I was finishing depriming and resizing a batch of .44 Special brass for my stainless S&W 696, when I noticed I had put a new box of Speer .433" lead round ball projectiles not too far from the box of .429" 200gr JSP's I had intended to load tonight.
Hmmm...
Looks like they'll swage down somewhat in the crimp die after being seated in a flared case. And the ball almost completely drops into by the 696's forcing cone, even without being swaged.
So, doing a little more digging online, I find a few smokeless loads for this fun combination, using the ever-popular Unique, 231, and Bullseye.
But I wanna go one step further. I have a new, unopened pound of Goex FFFg. I have a ton of .44-.45 caliber Ox Yoke Wonder Wads. Anybody see where I'm going? Yup, duplicating the old .44 cap-and-ball loads, albeit in a .44 Special stainless L-Frame.
Darn, no load data exists for the blackpowder version. Do I use a cap-and-ball charge in the .44 Special case, with a Wonder Wad under the ball to control bore fouling and keep the powder column compressed, or use even more FFFg and seat the ball directly on top of the powder column to compress it?
So I am at an impasse. I doubt there's enough black powder pressure in a .44 Special case to really hurt the L-Frame, but I'm also reasonably sure another handloader here on THR has probably done or at least attempted the same thing. In the meantime, I'll defer to others who have tread before me and hold off pending a sanity check.
Hmmm...
Looks like they'll swage down somewhat in the crimp die after being seated in a flared case. And the ball almost completely drops into by the 696's forcing cone, even without being swaged.
So, doing a little more digging online, I find a few smokeless loads for this fun combination, using the ever-popular Unique, 231, and Bullseye.
But I wanna go one step further. I have a new, unopened pound of Goex FFFg. I have a ton of .44-.45 caliber Ox Yoke Wonder Wads. Anybody see where I'm going? Yup, duplicating the old .44 cap-and-ball loads, albeit in a .44 Special stainless L-Frame.
Darn, no load data exists for the blackpowder version. Do I use a cap-and-ball charge in the .44 Special case, with a Wonder Wad under the ball to control bore fouling and keep the powder column compressed, or use even more FFFg and seat the ball directly on top of the powder column to compress it?
So I am at an impasse. I doubt there's enough black powder pressure in a .44 Special case to really hurt the L-Frame, but I'm also reasonably sure another handloader here on THR has probably done or at least attempted the same thing. In the meantime, I'll defer to others who have tread before me and hold off pending a sanity check.