Cast bullets in the 1/20 twist 44

[Johnnyjr]

Ok here's my question.. is there anyone on here shooting cast bullets from the Henry 44. If so,and your getting good accuracy,I would like to know your secret. As I said,my bore stugs at .429 inch..Of all the loads I've tried at 24/40 yards nothing works worth a darn. Yes I have scrubbed the bore clean.. I'm thinking the bullets are just not bumping up enough.. These are commercial bullets,not sure how hard they are..Now factory loads shoot pretty good.. Thinking of trying some soft cowboy lead bullets.. thanks.john

[Vaquero]

John, I haven't played with mine very much since I got it back from Henry last year.
But I was messing around with it a couple months ago using a 240gr Smasher from Missouri bullet co over some Unique. Those are .430 in diameter.
Here's the best I got that day, was shooting from around 40 yds.

20210815_073858.jpg (78.94 KiB) Viewed 1275 times

RP

[Johnnyjr]

That's about what mine does. I'm going to order 100 soft cowboy bullets to try. There has got to be other people trying cast bullets as well..

[Vaquero]

I'm still getting used to the peep sight, and I just haven't shot it enough.
I'm betting though with the right combo and some more time with this sight I will get it to group.
It's just not very high on my priorities list at the moment.
Before the barrel change I had an xtp load that at 50 yds was one ragged hole, I haven't even tried that particular load in this barrel.
Hunting season is upon us and I probably won't mess with it till after that.
Good luck.

RP

[Johnnyjr]

Appreciate your reply.

[fortyshooter]

I shoot the MB cast 240 gr. bullets in mine that are supposed to be 18 bhn. With light magnum loads under 1500 FPS I would get a key hole in 7 shots and point of impact was off. Bump up the load to 1500+ FPS and no key holes and POI would move more to center with a nice group.
The bore on mine slugged out to .4315 which isn't giving a whole lot of rifling engagement. Bumping the load up to higher level Magnum must be expanding the bullet just enough. Now when shooting Jacketed bullets like the XTP everything seems fine even though those bullets run .430

Count yourself lucky you got the perfect .429 sized barrel!! If you go with the softer bullets like 11-12 Bhn stick with speeds under 1500 FPS unless they are coated bullets.

This is the load I like with the .44 Mag Henry Carbine and the cast 18 Bhn bullet!

[Johnnyjr]

I think my bullets are to hard to be bumping up. Thinking about trying some powder coating on some of them...