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Old 10-12-2012, 04:52 AM
BUFF BUFF is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: SLC, Utah
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I began handloading the .44 Special seriously about 1975. I had 2 Charter Arms Bulldogs at first. I then added an N frame conversion of a Highway Patrolman that had a brand new S&W .44 Special 4 inch barrel fit and the chambers re-chambered from .357 Magnum to .44 Special, the work done by a fine gunsmith Robert Ballard. I then added qaq 7-1/2 inch Colt Single Action Army, in addition to Model 29-2s of 4 and 6-1/2 inch barrel lengths.

I shot literally tons of cast lead melted into 255 grain semiwadcutter bullets in my Lyman 429421 mould. I sized them to .431", and used mostly wheelweight metal mixed with a little tin from tintype/linotype or plumbers solder to come to a proper test involving the bullet, a firm workbench and how hard I could press a sharp nail into the lead bullet. I found that bullets cast the hardest I could were less accurte and leaded the bores more than bullets just a bit softer.

I started out firing a couple hundred Winchester 246 grain round nose lead cartridges. These got me about 725 fps from my 4 inch Smith & Wesson. A box of Remington-Peters' same loading got me 697 fps

I first landloaded with the same bullets and Unique. The Lyman handbook's top Unique load with this bullet is 8.0 grains for 1,000 fps in their 5-1/2 inch Colt.

I used 7.5 grains of Unique under the same 255 grain cast bullet to get about 950 fps from my S&W. To duplicate the velocity of the feeble but pleasant factory loads, I used 5.5 grains Unique or 4.1 grains Bullseye. The accuracy of the Bullseye load was excellent, and their gentility allowed you to shoot them by the coffee can full, and let new shooters try out a big bore handgun with minimal fire, recoil, flame and blast. These factory equivalent loadings were a good pick for my Charter Bullldogs, too.

I shot the various jacketed 225 and 240 grain bullets from Speer, Sierra and Hornady over the same 7.5 grains of Unique I adopted as my all purpose load. Velocities weren't high enough to get much expansion with the jacketed bullets but accuracy was nice. The jacketed, store-bought bullets didn't give me much over my cast SWCs, so I didn't shoot many of them.

Every .44 Specialist eventually wants to try what Elmer Keith worked into as his heavy hunting load, the same Lyman 429421 255 grain cast SWC bullet that bears his name over a stout charge of 2400, touched off by a standard large pistol primer. I loaded up a few boxes with the 255 grain cast 429421, bullets scrutinized, weighed and sorted for unanimity, in once-fired W-W brass cases primed with W-W LP primers and used a charge of 17.5 grains of 2400. A good stiff roll crimp was applied.

I cheated and shot 6 of them first through my Model 29 .44 Magnum. They were less violent than my .44 Magnum handloads had felt in that same gun, so I went onto my .44 Specials.

The 255 grain lead / 17.5 grain 2400 / LP primer was a handfull in my N frame ersatz 1950 Target/highway Patrolman conversion's 4 inch barrel, but gave me 1,155 fps. The cases ejected without much effort and primers looked normal. I tried them next in my Colt SAA, and the 7-1/2 inch barrel gave me 1,205 fps and the light, plow-handled single action tried to pivot right out of my grip!

I shot the Keith / 2400 load a bit, at least 100-150 rounds each from the Colt and the S&W. There seemed to be no ill effects. They were more recoil, noise and power than I wanted for general woods and desert loafing duty, so I settled on the 7.5 grain Unique load as my .44Special standard. Been shooting that through a lot of Colts and Smiths for 40 years now and none of them have complained.

I think the 7.5 grain Unique / 240-260 grain cast SWC loading, dubbed the Skelton load by most who use it, is a great pick for any quality .44 Special revolver made by S&W, Colt or Ruger ever made. I think that one of Skeeter's industry friends ran tests on his load and pressures were about 21,000 psi.
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