I agree with you that the 14 grain charge of powder was probably 2400 or a close equivalent thereof. From Elmer Keith - Six Guns: "we obtained best accuracy from the solid head Remington 38/44 cases loaded with Keith 160 grain hollow point or 173 grain solid and backed by 13.5 grains of 2400 in 45 frame guns and obtained the most powerful loads with the Keith 173 grain solid crimped barely over the front band with 14.5 grains of 2400". 2400 is a slow burner, and there is no way I'd touch a dramatically reduced load of 8 grains of 2400 - that is when I'd move over to Bullseye or Unique; though in that case I would not be loading even 8 grains. Another question I have is whether the pulled bullet was jacketed or swaged lead where it engaged the grooves. I have tried jhp loads in my 44 Special with middle of the road Unique loads which were fine in the 44 with cast bullets, but with a moderate load of 7 grains of Unique under a jhp, one lodged even with the end of my barrel.

Also, when you drastically reduce a slower burning powder charge you may wander into very strange pressure spikes which increase the chance of a blown up pistol. We ain't talking black powder here.