44 spcl/mag lever

[Bronco72]

I agree with going with 44 special loads in Mag. brass, for two reasons !
Less problems feeding the cartridge into the chamber. A lot of people have had not problems others have with the shorter brass.
Do not have to change your belling the case, seating, crimping dies.

Added, slug you barrel! You want your cast bullet to be 0.001 to 0.002 over the bore diameter.
My fun load is a 300 grgc lfn LBT hard cast over 5.5 grs of WST. Gives about 750 - 760 fps out of a 24" barrel. Weird - funny thing is it gives the same velocity out of a 71/2" Redhawk. A max load of 2400 will give about 400 fps faster than the revolver. 1350 vs 1750 fps
Have fun and post some pictures if you would please .

John

 

[mdi]

If your ordering cast for a 44 lever go .431. Don't go in hole hog on bullets until you know those are big enough for accuracy.

Good advice. SAAMI specs. for 44 Magnum rifle barrels is .431" groove diameter, handgun barrels is ,429". Don't know why. My Puma in 44 Mag. slugs out to .431". I use a Ranch Dog design 240 gr or 26 gr. RNFP sized to .432"...

For my PCCs I have always started out with, and mostly stuck with handgun load data.

 

[styles]

I bought some rimrock 260 gr. Keith’s. Thinking AA#5 for them. I could only find special brass. I might load some 240 Gr. BevelBase and load them with #2 in special brass; saving the 260s for magnum brass when found.

.44 260 gr. Keith SWC-FB per 500

In-Stock .44 260 gr. Keith SWC-FB (sized .430 - .431) OAL 0.780, Meplat 0.324, Nose to crimp groove 0.376

rimrockbullets.com

.44 240 gr. SWC per 500

In-Stock .44 240 gr. SWC Bevel Base (sized .430) OAL 0.735, Meplat 0.275, Nose to crimp groove 0.315

rimrockbullets.com

I don’t know Why I need two bullets. The 260s seem to work best in magnums and full loads per reviews.,,so, I bought them too ,

 

[CraigC]

Good advice. SAAMI specs. for 44 Magnum rifle barrels is .431" groove diameter, handgun barrels is ,429". Don't know why. My Puma in 44 Mag. slugs out to .431". I use a Ranch Dog design 240 gr or 26 gr. RNFP sized to .432"...

For my PCCs I have always started out with, and mostly stuck with handgun load data.

As stated, no longer an issue. Ruger is using standard 1-20" twist barrel stock on these guns.

 

[beeenbag]

The .44Mag will do anything the .45 will, from mild to wild, with less powder. You can really go either way with brass, depending on what you want to do. That said, I rarely if ever shoot .44Spl's out of .44Mag's any more. Pretty much settled on a 240gr SWC over 10.0gr Unique for a general purpose, plinking, practice and hunting load. Runs about 1400fps out of rifles and 1100-1200fps out of pistols.

I only shoot .44Spl's out of .44Spl's, of which I have many, including an Uberti 1866 short rifle.



He has the new one, it's a non-issue.




I keep hearing this repeated and in 25yrs of handloading the .44Spl, have never found it to be true. Right now, both are the same price from Starline, except the .44Special is in stock. Even .44Colt brass is only slightly more expensive and I've never not been able to find out.

Buying once fired brass is where you see the price and availability difference. I only buy new brass for hot hunting loads.

 

[styles]

Enablers

Ruger Super Blackhawk 44mag Ruger-Super Blackhawk 4.63" Ruger - Revolvers at GunBroker.com : 1021334524

Buy Ruger Super Blackhawk 44mag Ruger-Super Blackhawk 4.63" Ruger: GunBroker is the largest seller of Revolvers Pistols Guns & Firearms All: 1021334524

www.gunbroker.com

 

[Frulk]

^^^Styles, truly a most excellent acquisition. PM me your address and I’ll send you a box of these gratis so you can celebrate appropriately.

https://oregontrailbullets.com/xcart/?target=product&product_id=106

 

[styles]

Perfect! I also just got a redhawk.

 

[Frulk]

^^^^what model?

 

[styles]

1994 Ruger Redhawk 44 Magnum 5.5" Satin Stainless​

 

[35 Whelen]

I guess I'm opposite of most when it comes to the .44 Spl/.44 Mag discussion.

I think we all pretty much agree that for general shooting, we use light to mid-range loads and if/when we decide to hunt, we use heavier loads. To that end it makes no sense at all to me to buy a gigantic revolver such as a Super Blackhawk or a Redhawk in .44 Magnum then load it with light loads. It's no secret that many .44 Special's such as the Ruger Flat Top Blackhawks can easily be loaded to the level of .44 Magnum loads as offered by the Big 3 domestic ammunition companies (~240 gr. bullet @ 1180 fps). So why not buy the smaller, lighter revolver, load/shoot your light and mid-range loads, then if you decide to go hunting (which few EVER do with a revolver), run the loads up to .44 Magnum level?

As to feeding issues, my only experience is with my current '92 Rossi and a '73 Uberti (that I regrettably sold), both in .44 Magnum. Both fed/feed Special's without issue. In fact, before I performed some polishing and modifications to my Rossi, it would feed handloaded 260 gr. Keith SWC's better out of Special cases than Mangum. On the technical side, what few handloaders realize is when both the Special and Magnum are loaded to their relative SAAMI o.a.l.'s the Special round will be .005" longer than the Magnum, so why wouldn't it feed in a Magnum chambered lever rifle?

As to the worn out non-issue of a carbon ring, it's just that, a non-issue. My wife and I shot several CAS matches with our '92 Rossi .357 using .38 Special loads and never had a problem with carbon fouling that couldn't be cured with normal cleaning. I clean carbon out of the cylinder throats and barrels of my revolvers regularly with nothing more than cloth patches and Hoppe's No. 9.

35W

 

[styles]

I’m shooting heavy keiths out of special shells, but they won’t load in magnum shells. The lswc Keith style bullets with beveled base are working fine. This is consistent with both 38 and 44. Which is why 45 is best. You can load special or magnum in the same shells.

 

[Bazoo]

Congratulations on the rifle. And pistols? did you just buy a complimentary Blackhawk and Redhawk?

Anyways, I load both Special and Magnum brass... for my Winchester 92 44 Magnum. I have a Blackhawk in 44 Special, but I also have found that long nosed bullets like the Keith are too long for the rifle in Magnum brass.

I say go from light target stuff all the way to full bore Magnum with your experimenting. I'm still working on loads and I've been loading 44 Magnum and Special for something like 5 years now. Right now, my favorite bullet for the rifle is my Ranch Dog 432-265-RF bullet over 22 grains W296. NOE makes a copy, though I don't know a commercial outfit that casts it.

I have also run some of them in Special brass for my revolver with 4.8 grains Bullseye. I need to test that in the rifle I guess.

 

[styles]

Yes; I got both.

 

[Bazoo]

Yes; I got both.

Congratulations on all three.

Do you have an idea for what you want in a holster yet? I carry my Blackhawk in a Simply Rugged Sourdough Pancake.

 

[styles]

No idea on holsters.

 

[bigpower491]

Flexibility to adapt. That's the beauty of 357, 44 magnum. The absolute best caliber, in terms of Flexibility to adapt,is the 454 Casull, and that just my opinion. The only difference between the 454 and the smaller 2 calibers is its ability to use 4 different primers, small pistol, standard and magnum for your lighter to 30k psi loads, small rifle, standard and magnum for your lower to top end Casull loads. Hence the basis of my opinion there.
As for 44 and 357 mag, I've loaded both to "special" levels, hot magnum levels, and everything in between for revolvers. I do not have any rifles chamber for these cartridges, but if I did, I'd certainly put forth all the techniques I use when loading for revolvers, one of which is deep seating bullets for lighter loads in the magnum cases.
Flexibility to adapt.......the 44 mag definitely has the capability. With proper component and propellant selection, you can basically make it whatever you want, mild to wild, within reason, and without having to worry about using shorter brass.

 

[CraigC]

Flexibility to adapt. That's the beauty of 357, 44 magnum. The absolute best caliber, in terms of Flexibility to adapt,is the 454 Casull, and that just my opinion. The only difference between the 454 and the smaller 2 calibers is its ability to use 4 different primers, small pistol, standard and magnum for your lighter to 30k psi loads, small rifle, standard and magnum for your lower to top end Casull loads. Hence the basis of my opinion there.
As for 44 and 357 mag, I've loaded both to "special" levels, hot magnum levels, and everything in between for revolvers. I do not have any rifles chamber for these cartridges, but if I did, I'd certainly put forth all the techniques I use when loading for revolvers, one of which is deep seating bullets for lighter loads in the magnum cases.
Flexibility to adapt.......the 44 mag definitely has the capability. With proper component and propellant selection, you can basically make it whatever you want, mild to wild, within reason, and without having to worry about using shorter brass.

Yes but you're really only going to be using full pressure (65,000psi) loads which are the reason for small rifle primers in a Freedom Arms. It's better run at 50-55,000psi where things are a little less critical and extraction isn't iffy in guns that aren't FA's.