Old Red."

Along with the rifle I bought two boxes of Remington .30-30 170 grain Core Lokt JSPs. I have reloading dies, a pound of IMR-3031, a brick of large rifle primers, a box of Hornady Interlock 170 grain JSP bullets, and 250 pieces of Starline brass on the way. I also have fifty 178 grain .310" bullets hand cast from Lyman No.2 alloy on the way from MOD Outfitters that I'm looking forward to loading for the old Winchester.

Today I slugged the bore by driving a .32 caliber bullet through it which allowed me to measure groove diameter. 

The rule of thumb for choosing the diameter of cast bullets for a rifle is to use those that are .001" to .002" over groove diameter. I'll load a few dummies with the .310" bullet to check functioning with, and also to verify that they chamber OK. Assuming all's good there I'll load up small batches of 10 with a couple different powders.

Casting Sessions

Today I did some bullet casting. The temp was around 70F so I was able to do so out in my shop without sweating like a pig.

I cast up a bunch of .530" round balls for use in my .54 caliber rifles, and a few Lee 578-478M Minie balls to try in my Zouave. I'd forgotten about the Minie ball mould. I think I picked it up used last year at Dixon's.

After I culled the bad ones, I wound up with 106 of the .530 balls and 16 of the Minies.

The Minie mould is a little challenging to cast with. I think it would work better if Lee had used larger blocks to retain the heat better once it's up to temp.

The Lee round ball mould works fine, although I wish it was a 6 cavity instead of the 2 cavity mould I have. In my experience, the 6 bangers maintain temp better and you can cast a large quantity of bullets in a relatively short time.

Lee TL314-90-SWC Mold

After having good luck with the Lee TL358-158 mold in casting bullets for .38 Special, I recently picked up a TL314-90-SWC mold to use for my .32 caliber revolvers. The weather was nice today so I decided to break it in.

Waiting for the lead to melt:

I used dead soft lead. I won't be pushing these very fast in .32 S&W Long, .32 H&R Mag, or .32-20.

Here's one of the bullets from the new mold along with one cast in my TL358-158 mold, which is already lubed with Lee Liquid Alox:

This bullet is a little pointer than I'd like. I'd rather it have a wider meplat like the .38 caliber bullet but for plinking or paper punching it'll be fine.

The new mold was especially easy to cast with. The bullets dropped freely from the cavities with at most one rap with a mallet on the bolt holding the handles together.

Meplat Comparison and Terminal Ballistics

Assuming proper shot placement, the terminal effectiveness of non-expanding bullets on game or in defensive applications is determined by (a) penetration and (b) the bullet's meplat, or nose. The best effect on living things is obtained by a wide, flat surface. This causes the maximum amount of damage and also allows the bullet to penetrate in a straight line rather than tumbling or glancing off bone. Here are a few bullets suitable for loading in .38 Special or .357 Magnum:

Left to right:

• Lyman 358429 SWC from Matt's Bullets. From his alloy it weighs in at 178 grains, is lubed with Carnauba Red, and is sized to .359". This is the bullet designed by Elmer Keith for use in his hot .38 Special loads that lead to the development of the .38/44 and the .357 Magnum.
• Lee TL358-158, nominally 158 grains and .358", cast by me from 16:1 lead:tin alloy. It's tumble lubed with Lee Liquid Alox. I load these unsized, then run the rounds through a Lee Carbide Factory Crimp Die, so even if they are a bit large, the outside of the case is swaged down to SAAMI spec.
• Speer 158 grain swaged SWC. Lube is some dry lube.
• Lyman 35891 148 grain wadcutter from Matt's Bullets. It's also sized to .359" and lubed with Carnauba Red.

Of the SWCs, the Lyman and Lee have wider meplats with sharp edges, while the Speer's meplat is both smaller and the edges are more rounded. The wadcutter has a short button nose but it's the full diameter shoulder that does the cutting.

On top of a suitable powder charge any of these bullets will offer plenty of penetration. However, the Speer would be my last choice for shooting anything larger than a groundhog due to the nose shape. I'd expect any of the others to perform well on game, with the edge in long range accuracy going to the Keith bullet.

C.E. "Ed" Harris has written about the use of "full charge wadcutters," for hunting and defense, although he favors a 146 grain double end wadcutter cast from a Saeco #348 mold on top of 3.5 grains of Bullseye, giving 850 - 870 FPS from a 4" .38 Special revolver.

He's also written about the penetration of the Keith bullet fired from a S&W .38/44 Heavy Duty during a test at the FBI's range at Quantico, in which it penetrated through two calibrated ordinance gelatin and then bounced off a thick plywood backer board. It was something like 30"+ of penetration. (This was in a forum post but I don't recall where.)

If used for defense against people, hollow points are probably a better choice at least from a 4" or longer barrel. Both the Lyman 358429 and Speer swaged bullet are available in such versions. The FBI Load, AKA .38 Special +P 158 grain lead SWC hollow point has been proven in defensive shootings for decades.

Some Reloading and Casting Today

Today I spent some time out in my shop doing some reloading and bullet casting.

First, I loaded 100 rounds of .38 Special consisting of:

• Lee TL358-158 SWC
• 3.8 grains of HP-38
• Mixed brass
• Servicios Aventuras small pistol primer 

This is a nice, mild shooting load for informal target shooting or plinking.

This is my first time using the SA primers, which I bought from Norma USA a couple months ago. They are made in Argentina. I used my Frankford Arsenal hand primer and they all seated easily in my brass, which has been loaded several times. I've read elsewhere that they may be a little harder to seat if your brass has tight primer pockets. I'll post a follow up after I shoot them, and assuming they work without issues, I'll probably use up the 3K that I bought before dipping any further into my supply of Aguila, CCI, Federal, and Winchester small pistol primers.

After loading the .38s I broken in the Lee Pro 4 20lb. casting pot I picked up last month using MidwayUSA's birthday pricing. I cast up a couple hundred of the aforementioned Lee SWCs, this time using 1:16 tin:lead alloy from Rotometals. Compared with the softer alloy I've used with this mold previously, I should be able to drive these bullets a little faster without leading.

I was pleased with the Lee pot. Unlike their smaller 10 lb. pot the valve didn't clog. However, the handle gets much warmer. The next time I use it I'll probably raise it on a couple of 4x4s, so I don't need to bend over as much to see underneath.

I've Got Big Balls

Welp, now I know why my home cast round balls were hard to seat in my Rogers & Spencer on Saturday. I measured a few of them with my micrometer today and they mic at .456 - .457. There must be a little tin in the lead that I used. I'll therefore reserve the rest of the batch for my Ruger Old Army, which takes .457 balls.

The rest of the lead will be used in casting bullets for my .44-40 rifles or ~.690 balls for my Brown Bess.

I'll have to order some 99% pure lead from Rotometals.

Running Ball

(In this post, I used the word "balls" a lot. Huh, huh.)

This past weekend I'd planned to shoot my Rogers & Spencer percussion revolver but couldn't. When getting my shooting gear together, I found that I had only two .454 balls left. I wound up shooting my Pedersoli Brown Bess and Polymer 80 Not-A-Glock, which I'll write up in a separate post.

Something I've preached about on my blogs has been bullet casting for self sufficiency, resistance to government guns bans, and panics induced by fear of them. I recently picked up Lee molds for .454 and .490 balls, and a Lyman cast iron lead pot. This weekend I ordered a Lee .690 ball mold for use in the Brown Bess and my Euroarms Magnum Cape Gun.

I took a long weekend to decompress from bullshit at work, so with today's weather being decent I setup one of my Coleman stoves out in my shop to run some .454 balls.

Here I have the mold warming while the lead pot comes up to temp. The foil trays are for me to dump the sprues and dross when I flux.

It took awhile for the pot to come up to temperature. I'm finding that keeping a good constant casting temp is an acquired skill that I've yet to master. My balls were coming out either wrinkled or frosted. Wrinkly balls mean that the cast was too cold while frosty balls are a sign that it's too hot. I put the wrinkliest balls back into the pot but I'm keeping some that aren't too bad. These will be fired at a maximum of 25 yards at targets the size of a paper plate or larger, so minor imperfections won't be an issue.

I haven't counted yet, but I should have at least 50 shooters here. I called it quits when I ran out of gas in the stove.

Aside from the Rogers & Spencer, these will also work in my 1858 Remingtons. One could load them into .45 Colt cartridges, as well.

It is possible to keep even percussion guns going without buying factory supplies. Aside from casting your own bullets, it's possible to make black powder and even percussion caps at home. The latter especially is potentially extremely dangerous, so proceed with caution. My plan to deal with future shortages is to stock up ahead of time.

Edit: I wound up with 97 shootable balls from my first batch. After the stove cooled and I was able to refuel it, I ran another batch and came out with another 126 usable balls. That's a decent run and will last me awhile.

Levergun Weekend

Saturday afternoon I loaded up 150 rounds of .38-40 with a 180 bullet on top of about 8.5 grains of Unique. After dinner, I loaded 100 rounds of .44-40 with a 200 grain bullet on top of the same powder charge. Bullets for both calibers were soft cast from Desperado Cowboy bullets. I mostly shoot black powder in .44-40 but still had a bunch of the DCB 200 grainers, which don't carry enough lube for BP in a rifle, so smokeless it was.

Sunday morning was my club's lever action rifle match. Even though it was Easter Sunday, we had 9 shooters. We had a couple Rossi 92s, a Cimarron 1873, a Henry Big Boy, a Marlin 1894 CB, and even a Winchester 1894 in .44 Magnum loaded with .44 Specials. I shot my Cimarron 1860 Henry with .44 Henry-equivalent black powder loads, and got some ribbing from the other guys about second hand smoke.

We started out at 10 - 12 yards, then moved back to 50. The targets were ~8" square steel plates.

I shot well, coming in 4th. I missed only one target but of course I was slower than the guys shooting mouse-fart level .38s. Also, the Henry has more drop in the stock than my 1873, which slowed me down compared to last month.

I put 55 rounds through the 1860 Henry. The .44 rimfire-level loads foul noticeably less than full-power .44 WCFs. It took only about a half dozen patches wet with moose milk to clean the bore.

The rifle's developing a nice patina on the brass receiver now.

We were done pretty early so in the afternoon I decided to replenish my supply of bullets suitable for shooting on top of black powder. So, I topped off my Lyman lead pot with some 1:20 alloy that I got from Roto Metals, and ran off a few hundred bullets in my Accurate Molds 43-215C. Hopefully, I'll be able to lube and size them this week after work.

Consistent Cast Bullet Weights

Tonight I weighed a sample of ten bullets from the batch I cast yesterday and plugged them into Excel to figure out the average weight and the standard deviation in weights.

Accurate Molds 43-215C Bullets
Bullets cast from 20:1 lead:tin alloy
Sample	Weight in Grains
1	219.6
2	219.4
3	219.0
4	219.0
5	219.2
6	220.2
7	219.6
8	219.1
9	219.4
10	219.1
	219.4	Average weight
	0.371782493	Standard deviation

According to Tom at Accurate Molds, this bullet should drop at about 215 grains when cast from wheel weight alloy. Since the 20:1 alloy I'm using lacks any antimony, they naturally weigh a little more.

Never let anyone tell you that homemade bullets won't be as good as factory-made.

Self Sufficiency

Today I cast up a couple hundred bullets for .44-40 in my Accurate Molds 43-215C. Probably about 10 pounds worth.

The next time the Dems get into power, you know damn well that there will be a panic. What are you doing to protect yourself against that?

.44-40 Chronograph Results

Today I went to the range with my brother, who has a Shooting Crony Beta Master chronograph. I was able to measure the velocity of three .44-40 loads. Measurements for each load was for a 10 shot string.

All shots were from my Cimarron Firearms Uberti 1873 Sporting Rifle in .44-40 WCF with a 24.25" barrel. Brass was Starline and primers in the handloads were Federal No.150 large pistol primers.

First up were 10 rounds with a ~215 grain cast bullet from my Accurate Molds 43-215C mold on top of 2.2cc (~35 grains) of Swiss 3Fg black powder.

Average velocity: 1329.4 FPS
Standard deviation: 11.6 FPS
Extreme Spread: 42 FPS
Muzzle energy: 843 foot-pounds

These grouped into about 2" at 50 yards.

Second were 10 shots loaded with a Lyman 200 grain cast bullet on top of 8.6 grains of Alliant Unique smokeless powder. The Lyman bullets were from a box I bought years ago. They are pretty good bullets but no longer available.

Average velocity: 1307.2 FPS
Standard deviation: 21.462 FPS
Extreme spread: 82.98 FPS
Muzzle energy: 758 foot-pounds

These printed a somewhat larger group, about 2.5" to 3". They gave noticeably better accuracy than rounds loaded with only 8 grains of Unique. I was not surprised at the much larger SD since I've read that .44-40s loaded with Unique can have wide variations, unless you tilt the muzzle of the rifle for each shot to get the powder back near the primer. In contrast to the largely empty case when loaded with Unique, the black powder loads have 100% loading density, and are in fact compressed loads.

That said, the rounds with Unique performed better than I expected.

Finally, I chronographed 10 Black Hills .44 WCF 200 grain cowboy action shooting loads. As expected, these were a lot slower than the first two loads.

Average velocity: 1123.1 FPS
Standard deviation: 15.358 FPS
Extreme spread: 41.78 FPS
Muzzle energy: 560 foot-pounds

Even though these were more consistent than the handloads with Unique, if you go by SD, they don't shoot nearly as accurately. Just like when I've shot them before groups were about twice as large as the full power rounds. It's also possible that the rifle doesn't like the Black Hills bullet.

I have three more loads that I want to chronograph, all using bullets cast in the 43-215 mold:

(1) 23.5 grains of Alliant Reloder 7.
(2) 2.2cc of Goex 3Fg black powder.
(3) 2.2cc of Goex Olde Eynsford black powder.

I'm expecting the Reloder 7 loads to at least equal but probably exceed the velocity of the Swiss BP loads, the Olde Eynsford to perform similarly to Swiss, and the Goex to tail behind but hopefully shoot accurately.

Loaded Black Powder .44-40s With Accurate Molds 43-215C Bullets

Yesterday I cast some more bullets in the Accurate Molds 43-215C mold, and then lubed and sized them. I'm pan lubing them with a homebrew mix of beeswax, mutton tallow, and a little paraffin wax. Here's my setup:

On the left is a hot plate with a tin in which I mix the lube. On the sheet of foil is my lube pan: a tin from a some kippered herring. To the right of that is the lid for the mixing tin on which is a .44-40 case that I drilled out the flash hole, which I use to cut the lubed bullets from the hardened lube. I push the bullets out of the case with a 9/64" Allen wrench.

After I cut a batch of bullets from the lube I put another batch in the holes left behind, then reheat the lube pan on the hot plate, then take it off to cool and harden. Like so:

I can fit twenty-two .44 caliber bullets in this pan, so the next time I eat a can of kippered herring I'll save its tin, so I can speed things up. Here's a closeup of an unlubed and a lubed bullet:

I wound up with around 120 bullets lubed and sized when I wrapped up last night.

Tonight, I loaded up two boxes of ammo: 50 rounds each using Swiss 3Fg and Goex 3Fg; 2.2cc of powder for both, which is about 35 grains.

I should get the chance to try them out next weekend on a camping trip.

Got My New Bullet Mold

Accurate Molds advertised a 3 week turnaround time but the 43-215C mold I ordered for loading black powder .44-40 ammunition got here in less than 2 weeks. The mold is nicely machined and overall feels like a quality piece.

I cast my first bullets with it tonight. I'll probably cull a few of these but most of them look good. I'm going to have to pin the Lee handles because the wood part started slipping off one handle. (At least they were cheap.)

They are supposed to drop at .430 when cast in 20:1 alloy. I'll measure them tomorrow.

Ordered an Accurate Molds 43-215C

Today I ordered a custom bullet mold from Accurate Molds, the 43-215C. It will be a dual cavity aluminum mold that I specced to drop bullets at .430" +/- 0.002", when using 1:20 tin:lead alloy.

(Pictures borrowed from accuratemolds.com.)

This bullet was designed specifically to carry enough lubricant so that when fired in a 24" barrel and propelled by Goex black powder, the rifle doesn't "foul out." I.e., it won't develop an accuracy destroying ring of fouling for a few inches back from the muzzle.

Bullets of the original design, such as those cast in my original Winchester mold, or the similar Lyman 427098 carry enough lube for use with Swiss black powder, but not the dirtier burning Goex. Since I have plenty of Goex, I wanted a mold to cast bullets useful with it.

Accurate Molds bores their bullet molds on a CNC lathe and from what I've read over on Castboolits, they are very nice. Mold handles aren't included so I'll need to order a set. I'm expecting about a three week turnaround for the mold.

More Handload Testing in the Cimarron Uberti 1873

Today I shot my .44 WCF Cimarron Uberti 1873 Sporting Rifle with two variants of smokeless loads and then with black powder cartridges.

The two batches of smokeless loads were shot first. Both were loaded with 8.5 grains of Alliant Unique and 200 grain cast bullets. The first batch were from an old box of Lyman .429 hard cast with a moly lube, while the second batch were .428 soft cast from Desperado Cowboy Bullets. Both loads shot to the same point of aim and grouped about the same. Either would hold the black of an SR-1 target at 50 yards offhand. Recoil was very mild, similar to the low power commercial cowboy action shooting loads.

After cleaning the bore of the smokeless lube residue, I put 50 rounds of black powder cartridges through the rifle. They were loaded with 35 grains of Swiss 3Fg with a 200 grain soft lead bullet cast in an original Winchester mold. The bullets were lubed with a mix of beeswax and mutton tallow with a little canning paraffin.

The bullets in the black powder rounds dropped from the mold undersized, at about .425 - .426. I was hoping that the soft lead would bump up but based on my group at 50 yards, they didn't bump up enough. The group was about 8" offhand, not particularly good. I'm looking to develop a hunting load that will do 4" or less at 100 yards from a bench.

However, I was very pleased with the minimal amount of fouling in the bore and on the cases. Even after 50 black powder rounds there was no crud buildup in the bore, and no sudden deterioration in accuracy (such as it was). When I cleaned the rifle afterwards with MPro-7, all it took was two wet patches (running both sides through the bore). When I ran the first side of the third wet patch through it came out clean. With this bullet style, lube, and Swiss powder, I could probably shoot 100 rounds without it fouling out.

Before I cleaned the rifle I took a picture of the muzzle, showing the nice "lube star," indicating that the bullets carried enough lube for the length of the barrel.

(I'd placed a cleaning patch in the open breech to reflect light up the bore. I couldn't capture the state of the bore but it was a lot cleaner than I'd expected.)

The rifle's action stayed clean. The thin .44 WCF brass expands under the pressure of the full load to seal the chamber and prevent fouling from getting back into the action.

One problem I ran into today was that about 1/3 of the BP rounds didn't feed smoothly into the chamber. They seemed to hang up on the case mouth, indicating that the crimp wasn't uniform or deep enough. All the BP loads were assembled using the Winchester Model 1882 tool, while the smokeless rounds were loaded on my Lee Classic Turret press. All the smokeless rounds fed smoothly. The next time I use the Winchester tool I'll need to pay more attention to the crimping operation.

Even though the accuracy of the BP loads wasn't acceptable they were a good proof of concept, in that I've found a style of bullet that with the right lube will allow me to shoot at least 50 rounds without the bore fouling out. Also, the smokeless loads will make for good plinking rounds when I'm feeling lazy about cleaning the rifle the same day I shoot it. My club is having a lever action match next month and I'll probably use the remaining smokeless rounds in it.

Loaded Up Some More Smokeless .44-40s

Well, not really "smokeless," since I used Alliant Unique, and anyone who's ever loaded cast bullets on top of it knows that's it's relatively dirty for a smokeless powder. Between the powder and bullet lube there's a fair amount of smoke. Anyway, tonight I loaded up the 45 remaining 200 grain .428" cowboybullets.com projectiles on top of ~8.5 grains of Unique.

Last night I'd setup my Lee Perfect Powder Measure by mounting it to a piece of scrap 1x4. I was going to load up some rounds after that, but my brother came over and we wound up in my living room with some sour mash. And of course, alcohol and reloading is a bad combination, so I didn't load any rounds until tonight.

After setting the measure I weighed every 10th charge or so. I need to work on my technique but I figure the loads are consistent enough for plinking. Using the Lee powder measure is a lot faster than an undersized dipper or RCBS Little Dandy rotor and then bringing the charge up to weight with a powder trickler.

Once I finished loading those rounds I primed another 50 cases using the Winchester Model 1882 tool. I've come to really like the Winchester tool for priming because it gives a great feel for how the primer is being seated. The only downside to it for this is that it's slow, compared with using a Lee hand primer.

I also received a few things today: 10 pounds of 20:1 alloy and 2 pounds of tin wire cut into chunks, from Rotometals, and a Lee .429 sizing kit. Before I cast up my next batch of .44 WCF bullets I'm going to add some tin to my soft lead, to get it to fill out the mold better and shrink less after casting. After I go through the soft lead I'll try the 20:1 alloy.

Tomorrow I'm expecting another package from cowboybullets.com, with 500 of the same 200 grain bullets I'd ordered before, but this time sized to .430. If they'll chamber in my Cimarron 1873 rifle, great, otherwise, I'll size them down to .429. These will be reserved for smokeless loads.

Pulled My Goex .44 WCF Loads

A few weeks ago when I shot my Cimarron 1873 Sporting Rifle with black powder loads I discovered that the bullets I'd used from cowboybullets.com didn't carry enough lube to keep the fouling soft in my rifle's 24" barrel. I was able to get about 15 to 20 shots between cleanings with the ammo loaded with Swiss powder, but the cartridges loaded with Goex fouled out in about 10.

Tonight I pulled the bullets from the 40 remaining rounds loaded with Goex. I pulled the first one or two with a RCBS collet bullet puller but then switched to a Frankford Arsenal impact puller, which uses the momentum of the bullet when you hit the unit against a hard surface. The impact puller was easier to use with the .44-40 rounds because there isn't much straight area on the bullet for a collet to grab onto.

After pulling the bullets and returning the powder back to the Goex can, I belled the case mouths in preparation for loading them. I have 45 bullets of the original batch left, and I'll probably load them on top of ~8.5 grains of Unique.

This coming Saturday I'm planning to shoot the rifle again with a previous batch of Unique loads and the 50 rounds I finished loading last night, using bullets cast from the original Winchester mold and 35 grains of Swiss 3Fg.

Range report to follow.

First .44 WCF Rounds Loaded With The Winchester Tool

Today I loaded my first .44 WCF rounds with the Winchester Model 1882 tool. Since I'll be shooting the bullets I cast yesterday unsized, I pan lubed them with my homebrew mix of beeswax, mutton tallow, and a little canning paraffin. An electric hotplate was used to melt the lube.

In the picture above, the lube in the top pan has mostly cooled while the lower pan still has some liquid lube in the center. Once the lube solidified I used needle nose pliers to pick out the bullets.

In the picture below, you can see the loading tool with a cartridge in the seating chamber, a complete cartridge, a round with the bullet waiting to be seated, and a lubed bullet.

When used with the components it was designed for -- .44 WCF case, black powder, and a bullet cast from the Winchester mold -- this tool is very easy to use. Because the seating chamber is not adjustable, it has to be used with bullets cast from the matching mold in order for the cartridge to have the correct overall length. Also, because the bullet doesn't have a crimp groove, it needs to be supported by a full case of powder or powder plus a filler, to prevent it from telescoping into the case under the pressure of the magazine spring.

I only had time to load 15 rounds today but plan to finish up a box of 50 later this week. I'm hoping to get a chance to try them next weekend.

Casting Bullets for .44-40 WCF in an Antique Mold

This morning I cast some bullets to load in .44-40 WCF cartridges for my Cimarron Firearms Uberti 1873 Sporting Rifle. The mold I used was the antique Winchester mold that I got off eBay a few weeks ago along with a Model 1882 loading tool. The tool and mold were made between 1882 and 1914.

To melt the lead I used a Lyman Big Dipper furnace, which I got as part of a kit that also included a lead dipper, an ingot mold, a copy of the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, 4th ed., and three kinds of bullet lube. (Right now the only lube from the kit that I have a use for is the Alox, which I used for fluxing the lead. I gave the Orange Magic lube to my brother, while I'll give the moly lube to a friend.)

The furnace is sitting on a couple disposable cookie sheets to catch any spills. The lead was purchased on eBay. It's dead soft so it is probably reclaimed plumber's lead. According to information I've read online, original 19th Century black powder .44 WCF cartridges were loaded with pure lead bullets.

The mold is in good condition for its age but when I got it the sprue plate retaining screw was stuck. After a few weeks soaking in Kroil I was able to remove it this morning without too much effort. I think it was just a crud buildup because there didn't seem to be any rust on it or in the hole in the mold block when I removed it.

To warm the mold I let it sit on the pot as shown above, while the lead was melting. I then got it up to a good temp by casting some bullets, which wound up back in the pot.

This was the first time I'd cast bullets in a couple decades, so I'm pleased with today's output. Before taking the picture a bunch of wrinkled bullets from when the mold was too cool had gone back into the pot.

And a closeup:

I measured a few with a digital caliper and they seem to be dropping at about .425 to .426, which is on the small side. However, they may still be usable in my rifle when loaded on top of black powder. Because they are soft, the sudden jolt from the black powder charge may bump them up to fill the throat and grooves. The only way to know for sure will be to load them up and try them.

However, I suspect that I will need to add some tin to my lead. All cast lead bullets shrink a bit when they cool but adding tin not only hardens the lead, it reduces shrinkage.