Originally Posted by canoe on the yukon

I began reloading over 40 years ago and soon afterwards,started reloading the 44 magnum.Per Keith's recommendations,I used 2400 from the get-go.Around 1970,or so,I read a piece written by Lee Jurras who stated that H110 was slightly better(pressure/velocity ratio)than 2400.For those that don't know,Jurras owned and ran "Super Vel",an ammo company (now gone under).He had at his disposal,a complete ballistic lab which Keith did not.I bought and used up a couple of cans of H110 and was pleased with it's performance.

In that time period,almost no one except for ammo and ammo component companies had a chronograph and so case extraction,primer condition,etc was relied on in conjunction with load manuals.

I owned and used three 44 magnum revolvers in those days.For full loads,I worked up to max with all 3 while using both 2400 and H110.I won't give any of the load data numbers here.It might cause some forum readers to have a seizure.The loads that I used and that were given the nod of approval by the manuals that were then current showed no signs of excess pressure in either of my revolvers.In that time period,I also used magnum primers with 2400.

As time passed,most manuals began a trend of toning things down.At present,much of the data available is quite mild compared to the data back then.

Most ballistic lab data shows H110/W296 to be slightly better than 2400 for full powered magnum revolver loads.(just as Jurras said it was).Redu ced loads have nothing to do with this.

I keep 2400 on hand and I will continue to use it however I also use H110/W296 and much prefer it for full powered loads.For the 44 magnum, bullets in the 240 grain range driven to the 1400fps range,H110/W296 is slightly better but 2400 is not far behind.However,better is better.For bullets heavier than the 240-250 weight range,W296/H110 are far ahead when using full loads.

Since I seldom use bullets much heavier than 250 grains in that caliber,I could quite cheerfully use 2400 exclusively.It all depends.As others have noted,2400 is more agreeable when reducing loads down to 240 grains at around 1200 fps or so.W296/H110 is not so agreeable with that.(which is of no concern to someone sticking with full power)