Bulldog 44 Ammo Question

[Crowman]

Standard pressure .44 Special loads only. No Skeeter Skelton heavies! You will beat the revolver up. These are excellent concealed carry self defence guns, but are designed to use standard pressure 44 Specials. They ain’t N-Frames!

Buffalo Bore makes a standard pressure load especially designed for the Charter Bulldog, a 200 grain cast wadcutter called the “Manstopper”. It is NOT a plus P load. That is what I carry in mine. I use QuickStrips for fast reloads. Can load two at a time. These are flat and easy to conceal. These wadcutters are difficult to use from a speedloader because of the flat ends. For use in speedloaders, I carry 165 grain Hornady Critical Defense loads. These have pointy noses and are easier to drop in, though the wadcutters are a better SD load.

 

[Monster Zero]

Standard pressure .44 Special loads only. No Skeeter Skelton heavies! You will beat the revolver up. These are excellent concealed carry self defence guns, but are designed to use standard pressure 44 Specials. They ain’t N-Frames!

Buffalo Bore makes a standard pressure load especially designed for the Charter Bulldog, a 200 grain cast wadcutter called the “Manstopper”. It is NOT a plus P load. That is what I carry in mine. I use QuickStrips for fast reloads. Can load two at a time. These are flat and easy to conceal. These wadcutters are difficult to use from a speedloader because of the flat ends. For use in speedloaders, I carry 165 grain Hornady Critical Defense loads. These have pointy noses and are easier to drop in, though the wadcutters are a better SD load.

View attachment 784909

What's up with the shot load, number 6 on your speed strip? Is it just a place holder, or is it there for some contingency or another?

 

[The Evangelist Cowboy]

What's up with the shot load, number 6 on your speed strip? Is it just a place holder, or is it there for some contingency or another?

I keep a shot load on my speed strip for my 605 for rattlers...

 

[Crowman]

What's up with the shot load, number 6 on your speed strip? Is it just a place holder, or is it there for some contingency or another?

That’s snake shot...got a bunch of copperheads and timber rattlers around here. I ain’t a city boy...live in the woods.

 

[The Evangelist Cowboy]

Standard pressure .44 Special loads only. No Skeeter Skelton heavies! You will beat the revolver up. These are excellent concealed carry self defence guns, but are designed to use standard pressure 44 Specials. They ain’t N-Frames!

Buffalo Bore makes a standard pressure load especially designed for the Charter Bulldog, a 200 grain cast wadcutter called the “Manstopper”. It is NOT a plus P load. That is what I carry in mine. I use QuickStrips for fast reloads. Can load two at a time. These are flat and easy to conceal. These wadcutters are difficult to use from a speedloader because of the flat ends. For use in speedloaders, I carry 165 grain Hornady Critical Defense loads. These have pointy noses and are easier to drop in, though the wadcutters are a better SD load.

View attachment 784909

Id stick with the buffalo bore, I was never a fan of the hornady defense ammo, too light for caliber in my book, but they do make a dandy .44 spl 200 gr XTP load thatll work just fine.

 

[Cocked & Locked]

I like the 215 grain solid base wadcutters from Matt's Bullets and the 250 grain ones from the same source.

 

[Walkalong]

I like the 215 grain solid base wadcutters from Matt's Bullets

Those are a lot like the 208 Gr WCs I used to cast for mine. Shot great.

and the 250 grain ones from the same source.

Those look bad to the bone. Nice. I could see myself loading some of those up for my .44 Mag

 

[GBExpat]

Welp, waited too long to edit Post#3 so I will post this here:

Matt's 250gr running, nominally, 800fps into loose sand/clay from ~20' ...

 

[Duster340]

My little Bulldog eats them all



It is typically loaded with the 240 WFP on the right below.

 

[Walkalong]

It is typically loaded with the 240 WFP on the right below.

Mold maker?

 

[Duster340]

Mold maker?

It started life as a Lee 214gr SWC that I got in a lot of 5 molds I scored some years ago. Since I already had a 214gr SWC I figured I'd open it up a bit. Picked up a .385 cutting bit and used a drill press at work to punch it out a bit. Shoots great in the Dog as well as the SBH and 629. I plan to use it in my 4" 629 this deer season. Should get it done assuming I do my part.

Be well

 

[Walkalong]

Picked up a .385 cutting bit and used a drill press at work to punch it out a bit.

Nicely done.

 

[35 Whelen]

I'm a .44 Special fanatic, so I picked up a used, '70's production Bulldog a few years ago as a concealed carry revolver. My practice load for my other .44 Specials is a home-cast 260 gr. Keith SWC over 6.5 grs. of Unique. This is a very accurate 50 yd. load and recoil is mild out of my Uberti's and my Flat Top Blackhawk. So, it was the first load I tried when I got my Bulldog. After the first shot, there were detached retina's, eyelashes scattered around my shooting bench, most of my fingernails dislodged, and bleeding from my ears, nostrils and eye sockets. Recoil was a bit brisk, to say the least. So, I set about working on a less punishing load.

I tried all different kinds, but ultimately settled on a 185 gr. wadcutter from a Lyman 429348 mould.



Loaded over 4.5 grs. of Clays, recoil is very manageable, they averaged 853 fps and grouped quite well at 15 yds.



If you don't cast your own bullets, that particular one is available from Matt's Bullets for $16.00 per 100. http://www.mattsbullets.com/index.p...ducts_id=250&zenid=jcrsi4ecg3r67ga1uibbjgmmv1

35W

 

[Walkalong]

So, it was the first load I tried when I got my Bulldog. After the first shot, there were detached retina's, eyelashes scattered around my shooting bench, most of my fingernails dislodged, and bleeding from my ears, nostrils and eye sockets. Recoil was a bit brisk, to say the least

I know the feeling, at 21 ounces the Bulldogs don't give much resistance to recoil impulses.

but ultimately settled on a 185 gr. wadcutter from a Lyman 429348 mould.

I bought some similar 185 Gr WCs from Penn Bullets, but wasn't really happy with them. I do like the look of that Matts Bullets 185 Gr WC.

I settled on the Magnus 215 Gr SWC (#702) for store bought bullets in the Bulldog. Although the Magnus 240 Gr also shot very well, the 215 helped with recoil.

 

[Water-Man]

http://www.georgia-arms.com/new-44-special-200gr-speer-bonded-unicore-hollow-point/

 

[Confederate]

As others have rightly replied, the answer is NO! Don't use hot ammo. In fact, I'd shoot a few cylinder fulls of factory ammo, then clean it and put the bloody thing in your desk drawer (or wherever you're going to use it). Even standard ammo will loosen the gun over time, and when I had mine, I had numerous binding problems. When the gun got hot, the cylinder would scrape against the forcing cone until it cooled off. Years ago I was flabbergasted when some yo-yo converted his Ruger Speed-Six to shoot five rounds of .44 Special. Why, I wondered, would anyone deface, nay, mutilate a fine gun like a Speed-Six to shoot fewer rounds of an inferior caliber? It made no sense! But gun writers have to dream up new things to write about.

Although the Bulldog looks intimidating with a gaping hole, in reality, it's a very slow-moving round. Lead's expensive, too, so buying fifty rounds can be exorbitant. I liked my Bulldog, but the recoil was excessive and the danged gun had that binding problem. Serial killer Son of Sam used a Bulldog to kill six people and wound eight in 1976 and was called the .44-caliber Killer (or something like that). That was a long time ago.

The same sort of voices that spoke to me, from his dogs. Now I think my cat's talking to me. He says, "You need a Ruger SP-101. Go buy one at once!" Must resist.

 

[Merle1]

As others have rightly replied, the answer is NO! Don't use hot ammo. In fact, I'd shoot a few cylinder fulls of factory ammo, then clean it and put the bloody thing in your desk drawer (or wherever you're going to use it). Even standard ammo will loosen the gun over time, and when I had mine, I had numerous binding problems. When the gun got hot, the cylinder would scrape against the forcing cone until it cooled off. Years ago I was flabbergasted when some yo-yo converted his Ruger Speed-Six to shoot five rounds of .44 Special. Why, I wondered, would anyone deface, nay, mutilate a fine gun like a Speed-Six to shoot fewer rounds of an inferior caliber? It made no sense! But gun writers have to dream up new things to write about.

Although the Bulldog looks intimidating with a gaping hole, in reality, it's a very slow-moving round. Lead's expensive, too, so buying fifty rounds can be exorbitant. I liked my Bulldog, but the recoil was excessive and the danged gun had that binding problem. Serial killer Son of Sam used a Bulldog to kill six people and wound eight in 1976 and was called the .44-caliber Killer (or something like that). That was a long time ago.

The same sort of voices that spoke to me, from his dogs. Now I think my cat's talking to me. He says, "You need a Ruger SP-101. Go buy one at once!" Must resist.

It's not so much that lead is expensive, but limited production plays a big part too. Look at the price of .410 shells, and they don't use much lead compared to a 12 gauge.......

 

[loose noose]

I use Matt's 250grn. LHP at about 825fps if I remember right, and had them expand quite nicely in a gallon jug of water with a flannel shirt wrapped around it. I've got both the Classic, and the new 2.5"SS version. The Classic I bought back in the mid 70's so it has been thru quite a few rounds without any problems to speak of. BTW it is still pretty darn tight. Actually my carry loads for the Bulldog is the 165grn controlled expansion Hornardy Critical Defense loads. I've seen how they perform in ballistic gelatin, and the fact that they are factory loads convinced me that due to liability they would be the load to go with. Further according to my chronograph they clock right at an average of 910fps.

Back to the OP's question, no I don't believe in a steady diet of high velocity (heavy loads) in any firearm, and I'll be the first to tell ya that Classic has had a few that I would consider heavy loads, but during all that time, I doubt it had more than a cylinder or two thru it. Enjoy shooting that little classic, I'd say the vast majority of rounds that I've reloaded for it is right at or under 700fps.

 

[GBExpat]

I use Matt's 250grn. LHP at about 825fps if I remember right, and had them expand quite nicely in a gallon jug of water with a flannel shirt wrapped around it. ...

I included a pic in Post#33 showing some of the expansion capabilities of these particular Matts bullets running at 800±fps ...

.... I just mention it for those who either missed it or failed to realize that we were talking about the same bullet.

I have come to really like these bullets for both my Bulldogs and mild loads in my 629.

 

[dickydalton]

Off the Bulldog subject, those 185 grain wadcutters from Matt's are the most accurate bullet out of my S&W Model 24 6 1/2".