Recently purchased a 44 mag Ruger Super Redhawk. To save money and because I enjoyed reloading, I plan to load the 44 mag. Has anyone had any problems when using a heavy roll crimp on a plated bullet such as Berry Mfg makes? I will shoot this mostly outdoors except when I need to see how a reload shoots, then it will be at the indoor range. I like using Berry's because of the free shipping. Berry's also makes a hard cast 240 gr SWC bullet. Do you think I would be better using the lead bullet since most of my shooting will be done outdoors?

As long as you have a groove to crimp in you should have no problems. A heavy roll crimp is only really required when shooting a large quantity of slow burning pwoder. If you are using Unique or a sim. powder, a light roll crimp will suffice. Hard cast lead bullets are great in the .44 for vel. up to 1100-1200fps.

If there is no crimping groove, a very light roll crimp or a taper crimp are advised. Heavy roll crimps tend to pinch the bullet, permanently deforming it and breaking through the plating. I have used Berry's plated bullets in 357 Magnum and 45 ACP, none were driven beyond 1000 fps. The bullets shot clean, but I get better accuracy from cast lead or real jacketed bullets.

[ 05-05-2003, 14:02: Message edited by: stans ]

I am planing on using Unique since I already have that powder. From the pictures of Berry's bullets it doesn't look like there is a grove for the crimp. I know there isn't a grove on their 9mm bullets, but I use a light taper crimp on them.

I use a Lee Factory Crimp die with a carbide insert. It sizes each cartridge as they enter the die just in case they happen to be slightly out of spec and produces an adjustable crimp from light to heavy depending on how far you screw it down. I have stopped roll crimping since I bought the Lee die.

NoCAL