Testing .44 Caliber Stepped Chambers

[nkbj]

Not so far. The .452" diameter portion of the chambers is 3/8" deep. That depth was chosen as midrange guesstitmate after measuring various .45 pistol and revolvers molds. The engagement between the bullets and the .450" portion of the chambers has been sufficient with maxed out charges to hold those 237 grain round nosed bullets in place. I'd expect that sooner or later I'll try one that doesn't work, a bullet design sized to .451" and powder charge that lets the bullet slip forwards.
So far it looks as though it's a good thing that I didn't go with a bigger difference in diameters. When seating the bullets into that little bit of neck down you can feel a good bit of resistance.
There's some conical nosed bullets made up and ready to go that are longer than the round noses though they're actually a little lighter in weight. Going to be a point of interest to see how much resistance they provide and what their smooshed noses look like after being seated. There's some .454 or .457 round ball around here too that I need to hunt up.

PS,
I haven't tried Triple Seven yet. That stuff just might create enough recoil impulse to make heavier bullets jar loose. And maybe some barrel leading too.

 

[M. De Land]

PS,
I haven't tried Triple Seven yet. That stuff just might create enough recoil impulse to make heavier bullets jar loose. And maybe some barrel leading too.

I haven't tried it either after picking up half a dozen cans from an estate sale. I haven't even checked what granulation size it is so it might not be suitable for hand guns.

 

[rodwha]

I’ll bet it’s close to spot on at 50 yards too… also, on several revolvers now I’ve turned a flat inside of the ram so all soft lead or even 30:1 alloy projectiles have a flat meplat after ramming home.

I’d like to know more about what you’ve done. I know of only one other who’s modified the ram, though his approach was epoxy.

 

[M. De Land]

I’d like to know more about what you’ve done. I know of only one other who’s modified the ram, though his approach was epoxy.

I've used a ball mill to put a hemisphere in several percussion revolvers with odd shaped ram faces.

 

[rodwha]

I've used a ball mill to put a hemisphere in several percussion revolvers with odd shaped ram faces.

I really don’t like the strange face my Pietta Remington NMA has, but I want a ram face that won’t distort my very large meplat when loading. A fellow on a now defunct forum had been dealing with this and made a face with epoxy, as well as one for the same bullet but with a hollow point design that was working quite well for him. It always makes me think of the old Speer Flying Ashtray of the late 80’s but with lead.

 

[M. De Land]

I really don’t like the strange face my Pietta Remington NMA has, but I want a ram face that won’t distort my very large meplat when loading. A fellow on a now defunct forum had been dealing with this and made a face with epoxy, as well as one for the same bullet but with a hollow point design that was working quite well for him. It always makes me think of the old Speer Flying Ashtray of the late 80’s but with lead.

It's easy work to make a new ram for a specific bullet nose profile if you have access to a lathe or even a drill press and bench grinder. Truth is a hemisphere will do them all if the bullet is sized correctly.
I do shoot antimony hardened conicals as a rule and use pure lead for the balls so with a BHN of 12 any distortion from seating the conicals is minimal and barely discernible.