I own a few 44 Magnum hip guns and a couple of 44 Magnum lever rifles, and in my quest for a load that would perform well in all I happened upon a pretty accurate load. I'd like to share it.
As you can well imagine, with this many guns, there will be a fair number of variations. Barrel groove variations from 0.429" > 0.431" and twist rates from 1:20 > 1:38. My main goal was to get a Marlin 1894 44 Mag/Spl to shoot. Being somewhat frustrated with my results, I tried a load that had shown promise in my hip guns in the past. It also showed promise in the '94, so I did a bit more testing.
My final loading was with 7.2 gr of Trail Boss, in Starline brass, a Remington 2 1/2 primer and an OAL of 1.6".
Hodgdon recommends a Rem 2 1/2, I did test other primers, and the Rem 2 1/2 was the only one that gave me a single digit SD on the chrony. The #14 rotor for my Lyman Accumeasure throws 7.2 grains, and that is the reason for that particular charge. Ideally I wanted a bit less velocity, however, in the 44 Mag, I found that lower charges of TB were powder position sensitive, easily detected on the chrony. I give my loads a fairly heavy crimp with a LEE die, and ended up with a 1.6" OAL. If you have a Winchester '92 or clone, exceeding 1.6" by too much causes some pretty nasty jams.
Yesterday I grabbed my Super Blackhawk Ruger, 4 5/8" barrel, and headed to the range. My SBH is the shortest barreled 44 Mag hip gun I own, and this load, in this gun, lets you know you are not shooting a 38 Spl. I easily was able to pick off some of the smaller steel targets. I'm a bit lazy, and don't like shooting paper with my hip guns. I have a few gongs of varying size, and for load testing I just try and hit the smaller gongs. Not very scientific, but my game is Cowboy Action, hitting the steel is the goal. Cowboy Action targets are about 18" square and are close (10 > 15 yards). My targets are at 25 and 50, and are a bunch smaller. If I can consistently hit a 6" to 8" gong at 25 yards, I'm happy with the load, and if I can do it quickly, I'm pleased with my shooting. I step back to 50 yards when I test my lever rifles.
I'd like the load to be a bit slower. It comes out at 840 fps (5 1/2" or 7 1/2" barrel), my goal velocity was 700 fps. I've gone through several boxes of the Speer 240 gr S-SWC, and if the recipe is not right, leading is pretty severe, and accuracy is fairly elusive. I'll live with a bit more bark and jump if I can have accuracy and a shiny bore.
The Speer 240 S-SWC is soft, and it has a concave base, it should obturate at fairly low pressures. My conclusion, after some rather unconventional testing, is that to properly seal, obturation needs to approach slugging up, to assure a good seal. Black powder will obturate lead bullets and keep the velocity low enough to avoid leading. I'm not a fan of the ritual BP cleaning procedure. An alternative, Trail Boss, seems to be able to do that as well. The numbers seem to indicate that, 21,000 psi for 900 fps. Cowboy Action changes the rules for handloading, normally the quest would be for a powder that gives the highest velocity with the lowest pressure. For the Cowboy game, pressure high enough so the case is sealed in the chamber with low velocity to keep barrel rise and recoil to a minimum is the goal. I mostly use my 38/357 guns in competition, the 44's are my backup or secondary guns.
Trail Boss is fairly well know, no need to repeat the advertising. It does have a few minor negatives: the 1 # can only holds 9 oz. and it's a bit pricey IMNSHO. And if you get just the right combination, it stinks, with a heavy ammonia like smell. In the short barreled SBH it is a bit barky, but I never shoot my hip guns without hearing protection, so that is an non issue. The individual flakes are a endowed with a bit of static, the odd flake like to escape the case when loading, and some flakes cling to the plastic hopper, even after a wipe with a dryer sheet.
Unfortunately my stash of Speer bullets has dwindled to zero, and with Wholesale Sports gone, we don't seem to have a local supplier (Winnipeg).
Reference data from Hodgdon, 2018/12/15.
Barky Von Blackhawk, and it has an almost equal bite, love it.
I have a 7 1/2" Vaquero, it tames the load considerably. In an 8 3/4 29-2, it's a pussycat.
As you can well imagine, with this many guns, there will be a fair number of variations. Barrel groove variations from 0.429" > 0.431" and twist rates from 1:20 > 1:38. My main goal was to get a Marlin 1894 44 Mag/Spl to shoot. Being somewhat frustrated with my results, I tried a load that had shown promise in my hip guns in the past. It also showed promise in the '94, so I did a bit more testing.
My final loading was with 7.2 gr of Trail Boss, in Starline brass, a Remington 2 1/2 primer and an OAL of 1.6".
Hodgdon recommends a Rem 2 1/2, I did test other primers, and the Rem 2 1/2 was the only one that gave me a single digit SD on the chrony. The #14 rotor for my Lyman Accumeasure throws 7.2 grains, and that is the reason for that particular charge. Ideally I wanted a bit less velocity, however, in the 44 Mag, I found that lower charges of TB were powder position sensitive, easily detected on the chrony. I give my loads a fairly heavy crimp with a LEE die, and ended up with a 1.6" OAL. If you have a Winchester '92 or clone, exceeding 1.6" by too much causes some pretty nasty jams.
Yesterday I grabbed my Super Blackhawk Ruger, 4 5/8" barrel, and headed to the range. My SBH is the shortest barreled 44 Mag hip gun I own, and this load, in this gun, lets you know you are not shooting a 38 Spl. I easily was able to pick off some of the smaller steel targets. I'm a bit lazy, and don't like shooting paper with my hip guns. I have a few gongs of varying size, and for load testing I just try and hit the smaller gongs. Not very scientific, but my game is Cowboy Action, hitting the steel is the goal. Cowboy Action targets are about 18" square and are close (10 > 15 yards). My targets are at 25 and 50, and are a bunch smaller. If I can consistently hit a 6" to 8" gong at 25 yards, I'm happy with the load, and if I can do it quickly, I'm pleased with my shooting. I step back to 50 yards when I test my lever rifles.
I'd like the load to be a bit slower. It comes out at 840 fps (5 1/2" or 7 1/2" barrel), my goal velocity was 700 fps. I've gone through several boxes of the Speer 240 gr S-SWC, and if the recipe is not right, leading is pretty severe, and accuracy is fairly elusive. I'll live with a bit more bark and jump if I can have accuracy and a shiny bore.
The Speer 240 S-SWC is soft, and it has a concave base, it should obturate at fairly low pressures. My conclusion, after some rather unconventional testing, is that to properly seal, obturation needs to approach slugging up, to assure a good seal. Black powder will obturate lead bullets and keep the velocity low enough to avoid leading. I'm not a fan of the ritual BP cleaning procedure. An alternative, Trail Boss, seems to be able to do that as well. The numbers seem to indicate that, 21,000 psi for 900 fps. Cowboy Action changes the rules for handloading, normally the quest would be for a powder that gives the highest velocity with the lowest pressure. For the Cowboy game, pressure high enough so the case is sealed in the chamber with low velocity to keep barrel rise and recoil to a minimum is the goal. I mostly use my 38/357 guns in competition, the 44's are my backup or secondary guns.
Trail Boss is fairly well know, no need to repeat the advertising. It does have a few minor negatives: the 1 # can only holds 9 oz. and it's a bit pricey IMNSHO. And if you get just the right combination, it stinks, with a heavy ammonia like smell. In the short barreled SBH it is a bit barky, but I never shoot my hip guns without hearing protection, so that is an non issue. The individual flakes are a endowed with a bit of static, the odd flake like to escape the case when loading, and some flakes cling to the plastic hopper, even after a wipe with a dryer sheet.
Unfortunately my stash of Speer bullets has dwindled to zero, and with Wholesale Sports gone, we don't seem to have a local supplier (Winnipeg).
Reference data from Hodgdon, 2018/12/15.
Barky Von Blackhawk, and it has an almost equal bite, love it.
I have a 7 1/2" Vaquero, it tames the load considerably. In an 8 3/4 29-2, it's a pussycat.
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