Trouble With A 44 Mag Load???

[jgiehl]

I emailed Alliant Powder Company to ask if you should or shouldn't use a magnum primer with 2400 and today I got my response.

We do not recommend using mag pistol primers with 2400. However, this
does not mean that you can't. What application do you have in mind?

Ben Amonette
Consumer Service Manager
Alliant Powder Company



On my own note.
Hey you could put Bullseye in any case that has empty space in it, doesn't mean you should.
I've always had great performance with standard CCI primers. Oh well.....to each their own you know.

 

[HankB]

Is the Ruger Super Redhawk in the same category as the Blackhawk and the TC Contender? Can you safely shoot 'Ruger Only' loads in them?

As CraigC mentioned, some hotter loads were recently published in Handloader magazine. I've no doubt that the RH and SRH will stand up to loads that are moderately above factory norms, but don't try to make a .454 Casull out of it - when Ruger makes .454s, they use higher-strength steel and special heat treating.

 

[Iron Sight]

What if someone chronograph-ed some of these 2400 loads and compared them to velocities as printed in the manuals?

I did Friday and my 6" S&W with 18.5G of 2400 under a MO 240 grain Elmer Kieth was showing 1200 FPS. I have very little chronograph experience and only fired 4 rounds through a buddies chronograph???? The Lyman cast bullet book illustates 18.2G 2400 load with a 4" barrel & 250G lead projectile in low 900 velocity?

Forgot to say I was using CCI 300 primers as also recomended in the Lyman book. I also was using Starline brass.

 

[Seedtick]

Follow Up

Gentlemen, here is were we are at....

We continued our work up with the new lot of Winchester primers and we also added Federal 150 and Remington 2.5 primers to the mix. We may have had a bit of a leak at 20.8 grains and then a definite, but no hole, leak at 21.1 grains with the Winchesters so that is where we stopped shooting them. Jeremy, my son-in-law, didn't like the looks of the Federal primers and we quit using them 20.5 grains. I don't think we were crowding them but Federals do sometimes seem to lose their corner radius before the CCI and Winchesters do. IMO YMMV as they say or I may just be all wet about this...

We continued on up with the Remington primers and stopped at 22.0 grains as that is the heaviest that we have loaded so far. The primers still look good and the empties were still just falling out of the cylinder so we may try a bit more. Jeremy was beginning to enjoy the recoil less and less at those last 2 increases so we may just back up a little and load a few and see how they shoot.

With these results and the input about the Wolf primers,

Here and also Here,

from ya'll we changed up our Powder Valley order. We did not get any more WLPs. Jeremy ordered a big box of Remington and I got one of Wolf. I had to go with Tula on the small pistol because they were out of the Wolf. All told we ended up ordering 22 pounds of powder and added 18K assorted primers, the majority of which were Wolf brand, to our inventory. I know this is small beans to a bunch of ya'll but this was by far my biggest powder and primer order. I'm gonna do my best to not get caught with my pants down like I did during the Obamanation.

I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to all of you who took the time to share your experiences with me and Jeremy. Ya'll were a tremendous help and I am grateful!

Seedtick

 

[Walkalong]

I'm gonna do my best to not get caught with my pants down like I did during the Obamanation.

Sure glad to hear that, cause we certainly don't want to see you with your pants down.

I load .44 to get 1300 to 1350 FPS with a 240 Gr bullet. I quit when I get that, as long as it is below max of course. I have not had any problems with WLP primers.

 

[ReloaderEd]

I saw the same problem with CCI standard large pistol primers, also winchester which are not stainless anymore but Federals seem to not have the problem. I think they are making the primer cups out of thinner material. The new primers are not as resilient during seating into the primer pocket.
I tried the same load in my 44 magnum Ruger small frame revolver and it fired fine using the Federal Large Pistol primers but accuracy was poor. Switching to magnum primers, again Federal the group shrank to a quarter the size. Go figure?
We have seen the same problem on 9mm Luger loads using CCI small pistol primers.
I just reloaded some 45 GAP rounds that use small pistol primers and I used the rest of some winchester stainless primers that I know won't have the problem. I believe benchrest primers have heavier primet cups. The consumer is getting messed over by the primer manufactues that is what I believe.

 

[Seedtick]

Sure glad to hear that, cause we certainly don't want to see you with your pants down.

nope, would not be pretty

I don't know if it could make that much difference but...
my nephew recently got a schweet stainless Super Blackhawk chambered in 44 mag. He is going to shoot those workups that Jeremy didn't shoot and see what those Winchester primers do in his gun.

I do realize that each firearm has it's own unique quirks but I just don't know. If I had not found a 'leaking' primer in my 45 Colt loads I might think that it was perhaps a gun related problem and they might work just fine in a different gun. I just don't know.

I am looking forward to the results though. So we'll see.

Seedtick