The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Seating revolver bullets EXTRA loooonggg?

Doodlebugger45 · July 16, 2009, 09:52 PM

I've been kinda thinking about all this for several days ever since there was a thread on the forum about loading up 38 specials to 357 mag levels to be fired in a 357 revolver. As I said then, I had sort of experimented with doing something similar one time. I had taken 38 special cases and gradually worked them up past 38 special +P loads. I never had any signs of excess pressure but eventually, the accuracy went down, down as I kept increasing the charge. I figured at the time that it might have been due to the extra distance the bullet had to travel before it got to the cylinder throat which is set up for 357 mag length cartridges. Anyway, it was a silly experiment because why do such a thing when I have perfectly good 357 cases to load up higher velocities?

But then someone mentioned that IF you seat that bullet in the 38 special out EXTRA long, so that it's approaching the same overall cartridge length of a 357 mag cartridge, everything would be better dimension-wise. Basically load the 38 special to 1.570" instead of 1.455". Made sense I guess but I still had no reason to try it.

But today I was showing my BFR to someone and I mentioned that my particular revolver was chambered for 480 Ruger only, not 475 like some of them are. The cylinder is certainly long enough to take the 475 Linebaugh cartridge but the cylinder throat starts too early in the cylinder to allow the 475 Linebaugh case to fit in. He asked why couldn't I just have each throat reamed out about 0.15" to let the long case fit in. Sure it's possible, but I have decided that the 480 Ruger cartridge has PLENTY of power and recoil for me just the way it is, thank you.

But.... all this got me to thinking about the deal with 44 mag and 445 SuperMag cartridges. I have a S&W 629 and I got to measuring things this evening. Sure enough, with a standard 240 gr bullet loaded in it to a COAL of 1.575", well I STILL have about 0.20" of clearance between the tip of the bullet and the end of the cylinder.

Soooo.. for anyone still bothering to read this far... my question is could I seat the 44 mag bullet all the way out to 1.775" or so for a COAL? That would give me an extra 0.200" of "extra" cartridge capacity. Not as much as a true 445 SuperMag, but it's still more than the difference in length between a 38 and a 357 or the difference between a 480 Ruger vs a 475 Linebaugh.

I have no idea what it would do to pressures. Obviously, going from 38 +P to 357 generates a lot more pressure, but in going from a 480 to 475, the pressures stay about the same. I guess the sane thing would be to take a regular 44 mag load and just start gradually lengthening the seating depth right? When you got it long enough, if everything was looking good, then you could gradually start increasing charge?

Why would I want to do this you ask? Hmmm.... I dunno. It's just a science experiment I guess. But surely others have already tried it before.

July 16, 2009, 09:52 PM	#1
Doodlebugger45 Senior Member Join Date: April 15, 2009 Location: Wyoming Posts: 1,717	Seating revolver bullets EXTRA loooonggg? I've been kinda thinking about all this for several days ever since there was a thread on the forum about loading up 38 specials to 357 mag levels to be fired in a 357 revolver. As I said then, I had sort of experimented with doing something similar one time. I had taken 38 special cases and gradually worked them up past 38 special +P loads. I never had any signs of excess pressure but eventually, the accuracy went down, down as I kept increasing the charge. I figured at the time that it might have been due to the extra distance the bullet had to travel before it got to the cylinder throat which is set up for 357 mag length cartridges. Anyway, it was a silly experiment because why do such a thing when I have perfectly good 357 cases to load up higher velocities? But then someone mentioned that IF you seat that bullet in the 38 special out EXTRA long, so that it's approaching the same overall cartridge length of a 357 mag cartridge, everything would be better dimension-wise. Basically load the 38 special to 1.570" instead of 1.455". Made sense I guess but I still had no reason to try it. But today I was showing my BFR to someone and I mentioned that my particular revolver was chambered for 480 Ruger only, not 475 like some of them are. The cylinder is certainly long enough to take the 475 Linebaugh cartridge but the cylinder throat starts too early in the cylinder to allow the 475 Linebaugh case to fit in. He asked why couldn't I just have each throat reamed out about 0.15" to let the long case fit in. Sure it's possible, but I have decided that the 480 Ruger cartridge has PLENTY of power and recoil for me just the way it is, thank you. But.... all this got me to thinking about the deal with 44 mag and 445 SuperMag cartridges. I have a S&W 629 and I got to measuring things this evening. Sure enough, with a standard 240 gr bullet loaded in it to a COAL of 1.575", well I STILL have about 0.20" of clearance between the tip of the bullet and the end of the cylinder. Soooo.. for anyone still bothering to read this far... my question is could I seat the 44 mag bullet all the way out to 1.775" or so for a COAL? That would give me an extra 0.200" of "extra" cartridge capacity. Not as much as a true 445 SuperMag, but it's still more than the difference in length between a 38 and a 357 or the difference between a 480 Ruger vs a 475 Linebaugh. I have no idea what it would do to pressures. Obviously, going from 38 +P to 357 generates a lot more pressure, but in going from a 480 to 475, the pressures stay about the same. I guess the sane thing would be to take a regular 44 mag load and just start gradually lengthening the seating depth right? When you got it long enough, if everything was looking good, then you could gradually start increasing charge? Why would I want to do this you ask? Hmmm.... I dunno. It's just a science experiment I guess. But surely others have already tried it before.