I shot some Lyman 429421 swc's out of my scoped 44mag Contender today with not-so-good results. What usually shoots 1-2" at 50 yards was shooting 4-6". There was a stiff, gusty breeze blowing in from the target's direction, and I'm sure there was some swirling going on too. MV was about 1200fps.
I'm hoping it was a wind problem. Otherwise something has gone wrong with my "old reliable" 44 load. I haven't been able to find any wind deflection charts. Any help on this?

Most reloading manuals have wind deflection charts. Mine are in storage at the moment.

I suspect the wind affected you more than the bullet.

Yeah, you'll need to come up with an estimated ballistic coefficient for your bullets.

The lower the ballistic coefficient, the more the wind affects the bullet.

Apparently, it was the wind. I went out early yesterday, before the wind came up and the loads shot like they are supposed to. I didn't think the wind could have that much affect at 65 yards but it does. Something to keep in mind.

I would guess that if it was wind at 50 yards its more likely it was blowing your gun around a little on the bench more then the bullet in flight. Its hard to even concentrate well to shoot good groups with a stiff wind.

Max
I may the only shooter that has days where my shooting is less then sterling, but you may want to consider this.
I shoot revolvers double action mostly, so when I'm having a bad day I load the cylinder with five dummies and one live, to check for flinching.
In my case it's seldom the ammo or the handgun.
Jim

I thought about that. I was at a covered range and the wind was swirling right into my face and it was blowing across the range. I haven't ruled out the possibility it could have been something I was doing. It just bugs me that I can get bad results one day then fine results the next time. And nothing has basically changed.

hell i can go out some days with a gun that shoots into an inch and only get 2 inch. Its like an athlete in any sport you can have good days and bad. Another thing that effects handguns shooting more then you can imagine is where the sun is in relationship to where your shooting. John linebaugh talked to me about that one day when i told him i had good range sessions and bad. Go out in the morning and shoot groups then do the same thing with the same load in the afternoon and ill about guarantee your poa changes. It gave me fits trying to regulate vaqueros until John explained it to me.