Lyman 429667 from Western Bullet Company

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Lyman 429667 from Western Bullet Company

Post by Sarge »

I received an order of Lyman 429667 cast bullets from Western Bullet Company, These mic a dead 0.430” As cast and lubed, 10 randomly selected examples scaled 254.5, grains +/ - 1/2 grain. For all practical purposes, they are 255 grain bullets. For commercial gang-mold bullets, these are very well done and consistent.

I’ve been loading 205 grain 44-40 bullets over 7.0 grains of Winchester 231 in a shortened, 5" Iver Johnson Cattleman 44 Magnum ...
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for 861 fps, with respectable accuracy. Checking my old edition of Metallic Cartridge Reloading indicates that powder charge is also appropriate for 250 jacketed bullets in the 44 magnum, producing 941 fps (7” test barrel) with 19,400 CUP. That’s right in the ballpark for an everyday working load for 44 magnum revolvers- an easy-shooting load with enough penetration to poke a deer through the neck or shoulders and won’t bust your eardrums if you are pressed to light one or two off w/o earplugs. It’s worth mentioning here the Lyman 429667 shares the same meplat of Lyman’s 429421- the bullet Elmer made the 44 famous with. Keiths SWCs can be troublesome in lever actions, but #429667 feeds like butter through them and should still kill pretty well.

I loaded 50 of these bullets, in Winchester cases, over 7.0 grains of 231. I applied a firm crimp in the groove which produced a finished OAL of 1.640”.

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It was a perfect day for load testing; 22 mph steady crosswinds with 28 mph gusts. I have an 8” piece of railroad iron that gets hung from the bottom of my chronograph tripod on days like this. So under less than ideal condition, this load averaged 846 fps for six shots. With a six o’clock hold on a 3” spray painted dot, 25 yard POI was on the top edge or just above the dot. I managed 3 shots in 3 inches, shooting between gusts. At 50 yards the group opened to about 7 inches with a couple of hits almost touching, about 6” above the dot. I’m going to need a taller front sight. I actually hit an 18" diamond plate 3 out of 4 at 100 yards, still trying to hold six o’clock on that damn dot. I was real happy to connect, but it wasn’t anything you could call a group.

I’m real pleased with this bullet. It whacks a plate hard, even at these velocities and it doesn’t lead the barrel at all. It showed glimmers of excellent accuracy when I could get the sights to settle down. I think it's going to shoot real well under better conditions.
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Re: Lyman 429667 from Western Bullet Company

Post by GasGuzzler »

Is this one of the extremely rare cases where a .44-40 rifle and pistol have the same chamber and bore dimensions and can use the same load/bullet?
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Re: Lyman 429667 from Western Bullet Company

Post by Sarge »

No. The only mention of a 44-40 in that article refers to a 205 grain bullet I previously used in 44 Magnum plinking loads.

The revolver is a 44 Magnum, the cases are 44 Magnum and the load came from 44 Magnum data.

I mentioned that the Lyman 429667 should feed well in lever actions, but I do not presently own a 44 rifle of any kind.

Sorry for any confusion.
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Re: Lyman 429667 from Western Bullet Company

Post by runfiverun »

the 667 is the preferred bullet of all my 44 lever rifles. [except the browning 92] but the 44-40 does fine with them too.
I keep a 7 gallon bucket of them ready to load stored under the bench in the garage if that tells you how much I like that bullet.


it's not really a commercial 'product' unless someone bought 8 molds and spent the 125 bucks getting them converted over to the machine, that's 1000$ dollars on top of the 8 hundred dollar molds. [versus just buying 8 ready to go magma molds for the machine]
looong time to recoup that extra investment.
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Re: Lyman 429667 from Western Bullet Company

Post by Sarge »

Thanks Run5. I think this is going to be an excellent all round 44 bullet. FWIW I'm going to gas this load up to 7.5 grains to make a truly do-all 44 mag working load.


My definition of commercial is commodities sold for a profit.
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Re: Lyman 429667 from Western Bullet Company

Post by Mad Trapper »

Lyman 429667, be the perfect all around bullet in 44 mag/special.
I believe I picked up this mold some time back, after reading Mike Venturinos praise for it.
https://www.handloadermagazine.com/mike ... in-shack-0

I thought of sending it off to Erik and having some work done to it, HP one cavity and see if he could HB the other cavity.
I was thinking about sizing the HB version at .430 then trying them in my SBH and .431 Rossi 92.
I just got side tracked on other projects.
I just picked up an old lyman/ideal Keith 454424 for a Uberti 1860 Army that I just installed a Kirst conversion, cylinder.loading gate,ejector housing.
got the lee pot out last week and poured a couple dozen, made some dummy rds in 45 colt/45 schofield, wanted to check over all length and cylinder clearance in the conversion.
Took a while to get a good base fill with the 454424.
But that 429667, that has to be the easiest pouring mold Ive used.
It took no time and I had perfect bullets dropping out with ease.
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Re: Lyman 429667 from Western Bullet Company

Post by Sarge »

It's been rainy here but I was able to chrono three rounds each of 7.5 grains W231/429667 load, in Starline & PMC 44 Mag cases for 860 and 855 fps respectively. PMC is the 'slowest' of my 44 mag brass so the load's doing 850+ from any brass in my pile, which is what I wanted. 250 of 'em might last until Labor Day, if I pace myself ;)
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Re: Lyman 429667 from Western Bullet Company

Post by Mad Trapper »

Those are excellent results.
I believe the Skeeter Load was 7.5 gr unique with the Keith bullet.
Was the perfect load for self defense,LEO, etc.
Actually Keith came up with it, but Skeeter brought it back to life and made it popular.
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Re: Lyman 429667 from Western Bullet Company

Post by Sarge »

Thanks Trapper. Actually it was that Mike Venturino article that put me onto the 429667. I stumbled onto it searching for images of a 44 cast RNFP with some 'meplat'.

This old Uberti has .434 throats and a .430 bore, but these seem to center the throats real well and it's shooting well offhand. I'll shoot it over a range bag when I get a replacement for my home-made dovetail front sight.
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Re: Lyman 429667 from Western Bullet Company

Post by Sarge »

This was one of those rare MO spring days when the sun was out and the wind was down to 10-15 mph; so I stapled a plate in the middle of some butcher paper and gave the Uberti 44/429667 combo a go at 100 yards. A few offhand shots (taped) I fired five shots, with my wrists rested on my knees and managed a 6 1/2" group. If I was leaving this sight on the revolver, I'd tap it left in the dovetail a frog-hair. But I'm real happy with the accuracy I'm getting from this bullet. Bet it would be a tack driver from a good 44 rifle.

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