'Using a bullet puller' turned history lesson

Last year a guy at the range gave me hundreds of 38 Special and 44 Magnum cartridges that he loaded some 30 years ago. The reloads were unmarked and filled coffee cans. This guy experiments a lot, including trying his best to load the lightest round he can without having the bullet lodge in the barrel. I didn't feel comfortable shooting them, so they've been hanging around since the Fall. Money is tight and I'm out of brass and bullets, so I finally got around to giving that bullet puller a try. Once I realized I wasn't going to kill myself, I quickly became addicted to hammering out the bullets and ended up pulling around 300 rounds over two evenings. Now I have plenty of brass and lead bullets to experiment with in both 44 Mag and 38 Special. I'm guessing I saved myself at least $150 considering brass goes for around $.35 a case. There's also a letter below from a bullet mold collector that you should find interesting.

The end result of the first evening

FYI: There was 5 gr of powder in each 44 Magnum case.

I knocked out 100 primers tonight without a single one going off by using the reloading base that comes with the Lee Classic Loader kit, an icepick and a rubber mallet. The pin broke off my depriming rod some time ago, but an old icepick did the trick (if you have a better method, I'd appreciate it if you would pass that info along). It appears that if you hit the primer dead center from inside the case it won't go off (at least that was true today). To be safe, I wore safety glasses over my regular glasses and leather gloves. To destroy the old primers I put them in an oil bath which they will sit in for a few weeks. 100 done, about 150 to go. My next step is to find loading data on the wadcutters. There was something rather cryptic written on the bag the bullets were in, so it will give me a place to start.

I looked closely at the 41 caliber cartridge that was mixed in with the 44 mags, and I noticed that a standard 44 mag bullet was jammed into the 41 cal. case, causing a bulge in the brass. Don't forget to inspect your cases and finished loads carefully. I guess even experienced reloaders can screw up. A 41 Mag has a case dia. of .434. A 44 Mag has a dia. of .456. The 41 Mag's bullet dia. is .02" smaller. Thus, the bullet resembles Dolly Parton stuffed into a tight jacket.

I think I've tracked those bullets down: Hensley & Gibbs 107B, 185 gr wadcutter.

AMAZING! I just shot off an email to Hensley & Gibbs and within an hour I received the following letter. Thanks so much Tom! ~Bob

Bob,

You need to run out and buy a lottery ticket because you are incredibly lucky.

My name is Thomas Dugas, I own the data and website you found on the Internet, but I don't own the Hensley & Gibbs brand name. I am just the curator, so to speak, as Hensley & Gibbs closed their doors in 1999 and retired the company name.

I correspond with Wayne Gibbs, the son of James Gibbs, who was the Gibbs part of "Hensley & Gibbs". Wayne is in his 80's now and retired living in Oregon.

I created the website because Hensley & Gibbs information was sparse, or non existent when I first started collecting their moulds in the early 90's. After a year of diligent effort, I was able to get Wayne Gibbs to return my phone calls and emails. We correspond about two or three times a year.

The website has been a labor of love and done for the benefit of casters and shooters worldwide. On average, I receive about two to three emails per week from all over the world asking about moulds, or this and that as it relates to Hensley & Gibbs. You would be amazed how many of those moulds made it to Australia and New Zealand, among other far flung places on this planet.

Anyhow, here is why you are lucky today. For 10 years I have been trying to get my hands on a #107 mould. I finally managed to buy one just last month and I have been having a ball with it.

There were three options (weights) available for #107. A, B or C. The A was the heaviest at 240 grains, the B and C were progressively lighter by one lube groove (The A has three, the B has two, and the C has one if I recall correctly).

I have a 107A at 240 grains and the bullets drop from the mould at .433". I shoot as cast after tumbling in Lee Liquid Alox. I am using two Smith and Wesson Model 29's for my shooting, a Model 29-5 Hunter model with full lug barrel at 6 inches, and a Model 29-3 with a 5" barrel (special order from the factory by me). I do not have any loads developed for the 107B which is the lighter bullet you have. Neither do I have any for the 107C, the lightest design.

I have started load development with ALLIANT UNIQUE. My loads start at 5.0 grains of UNIQUE and max out at 7.0 grains. I have centered on 5.5 as the minimum load and 6.0 as the upper end.

Just today I completed loading 100 rounds each of 5.7 and 5.8 grains of UNIQUE. I don't expect measurable difference between a .1 grain load, but I had time on my hands today as it was raining here in VA, so I was piddling around in my loading room and decided to split the difference between a 5.5 grain load and a 6.0 grain load and thus the 5.7 and 5.8 grain loads.

C.E. (Ed) Harris of Cast Bullet fame (also the guy who created the Ed's Red formula) is a neighbor of mine and he just received 150 of the 107A's from me to test in his 1909 .44 Special Hand Ejector. I will find out what powder he plans to use and pass on to you his load data. But Ed pretty much sticks to Bullseye these days, as he has quite a stockpile from his .32ACP obsession.

Ed did warn me that published data for 240 grain lead bullets, or other weights for this bullet design would be overpressure at the upper end of load weight because so much of the projectile is inside the case as opposed to a semi-wadcutter design. This was borne out by me when I loaded a few 107A's with 9.0 grains of UNIQUE based on a semi-wadcutter load I found in a Lyman manual. That load with that bullet (the 107A) was way overpressure at 9.0 grains. Flat primers and cupped bases with very hard extraction. I backed off the load to 5.0 and started over.

Here is a thread I started over at Cast Boolits reporting my #107 discovery and load development.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?p=813568

My handle over at Cast Boolits is "Texasflyboy".

As I said, this was your lucky day. You caught me right in the middle of developing the very thing you were looking for.

The only other powder I am thinking of using might be 2400 to develop a "+P" .44MAG version of the .38 Special +P Wadcutter load that I have. I used a Hensley & Gibbs #50 Plain Base wadcutter with 8.9 grains of 2400 to make a tack driving hard hitting +P load. It's a ball to shoot at longer ranges because it really groups well for a long range wadcutter load. I am going to try and experiment with the #107 and see if I can come up with the same kind of load but in .44 Mag.

Hope this helps.

Tom Dugas
Vienna, VA

Here is yesterday's target and load info:

Once again, Thanks to Tom Dugas. He just sent another email and said that he's going to send me off 100 bullets to play around with. I'll see you later. I need to go out and buy a lottery ticket ~Bob

Here's a link to Tom's web page: CLICK HERE

3-15-09 UPDATE
Thanks Ronnie for the tip on using the decapping die to knock out the live primers. I just decapped around 200 and none went off.