Hunting Loads For The 44 Magnum 240 Grain Cast

Found

Found

Regular
Rating - 100%
15   0   0
Location
Rosseau, Ontario
Anyone know of any reloading recipes for the 44 Magnum and 240 grain FP cast projectiles from DRG for hunting? http://w ww.lawryshootingsports.com/page/pistol-bullets. The firearm is a Marlin lever action before someone comments not to use them in a semi.
Or should I just stick to these projectiles for plinking? For plinking they have been nice and price wise they are good compared to the premium hunting projectiles.
 
244Ack said:
19 grains of 2400 is always a good load
Click to expand...

The Marlin rifle is designed to handle full power 44 magnum loads.
The load that Elmer Keith used to develope the 44 magnum was a 240 grain cast bullet with 22 grains of 2400.
This has been a standard 44 magnum load for a great many years.
I would think for hunting one would want to use full power loads.
The other common load considered full power is 24 grains of either H110 or W296 powder.
 
Probably going to lead like crazy in a Marlin. Because of the Micro-Groove rifling the bore is actually larger than normal and .430" projectiles are too small. I have tried up to .431" hard cast (measured with micrometer) over small charges of pistol powder (6-10grains of Unique) and when cleaning there are loads of lead flakes in the bore. There was also no accuracy and I could barely keep them in a 12" circle at 50 yards shooting off of a rest.

My hard cast .438" round balls (~120 grains) over 3 grains of Unique are far more accurate than hard cast .431" SWC's in my Marlin 1895S.

I have been told you need a minimum .432" but .433" is recommended. Some even go with .434" projectiles. I haven't gotten around to getting a mould that size yet; too many other guns to play with cast bullets in.
 
My Marlin has never collected lead in the barrel, whether it has been loaded light, or full power loads.
It has fired thousands of cast bullets.
 
H4831 said:
The other common load considered full power is 24 grains of either H110 or W296 powder.
Click to expand...

My 5.5" Redhawk likes 24.0gr of H110 under a 245gr Keith SWC; that would be my first try with the rifle as well.


LUTNIT said:
Probably going to lead like crazy in a Marlin. Because of the Micro-Groove rifling the bore is actually larger than normal and .430" projectiles are too small. I have tried up to .431" hard cast (measured with micrometer) over small charges of pistol powder (6-10grains of Unique) and when cleaning there are loads of lead flakes in the bore. There was also no accuracy and I could barely keep them in a 12" circle at 50 yards shooting off of a rest.
Click to expand...

Did you ever try a softer alloy? Light loads, undersized bullets and hard alloy is a recipe for nasty leading.


Mark
 
I have to admit to liking the 24 of H110/W296 better than the old original of 22 grains of 2400.
I would have to check, but I think the 22 of 2400 chrononed a bit more.
I also sometimes used 25 of W296/H110, in each of rifles or revolvers, couldn't see any difference, but I sure wouldn't increase the 2400 over 22 grains!
 
H4831 said:
My Marlin has never collected lead in the barrel, whether it has been loaded light, or full power loads.
It has fired thousands of cast bullets.
Click to expand...

Does your Marlin have Micro-Groove rifling? If it's (I believe) pre 1956 then it wont have Micro-Groove and wont have the oversized bore issues.

If it does have Micro-Groove then I have no idea what you're doing different. I have talked to 3 other Marlin 1895 owners in various calibres who cast and they all said the same thing; you need oversized cast bullets to prevent horrible leading and accuracy problems.

mmattockx said:
Did you ever try a softer alloy? Light loads, undersized bullets and hard alloy is a recipe for nasty leading.
Click to expand...

I tried pure lead and I tried the hard cast with 22gr of H110 and it didn't change a thing.
 
I have used DRG 240 lead bullets in my 44 Mag reloads, before I changed to Frontier plated bullets to avoid lead. I used a reduced load of 19.4gr of 2400, but with a Win Mag primer, not a regular primer. In my 20" Marlin 1894 rifle (which has normal rifling, not micro grooving), velocity was 1568ft/s (low was 1528ft/s, high was 1608). These were loaded on a Lee Pro 1000 with adjustable powder bar, so weighing each individual charge will give more consistent velocities.

From my Custom 4.2" S&W 629-6 this load gave 1127ft/s, and in my 9.5" Ruger Super Redhawk this load gave 1298ft/s.
 
Thanks everyone for the input. I bought the firearm this summer and have enjoyed shooting it. I even loaded it up really low with 7 grains of Trail Boss which was like a cap gun, no noise and no kick. The Hornady manual calls for 24.8 grains of H110 for their 240 grain XTP but they don’t recommend that bullet for deer, why I don’t know as it was inexpensive. Some other projectiles I have priced were about $70 for 50 at 300 grain, that’s way too much. After hunting season I will try and load up some H110 and see what it does.
 
I have shot countless deer with the Hor 240 xtp with both 44 mag and with sabot in muzzle loader. Never had a bullet failure and never lost a deer. The xtp's work very well for deer
 
tucker05 said:
I have shot countless deer with the Hor 240 xtp with both 44 mag and with sabot in muzzle loader. Never had a bullet failure and never lost a deer. The xtp's work very well for deer
Click to expand...

I thought they would be perfect but when I went to reload the Hornady Reloading book recommended 300 or 265 grain for deer and black bear. It suggested the 240 grain for smaller game. Too bad as the 100 box of 240 grain bullets was $29 and the 50 box of 300 grain XTP was twice that as I recall.

44.jpg
 
I used 24 gr. of WW296 for quite a few deer and a couple of bear with 240 gr. 'Keith' SWC's
(Lyman # 429421) out of my 1894 Marlin. No problems whatsoever.
I also used it with the same target load as for my S&W Mod. 29 ... same bullet,
but with 8.0 gr. of Unique. Made for a lot of fun hunting snowshoe bunnies in front
of a couple of little hounds !.
 
Found said:
The Hornady manual calls for 24.8 grains of H110 for their 240 grain XTP but they don’t recommend that bullet for deer, why I don’t know as it was inexpensive.
Click to expand...
I originally reloaded 240 Hornady XTPs but they separated on close range deer (under 20 yards) so I switched to JSP bullets and they have held together.
I figure penetration is preferable to expansion for a .429" diameter bullet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom