.44 lowest powder charge

The lightest .44 loads I've used have been when I've pushed the case into a cake of paraffin and fred the round with only the primer. This is a fun indoors round, although it's a bit smokey. It has enough velocity to punch through a cardboard box, and is useful for getting stray dogs to move along without any permanent injury if hit in the butt. At one time primer fired rubber bullets were available as well. The low pressure tends to back out the primer and can tie up a revolver after a couple of rounds, but drilling out the flash holes might resolve this issue if you are sure not to mix the cases up with your regular loads. I never bothered because I figured this was sure to happen.
 
light 44 loads

I myself would'nt go any lower than the lowest listing in the book that you have or email winchester and ask them for the lowest load that you can use safely !!!!! we had a guy at out club that was screwing around with that and he even admitted it to my face and pointed out his top strap from a brand new smith 629 stainless that was it the ceiling of the range . lucky he did;nt get killed or kill someone else . I think you can take up the extra space with cornmeal like black powder shooters do . you don;t want a detonation. buy a 22 . :bangHead:
 
Boomer said:
The lightest .44 loads I've used have been when I've pushed the case into a cake of paraffin and fred the round with only the primer. This is a fun indoors round, although it's a bit smokey. It has enough velocity to punch through a cardboard box, and is useful for getting stray dogs to move along without any permanent injury if hit in the butt. At one time primer fired rubber bullets were available as well. The low pressure tends to back out the primer and can tie up a revolver after a couple of rounds, but drilling out the flash holes might resolve this issue if you are sure not to mix the cases up with your regular loads. I never bothered because I figured this was sure to happen.
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Sounds 'interesting' and tempting;). You trying to lead me astray:p??
 
Yes, we've done the paraffin wax bit with a 44 mag S&W, in the basement. And yes, the wax bullets of ours also went through a heavy cardboard box.
Primers have quite a bit of power and make a surprisingly loud noise, also.
We read that for a powerful pellet gun, you push a 22 calibre pellet into the mouth of a 22 centre fire case, then use just the primer to fire it. We did this with the 22 Hornet and a pistol primer. Sharp crack, but nothing hit the cardboard box a few feet away. It just blew the centre out of the pellet and left the pellet in the case!
 
I use 4.1 Gr of 700X with a 200Gr lead bullet and magnum primer to prevent any chance of flashover. No filler required. This is a very mild cowboy load that works well in a lever gun and a Vaquero. You can also accidently double charge without resulting in a problem. P.M. me if you need more info.
 
Using the med-hard 340gr hp from MT chambers I have tested down to 12gr of Unique in my 22" 1895 45-70 and it's great. 12-14gr I am getting maybe 1.5-2 inches at 50 yards with stock open sites. It's about the same as most other ammo so I'd say it was me keeping it from getting smaller.

I loaded 5 16gr, 5 15gr, and so on to 5 12gr. They all worked great and the 16's almost felt like a normal shell. The 12-14 had little to no real recoil and the noise was getting a lot quieter. I've since loaded 25 more at 5 of each of 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 to try next time.

These were all really pleasant to shoot compared to the other loads I was testing. 33 and 34gr of h4198 behind a 480gr hard cast wide flat point is not painful, but it's a little brain rattling. I had 7 more 35gr's I was going to try but I have decided to keep them as anti-carnivore rounds in the shell holder of the rifle for when I am fishing at hike in lakes.

I really like this rifle and loading for it.


Ryan
 
I have some .457 balls for my Ruger Old army so I couldn't resist making some gallery loads for the 45-70.

5gr of FF Goex powder is hilarious to shoot!! Its quieter than a lot of pellet guns and quite accurate out to 25 yards. Only problem was trying to get the ball all the way down onto the powder because the wall thickness of the case increases way down at the bottom. 10gr worked pretty good too.

Would make a great big game load for shooting pigeons or mice in a barn. But I'm not sure the 5gr load would be lethal enough for a crow or rat past about 10 feet. LOL
 
The data below is from the trail boss web site.
I loaded down to 5.3g of trail boss powder and win primers.
The 240 grain slapped a gong pretty good at 25 yards.
Accuracy dropped off with my 29-2, 6"barrel.
Very accurate with 6.0 grains and low recoil too.

44 MAGNUM Trail Boss
Case: Winchester Barrel: 8.275"
Twist: 1:20" Primer: Remington 2 1/2 Trim: 1.280"


Bullet: 240 GR. LWSC Dia. .430" COL: 1.620"

6.0 828 19,100 PSI

7.3 917 21,600 PSI
 
I've been using around 6 grains of trail boss with 240 grain bullets and have found it to be a nice round for my redhawk quiet enough that I don't get noise complaints and great accuracy its a fun practice round for my .44
 
sunray said:
Using below minimum loads is just as dangerous as using above maximum loads. Creates weird pressures.
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I contacted IMR and talked to one teck reps a year ago regarding this popular "myth".

He said they have, after all these years, never been able to duplicate this "undersized load pressure spike" in a lab.


But as I and another suggested 6.0 g of trail boss is nice and lite.
Why go less in a rifle?
 
ruger22 said:
I contacted IMR and talked to one teck reps a year ago regarding this popular "myth".

He said they have, after all these years, never been able to duplicate this "undersized load pressure spike" in a lab.


But as I and another suggested 6.0 g of trail boss is nice and lite.
Why go less in a rifle?
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Speer couldn't either...
 
mp5k said:
3.2 gr 231! I dont think i could even get the slug down a rifle bbl with that. If i could it would make a great 240 gr pellet gun.
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That load quoted by hywflyr was his first post! Congratulations on making your first post very informative.
Anyone who hasn't used these super light loads, just doesn't realize that they have a power level not to be confused with a pellet gun.
hywflyr, tell us how many magazines the bullet will penetrate.
 
A shooting buddy, hs4570, has got me into light loads using Trail Boss, not only in handgun cartridges but rifle cartridges as well. Very promising results so far and what I really like is, being a bulky powder, it negates the need for filler as I'd been using in the 444 and 45-70 for example. I got some additional helpful info and loads today by googling and checking the folliowing;

www.imrpowder.com/trailboss.html

Check it out, there's 44 Mag loads there in the handgun section.
 
Try some Trail Boss. I am using it my 45 ACP and 44 Mag. You can get light easy to shoot loads and have the powder the case. This powder is the cleanest burning stuff I have ever reloaded.
 
anyrange said:
Try some Trail Boss. I am using it my 45 ACP and 44 Mag. You can get light easy to shoot loads and have the powder the case. This powder is the cleanest burning stuff I have ever reloaded.
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Want to talk dirty...
231 in target loads.

1st powder I bought.
A whole 8 lbs.:bangHead:
Only 1/2 more:bangHead:

What loads are you using TB and 45 acp?
Where did you get the data.
 
I've used Bullseye behind lead slugs down to 2 grains in the 44-40. Actually, I think 1.5 grains stuck a bullet in the barrel. I was playing with loads, trying to get a quiet grouse load.
When you are trying stuff like this you have to check the bore frequently (every shot when working up loads), and really closely check for double charges.
Although in the case of the 44 mag (Rifle), it will withstand 6 grains under a 240 bullet with ease, giving you a comfort zone, when working with really light loads.
Do not assume that the slow loads lack power. Heavy bullets penetrate quite well even when driven at slow speeds.
 
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