.44 Mag Lever Action Hunting Load

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Scrumbag

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Hi folks,

I’m looking for a load for my 44 mag lever action (20” bbl).

Now, due to hunting regs where I am I need a minimum muzzle energy of 1700 ftlbs

To do that, I need to go with the lighter bullets and higher speeds than a 240gr or 300 gr will allow.

So my plan is over H110 (or maybe Viht110) to load

200gr Hornady XPT
210gr Sierra JHC

Any thoughts and input much welcomed

Thanks in advance Scrummy
 
I use 24.0 gr of H110 and a Nosler 240 gr JSP and get 1800 fps out of an 20" barrel, this gives just over 1700 ft/lbs.

I found that fast expanding "pistol" bullets - hollow point, XTP and so on expand too rapidly to give decent penetration.
With a 44 mag you are making a hole almost a 1/2" in diameter without expansion and I found the Nosler JSP bullets gave me decent performance.
The same load in my 16".44 Winchester Trapper has taken many deer with muzzle velocity of 1675 fps.

Dan
 
Hey Scrum , what's the barrel length on your lever ? I do have a lot of data handy , I'm sure I can find something . What bullets do you have access too ?
 
S'up brother. 20" barrel. 1:20" twist.Can get 200gr XTP, 210gr JHC, 225 FTX, 265 FTX, 240 XTP, 240 JHC, Barnes 200gr X-Tac, 200,240 and 300 Noslers
 
Scrumbag said:
Hi folks,

I’m looking for a load for my 44 mag lever action (20” bbl).

Now, due to hunting regs where I am I need a minimum muzzle energy of 1700 ftlbs

To do that, I need to go with the lighter bullets and higher speeds than a 240gr or 300 gr will allow.

So my plan is over H110 (or maybe Viht110) to load

200gr Hornady XPT
210gr Sierra JHC

Any thoughts and input much welcomed

Thanks in advance Scrummy
Click to expand...

I'm curious as to how this energy rule is enforced in real hunting situations, especially with guys using hand loads. Do they issue each officer with a bullet puller, a scale, and a chronograph? Aside from verifying projectile weight and velocity, I can't see how they would know muzzle energy. Or is it on the honour system?
 
pastway said:
I'm curious as to how this energy rule is enforced in real hunting situations, especially with guys using hand loads. Do they issue each officer with a bullet puller, a scale, and a chronograph? Aside from verifying projectile weight and velocity, I can't see how they would know muzzle energy. Or is it on the honour system?
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Very much an honours system but it is the law so I have no wish to break it.

Scrummy
 
Scrumbag said:
Very much an honours system but it is the law so I have no wish to break it.

Scrummy
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That is fair enough. I prefer a clean conscience myself. Hodgdon's online reloading tables list the max H110 load for a 240 gr projectile as giving 1817 fps in a 20 inch barrel. Plugging those numbers into this site (http://www.shooterscalculator.com/bullet-kinetic-energy.php) gives 1760 ft lbs of energy. My barrel is slightly shorter, but you have a bit of leeway in extra energy. In real life, in my testing of many loads of different calibers, there is some variation even from shot to shot. If you want to use a 240 gr projectile, I think you are so close that I doubt anyone cares.
The last bear I shot was with my Trapper in 44 mag. I had it loaded with a 240 gr jacketed bullet with max load of powder. The bear was quite close. Bear died. I lived. When I registered it, Rangers at DNR were happy. I was happy. Everything worked out okay.
 
Pastway, thanks for that. From what I've seen it tends to be easier to find loads that do 1700ftlbs with a 200/210 grain bullet hence going that route.

(I would prefer 240 gr though!)
 
Scrumbag said:
UK and fallow deer
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I like the Nosler 240 JSP myself. Might lose the jacket at close range but the cores hold together and make a big hole to let the daylight in. The Hornady 240 XTP is rated up to 1800 fps impact velocity and the 300 gr XTP to 1900.

The 200 XTP is rated only up to 1650 fps. To get 1700 fpe you'll have to push it 325 fps past it's recommended impact velocity. That would make close in shots an iffy thing. Dunno what the 210 JSP is rated to but it's a .44 Spl bullet so I'd be doubtful it'll perform well at rifle velocities. Maybe, but I'd be doubtful.

If you want to cast, NOE makes a mold for the 265 grain Ranch Dog flat point that is specifically intended for leverguns.

No issue to make 1700 fpe with 240 grain bullets using H110. It'll be a hot load with the 265 RD though.
 
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Scrumbag said:
Hi folks,

I’m looking for a load for my 44 mag lever action (20” bbl).

Now, due to hunting regs where I am I need a minimum muzzle energy of 1700 ftlbs

To do that, I need to go with the lighter bullets and higher speeds than a 240gr or 300 gr will allow.

So my plan is over H110 (or maybe Viht110) to load

200gr Hornady XPT
210gr Sierra JHC

Any thoughts and input much welcomed

Thanks in advance Scrummy
Click to expand...

How comfortable are you with exceeding SAAMI maximum loads? I would almost always try to get hotter hand loads by carefully upping the powder load 1/2 gr. at a time beyond the SAAMI maximum recommended load until I saw ANY signs of excessive pressure such as difficult extraction, incipient head separation, flattened primers or leakage around primers at which point I broke down all the cartridges left at that load and dialed back the powder. By doing this I was able to not only get faster loads but more accurate ones too since there was quite often no air space left in the case. The .44 Remington Magnum was one of my favorites to play with as I had both a S&W Model 29 which I carried on Bear Hunts and a Marlin M1894. The rifle has a stronger action than the revolver and will handle the extra horsepower with no problem. My favorite bullet for hunting was the Hornady 240gr, JTC/Silhouette bullet which has less expansion than most soft nose bullets and over an appropriate amount of H110 is deadly on deer at close ranges.
 
I use 25gr of H110 under a 240gr bullet in my Blackhawk. Shouldn't be an issue in your lever gun. I have a 12" barreled Mare's Leg 45Colt that gets 26gr H110 under a 250gr bullet. Exits a 10" green poplar tree.
 
FWIW, Nosler 240 JSP over 24.0 H110 which will easily make 1700 fpe. Fired into water jugs at 50 yards. The first three blew up and it was in the fourth. Retained weight was like 225 grains, if I recall correctly.


 
Thanks flashman, Reason I like the 200gr XPT and 210 JHC is that with both min and maximum loads get the ftlbs requirement with H110.
 
Scrumbag said:
Thanks flashman, Reason I like the 200gr XPT and 210 JHC is that with both min and maximum loads get the ftlbs requirement with H110.
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Gotcha. The thing with H110 though is it's kind of all or nothing- it really doesn't like to be loaded under max. Why do you want under max loads for hunting?

A fast light bullet out of the .44 sure looks like an attractive proposition; a couple hundred more pounds of energy, but I think the trick will be finding a bullet that weight designed for those impact velocities. The Hornady 225 FTX is intended for rifle velocities, but I've never used it so can't comment on real world results with it. The challenge here will be finding a light bullet you can push as fast as you need to without ending up with a load with a 50 yard band of effective performance. I'd be very sceptical of light handgun bullet performance launched at rifle velocities, until you get back down to their intended speed at 100 yards or so. I'd take double the penetration with a heavier bullet over a 15% increase in energy any day. The .44 Mag is a 150 yard and under round for deer sized game, and it's advantages are really in shots under 100 yards... so that means a heavier, slower bullet with what's on the market.
 
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Hi flashman2, yes agree with what you are saying. Another thing I like about H100 that I like is there only ever seems to be about 1gr of difference between a max and min load for those bullets.

Interestingly, Hogdon give a MV of 1669 with the 225 gr FTX (which is 1392 ft lbs) with H110.

But their H110 Data for 240 gr JHP has a higher load than the 225gr FTX and higher speeds. Wonder if there is a glitch in their website... or something funky about the FTX I'm not getting...
 
Yeah, that's weird. That definitely seems like a very light load. Perhaps something to do with having to seat them deeper in shorter brass, taking away from powder space and upping pressure. As I say, it's the only bullet that light I know of that's intended for .44 mag rifle use, but FTXs also have a reputation for being soft. I've only loaded them in .30-30 and .308, and can confirm that's true for the .308 160 grain at least.

Looking at the Barnes site and they say the XPB will perform well at .44 mag rifle velocities. You mention you can get the Tac X, but the X Tac bullets are rifle calibre. Is it the 200 gr XPB by chance? Though the obvious issue I see there is again powder capacity since they're much longer than a cup and core 200 grain bullet... so the question is can you drive them fast enough? Don't shoot them so I don't have data on them, but you definitely can't use 200 gr cup and core data, so no idea how fast you can push them with H110.

H110 is really a powder that likes heavy charges under heavy for calibre bullets. Doing something else with it is going to be a real challenge. Also which gun do you have? The Marlins have issues all their own with respect to bullet sizes and what they like.

I have a pile of PCd and .430 sized Ranch Dog 275s that come out at 270 gr. I'd be happy to send you some to experiment with if you can use a solid lead bullet. They were specifically developed for the Marlin 94 for hunting. As said, you're already making a .44 hole, and the flat meplat makes them a bit of a hammer. Penetration is also out of this world, they'd pretty much go right through a fallow deer from any angle. No problem to make 1700 fpe with them over H110, but it'll be a max load. PC will give you a bit more velocity for a given charge weight over a copper jacketed bullet, so 21.5gr should get you to 1700 fpe.

Also maybe asked to get this moved to the reloading forum? I'm sure there's more experienced .44 mag loaders there that will have advice.



 
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