Hi Hommer

Great to hear you are finally able to get shooting the 404. Strange that you are getting rather poor performance from that cast bullet load. I shoot the same bullets and powder load as Von Gruff in my long throated 404 and am getting groups with bullet holes cutting each other at 50m with no unburnt powder (same as Von Gruff in his 404). I do use a TCBK wool wad over the powder and a CIL magnum primer. I seat those 350gr slugs to the crimp groove but do not crimp. We get these wool wads from "The Cast Bullet Kid" here in NZ. Von Gruff does not use a wad. You may need a higher powder charge in your 404 to get a good burn?

Going to try my 400gr plain base bullets tomorrow with the same 63gr 2209 load. I got good groups with them when gas checked and using Von Gruffs light load of 56grs 2209 but have not tried them plain based with 63grs. Hoping that they work well at this loading level with 2209 as it would save a step on the lathe to modify them for gas checks. Will keep you posted.