Need 44mag load suggestions..

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Sigma40
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Need 44mag load suggestions..

Post by Sigma40 »

I'm getting ready to load up some. 44mag loads for in my win 1894 but I cannot find my loading journal that had all of my notes from each load I had tried many years ago.

I will be loading 240gr lead cast swc's in win brass and magnum primers. I'm looking for something in the middle of the road for range use.

The powders I have available to me at the moment are : h110, blue dot, powerpistol, clays, titegroup and of course unique..which is my usual choice for light-loads.

I have not tried clays or powerpistol, but recall h110 and bluedot as being good powders for medium-high velocity loads.

I have some manuals here for reference but before I load a handful of each for trials I would love to hear if any of you have some favorite loads you might share with me.
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evan price
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Re: Need 44mag load suggestions..

Post by evan price »

As long as you don't want 100% Magnum performance and are shooting target loads, Titegroup works great but you have to be careful not to double or triple charge, there is a lot of room in a 44 mag case and not much Titegroup in it!

I cast the Lee 240-grain SWC in a tumble lube mold and load it behind 6.0 of Titegroup, roll crimped in the last lube groove. MIxed brass, whatever large pistol primers I happen to have handy, and it shoots like a 38 Special in my Ruger Super Redhawk. Roughly 1000 fps, accurate, clean.
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Sigma40
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Re: Need 44mag load suggestions..

Post by Sigma40 »

Thanks EP, I recall loading some using TG but cannot recall how that loading had behaved. I will load up a half-dozen and see how they do at the range.
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
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SweetWilliam
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Re: Need 44mag load suggestions..

Post by SweetWilliam »

240gr cast loads
4.7gr. to 10gr. of Titegroup
6.5gr to 7gr. of Unique
12.3gr to 13.7gr. of BlueDot
http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Sigma40
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Re: Need 44mag load suggestions..

Post by Sigma40 »

SweetWilliam wrote:240gr cast loads
4.7gr. to 10gr. of Titegroup
6.5gr to 7gr. of Unique
12.3gr to 13.7gr. of BlueDot
http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Sigma40 wrote:I have some manuals here for reference but before I load a handful of each for trials I would love to hear if any of you have some favorite loads you might share with me.
I've checked my manuals, hodgdon's sites and various forums but I know several of these guys have been doing this for decades if not longer than I've been alive and value their opinions above some others. :wink:
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
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Sevens
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Re: Need 44mag load suggestions..

Post by Sevens »

I'd recently been looking for a light load for some old cast LSWC .44 Mag that I've had laying around, the goal was a -very- light for .44 Magnum load, maybe running around .44 Special or a bit over that, and I ended up choosing Titegroup because of it's reputation for being very position insensitive when small charges are used in large capacity cases. I've seen odd results in the past when trying to build light loads in cavernous brass because the small charge has so much room to sit oddly in the case and Titegroup is supposed to be completely oblivious to that.

I ended up going with 5.7gr of Titegroup pushing an old Vance 240gr LSWC and last weekend, I chrono'd 10 of them in my 7.5" Redhawk and they were amazingly consistent and ran between 860 and 875 ft/sec. 14.7 fps extreme spread and 5.47 fps SD made it a rewarding load...at least so far as the chrono is concerned.

I've always been suspect of Titegroup, it also has a reputation for running -HOT-. That is, casual observers have noted that the same number of rounds through any handgun with Titegroup seems to make any given firearm warmer to the touch than other favorite loads. This is a very unscientific "finding" but I can say that anything I have noticed does -NOT- counter this reputation. I've read that's it is due to a high nitro content in the powder.
evan price wrote:Titegroup works great but you have to be careful not to double or triple charge, there is a lot of room in a 44 mag case and not much Titegroup in it!
This is always a good footnote, and here I'll interject my own little snarky bit that if you require a fluffy powder to keep yourself from double or triple charging a case, you need to take up gardening and get the HELL away from any load bench, but I can also get on board and simply say that when you are using an ultra-fast powder in a l-a-r-g-e magnum case, you are immediately working with two key ingredients for REALLY actually going full-bore in to catastrophic failure if you do something very wrong. While other powders and combo can raise pressures and push the envelope and get you well beyond SAAMI spec and push you in to the realm of factory proof loads... it's a very fast powder such as Titegroup and a very large piece of brass (like -any- revolver chambering) that gives you the chance to actually blow something in to pieces.

Be careful, as always.
I like to swap brass... and I'm looking for .32 H&R Mag, .327 Fed Mag, .380 Auto and 10mm. If you have some and would like to swap for something else, send me a note!
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weakhand luke
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Re: Need 44mag load suggestions..

Post by weakhand luke »

I like to worry about reduced loads using H-110, too.
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Re: Need 44mag load suggestions..

Post by JustaShooter »

weakhand luke wrote:I like to worry about reduced loads using H-110, too.
One word: Don't.
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