My crimper is a modified Lee available from Old West Moulds Fruita, Co..The bullet had 3 driving bands 2 lube groovesinbetween the drive bands, the O.D. of the driving bands is .451 the Heel is .429(inside Dia of the 44 Colt Brass). There is a crimp groove between the heel and the last driving band. the first driving band is part of the Ogive.
Boy these cartridges shoot!
I did my first CAS match today and could only shoot the pistol targets. one miss in 3 stages, my time wasn't good at all because I had only one gun and had to reload between each stand on each stage. but what fun it is to shoot this cartridge and this gun. Our side match was cards. One double size playing card one regular size card. I prayed that I could at least hit the big one. First card I kept all five in the card, first shot dead on dead center...where I held. One flyer left in margin (I pulled it), all five could be covered with a regular playing card, four shots in the body of the Jack of Clubs, killed him dead.
Then the regular size card....All five inside the card or cutting the edge(2) 3 shots you could cover with a real silver dollar, killed the Jack of clubs Dead...all this from an old man, cold hands and less than 50 shots thru the gun total....This one will drive tacks when I work myself up to that level. WOW fun Day!
Using SPG lube and two pistols I believe I can shoot 4 stages without having to clean. I shot 3 today with one gun and it was beginning to bind, so I serviced it between the 3rd and 4th stage. I am going to try bore butter and see how that works. got some cleaning hints about Windex and vinegar too.
The trapazoidal cut is from right to left across the bbl like usual, or the other way if you like and is just the faintest that way, so you can still adjust for windage. It has been years since I hand cut one and I'm not done with this one yet.
Yep the ejector keeper falls just behind the round part of the rammer,just into the flat by 1/16 inch or less. right where my drill hole would fall. Will work my way arounfd that though. I took 2 inches off the bbl.
I had intended to just deepen the rammer keeper spring hole by the same dimension that it is originally after I cut the rammer off, but may not be able to do that because of the ejector keeper notch in the rammer. I haven't had time to address just what I can do yet.
You know the feeling, "OH! Crap! I messed up, how do I fix it" thing, then a couple days or hours later the fix comes to you. If I'd have thought this out first I could have just whacked off some of the lengeth of the ejector, but would lose the keeper on that. Worse comes to worse I can buy a new rammer and start over. or switch it out with anoter gun........He who makes no mistakes, doesn't do anything! LOL