Andrew

I don't know as it is grossly unsafe as the seated bullet then expands the neck, and a 243 has enough juice to blow the neck away from the bullet there would be the issue of starting the load development all over again and all the added steps. If you want more neck tension use the Lee Factory Crimp die. Trimming the cases to identical lengths for correct crimping will be waaaay less of a chore than what you were planning.~Andrew

I'm not a Remington fan, but I own Steyr and Tikkas (lots of Tikkas including 223 in 10 and 8 inch twists)  I am a Tikka fan. Super Varmint? Do they make that in 223?? My  .223 T3 Lites will shoot better than I can over very long strings on very hot days. Prairiedogs at 300 yards? No problem, first or 50th shot.~Andrew

Bad. Good luck seating the bullets, too.~Andrew

I don't' own one but then, I won't own Anschutz CF rifles.  I've had a 22 Hornet and a .222 and both overworked the brass. Large chamber. Anschutz told me that their rifles were designed for factory ammunition, not handloads. The 4 round magazine is a deal breaker in a "tactical" rifle. If you like it, go ahead. I'm sure it's well built, but it's a lot of money for little gun. I sincerely think you could do better.~Andrew

Yeah. I only worry if it gets packed with debris. I was shooting long range when a pre storm squall came up. My RPR 308 had dirt and chaff all through the action.  I gave it a good clean then but only a wiping since.~Andrew

Never done that. I clean what I can reach and call it done.~Andrew

No I, MK 3: One of my favorites.

My 'man cave' Enfield is a No I, MKV. Such a unique looking rifle.~Andrew

On 7/11/2020 at 7:20 AM, Scrumbag said:

Andrew,

there is a very long and convoluted answer to that question. The short answer is: I drank the cool aid...

Scrummy

It happens. I was a confirmed "lander" (measuring distance from the lands) for many years but I got away from it after I stopped competition shooting. My loads will shoot as well as I can hold, generally.~Andrew

I shot off-hand 500M Metallic Silhouette competition with by 7x57 hunting rifle back in simpler times. The cartridge did just fine knocking down 57 pound steel targets at 500M. I used 145 grain Speer soft points over a compressed charge of Hodgdon's 4831 as this was my hunting load.~Andrew

So...... Why aren't you developing a load that fits in your magazine from the onset? I am one of those philistines who loads to SAAMI or data-specified lengths all the time. I could not tell you the distance to the lands of any of my rifles yet my loads are accurate.~Andrew

(I also shy away from tipped bullets) 

Depends what bullet and how good a shopper you are.~Andrew

Interesting. I shoot cast bullets from my collectible 303's so I simply seated the bullets snug to the lands on the first firing with new brass and carried on with neck sizing. Never thought of o-rings. You learn something new every day!~Andrew

Since the measurement of a group size is in a straight line between the centers of furthest bullet holes, the "half inch" group is "twice as good". If you want to reinvent the process and measure area, then yes: 4 X as good.~Andrew

If you seat to manufacturers spec length it's not taking up any more powder space than it should. Only in very special circumstances to I even care what the distance to the lands is, having loaded all my ammo to the spec by the manufacturer.  I have a four 300 AAC Blackouts -two bolts and two autoloaders. In all of them,110 grain Nosler/Noviesky ballistic tips will shoot well under MOA in a chamber throated for 240 grain bullets. Don't know what the 'jump' is but it must be considerable. 

Just one example.~Andrew

22 hours ago, Popsbengo said:

What size bushing?  Are these cases out of your die or after you've tried seating a bullet?

This looks like the neck has been pushed back which could be over annealed brass - too soft.  If this is the case the brass is probably scrap though you maybe able to work harden it by resizing a few times.

The lack of neck tension implies an over annealed case too.

Can you stand them next to a good  case so we can see the amount of distortion please?

Agreed.~Andrew

Nice piece of work.  Years ago I engineered something similar for compressing the charge in black powder loads where uniform compression is critical to accuracy. It worked well enough. Later I saw that someone was marketing a gauge that slipped over the ramrod of a muzzle loading rifle to measure charge compression in that venue. Not the same application but similar technology.~Andrew

What do you call 'longer' ranges?  We hit half-pint-sized prairiedogs at 400 yards with standard varmint bullets. I've shot 70 grain RDF at steel targets at 850 yards using a stout charge of Varget.~Andrew

I use them in 223 and 308. I have several rifles and handguns in those chamberings so this allows interchangeability between them. Brass fired in a  SAW almost always needs it. I have several AR's and A Browning BAR in 30-06. Needed to buy a SB FL die for that one too.~Andrew

If this is sudden onset, I say the Extractor. I have replaced dozens of them -particularly back in the 80's when 500M silhouette shooting was very popular and the 700 was  (often) the gun of choice.~Andrew

I bought my butchering /boning knives from this guy and follow a lot of his methods -tho not at that speed. What makes this look easy is the fact that he is doing it on relatively warm meat. Yanking muscle groups off of bone at 38F degrees is not that easy. He is good though...~Andrew

I agree to all of the above with a small exception: When you seat and crimp in the same action, the bullet is still moving as your crimp is being applied. Old time pistol shooters considered that a source of inconsistency. It was beaten into me at a young age to do it in two steps, always.~Andrew

5 hours ago, Kipper said:

Lube?? Dont I just press them into the case as per centrefire? 

You're joking, right?🤔~Andrew

I've got a different method. Best diameter of a cast bullet has little to do with the groove diameter (tho a couple of thou usually handles it). When I shot Cast Bullet Assn Bench Rest I sized bullet to .001" under throat diameter. Without having Cerrosafe to cast the chamber, you can do a pretty credible job by balling up thin aluminum cooking foil tapping it into the down range end of the chamber while having a .44 jag on a rod positioned to use as an anvil so the wad can expand to fill the void. Sounds crazy but it works pretty well. Tap it out and measure the foil plug you've formed in the shape of the chamber/throat and go .001" less than the throat.

As was said, the devil is in the details....and there are a lot of them.~Andrew

14 hours ago, Catch-22 said:

Yes to large pistol primers.

Unsure about Bullseye as I’ve never used it before.

Bear in mind that with lead you can’t push the velocity too hard because you’ll get serious leading in the barrel. I normally try to duplicate a cowboy action load. Zero recoil and just tonnes of fun. 0.5kg of powder makes up around 400 rounds, so cheap feeding. 

I’d say Unique, RS20, Viht N330, N340 and possibly Vhit N32C are good for this application. They err on the side of a .44spl load and are just about right with a lead bullet. 

Slower powders, like Viht N105 and N110 are good if wanting to shoot full power .44mag loads with copper bullets. Just don’t shoot lead with them.

One thing to bear in mind with pistol powders is how a minute amount of powder can make a massive difference. They burn fast and can spike quickly, so make your test loads up in 0.1 to 0.2gn increments. And always double check you’ve not thrown a double charge. Rifle powders give much better case to fill ratio, making it harder to double throw. But pistol powders seldom fill the case up (especially if using the fast powders), so make sure you double check as it’s easy to have a nasty surprise.

Best of luck!

I have been shooting 44 magnum for 40+ years and almost all of it with handloads and cast lead bullets. All of the above advice is good, but with lead alloy bullets it's important to remember that with a well-fit bullet, velocity does not cause leading; pressure that exceeds the yield strength of the alloy does. Velocity and pressure do not go hand in hand. A look at a Lyman manual will show that some of the fast burning shotgun powders give low velocities but with pressures in the jacketed range. As was pointed out, it's a matter of time. How quickly maximum pressure for the cartridge is reached. A charge of very quick powder burns quickly and produces little gas to push the bullet. Slower powder just the opposite resulting in a slower peak and more gas volume to push the bullet. (simplistically speaking) If you have a bullet that is hard cast with a gas check, you can drive them at jacketed speeds provided you use the correct powder -one that gives the velocities you want but staying within the pressure constraints of the particular alloy of the bullet. I shoot .225" ,  56 grain cast bullets at 2750 fps with MOA accuracy and no leading using this principle.

With that said, Bullseye is a terrible choice for 44 magnum. I used it waaay back for 38 Special revolver loads but finally switched to Unique. The Bullseye was too peaky and a double charge would be disastrous. (I wasn't worried about myself but the thought of my beautiful Colt Shooting Master revolver disintegrating is heartbreaking)  I still have the original canister of Bullseye I was using, unloved and unused.

I have zero experience with Vhit powders so I cannot advise. I used Accurate 5744 and Alliant 2400 for my 200 M handgun loads, and hunting loads from my Remington 44 mag bolt gun and assorted handguns. They worked well. Unique was also a good powder but with bullets in the 240 -255 grain range, about 10 grains was all you wanted to use though I recall 12.5 was the top?? In any event, I settled on 8-10 grains.

Since You are using a rifle, I will warn that  to use cast bullets to the best advantage, your bore should be as free of copper fouling as possible. Copper will cause leading and inaccuracy. Really get the bore to bare metal for cast bullets. I shoot a lot of cast bullets in CF rifles from 222 to 30-06 and all are dedicated cast bullet guns. No copper jacketed rounds go through them.  Good luck.~Andrew

Why not load to the Hornady specified length of 2.24" ?  It's what I use.~Andrew