First of all those bullets don’t need to be that diameter, especially for a repro with smaller chambers. My NMA now sports .449” chambers after it was reamed and chamfered. It’s not difficult to seat them, but I see it as a waste of lead so one modification will be to reduce the diameter to .453-4”.
I also found that both pistols seem to have a favored powder charge (NMA is 30 grns and the ROA is 35 grns) despite the projectile used. I intend to lengthen the 195 to fill in most of the excess space. It will be a universal bullet for both revolvers so I’ll have it about 1/8” short of being flush with the chamber of the one with the least excess space to give it a little wiggle room if it happened to be slightly overloaded but also because it’s been shown that flush bullets get gas cut.
With the weight increase I will reduce the top band a bit so as to reduce some of the pressure that will be added due to the weight.
Another modification will be to lengthen the seating (lack of a better term) nub to make it sit better when loading. Usually all is well but sometimes they sort of tip a little, and so I’ll also widen it a touch to maybe .447” to still allow for fouling.
I find the small lube groove to be ideal for up to my 7.5” barrel, and I use Gatofeo’s #1 for this. I apply it like a crayon after pouring it into a soap mold and then cutting that into squares. It’s a little messy once it warms up in your fingers so I’ve been saving chapstick tubes and will try that. Might also try pan lubing.
I’ve been debating what to do with the wide meplat. At this point it is .375” which is ~83% of the diameter. This should create a nice sized permanent wound track even at low velocity, but some feel the really wide (over 78%?) meplats tend to destabilize after about 50 yds (I don’t shoot that far, but might if I get the Remington carbine or try paper patching them for a .45 cal rifle) and also that some say they’re known for veering once it smacks an animal. However others disagree with both, and there are plenty of overly wide meplat bullets in modern use so I’m inclined to believe they do just fine, and since expansion can’t be counted on I’d like to make the biggest hole I can.