.44 MAG LOADS

[crays]

Let me preface this thread by stating that I am not yet loading .44 Caliber anything, but I would like to start to get some ideas. Beginning loads will likely be Ranier 240g plated HP's, since I will be acquiring a quantity of these very soon. Not looking for fancy-pants hunting or defence loads, primarily just reliable decent plinkers.
Yes, I will look at the loads in all my manuals, but...

(1.) What are peoples preferred powders, based on successful personal experience?

(2.) Are magnum primers mandatory?

(3.) Any particular pitfalls inherent in loading for the .44 Mag?

(4.) How much consideration should I give to .44 Special?

[sportbikeco]

1 depends on the goal. 231 and 296 work well though.
2 depends on powder
3 load over pressure and you can blow your gun up and hurt yourself. Mind the crimp for bullet movement and tailer it for the bullet, I prefer to seat and crimp separate.
4 only use I would have is to separate out the plinker loads from the magnums but you can do it all with the mag brass.

I prefer cast or jacketed in 44 to plated due to roll crimp.

[rondog]

I personally don't like plated bullets because I've had the plating peel off and the bullets go wild. Evidenced by keyholing and holes in the target with slice marks on the side.

Magnum powders - don't UNDERLOAD the book recipes! Can explode instead of burn.

.44 mag rifles tend to have a larger/looser bore than pistols, .429-.430 vs .431-.432, possibly .433. This affects accuracy, especially with cast bullets.

On revolvers, the mouths of each chamber in the cylinder should be measured to make sure they're not smaller than the barrel. Not too big a problem with jacketed, but if they're too small they'll swage down cast bullets and make them loose in the barrel. Accuracy will suck.

Yeah, I've had some grief w/.44 mags.....but they're not hard to actually make, they can just be difficult to make accurate.

[Zombie Steve]

A good 95% of the time load for me is a 250 grain rnfp (I size them to .431") that I cast and 7.8 grains of Unique. I get about 930 fps from a 4 -5/8" barrel. Standard primer (you'll really only need a magnum primer on really slow powders like H110 / 296 in full power loads. I don't even use a magnum primer with 2400).

It's a good fun load that's still got some power (more than a .45 auto +P), but you can shoot it all day. I get that same cast boolit going 1,300 with 20 grains of 2400, but I'm only going around the wheel a few times and I'm done.

Anyway, Unique isn't overly position sensitive, and it behaves really well with lead.

I really never load .44 special. With the right powder, you can do the same thing in the longer case. That, and the shorter brass tends to leave a bunch of lead in the chamber.

Regarding H110 / 296 - it's really got one application - full power, and it does it well... but it's a dragster. The throttle is open or closed. There is no in-between. That's why you'll often see start loads 1 grain lower than max. Because of my lever gun, I like having the load range that 2400 offers. To me, that's worth the 50 fps or so I lose to H110.

One more - I really like a start load of Blue Dot with that bullet. I hated Blue Dot for years and couldn't find a use for the little amount that I had, but I gave it one more shot when I got this new mold block, and it's a really accurate load. I get that bullet doing about 1,200 and it just seems to be that sweet spot where it's stiff recoil, but doesn't have the sharp crack in my hand like the full power stuff. I guess I just lucked out with that one. I wouldn't recommend it to start out with, and it does have a steep pressure curve towards the top.


One caveat with Unique - you'll see data out there for hotter loads going into the 11-12 grain range. I would advise that if you want more performance, get a slower burning powder. Just because the bullet is going slower doesn't mean it's less pressure. I pierced primers and ruined one firing pin while inside published data.

[ray1970]

Just pack that case full of Trail Boss and smash it down with a bullet. Good to go.

[Zombie Steve]

I think you meant Titegroup and a wheel weight.

[thedave1164]

If there is no crimp grove in the rainers I would avoid them.

.44 mag revolver = crimped bullets

Pretty much all revolvers should be crimped, as in roll crimped

[crays]

Thanks for the input so far, folks.

sent from me