Just acquired an unfired S&W 544 in 44-40; any suggestions on loads? I've loaded for several rifle and revolver/pistol calibers, but never this one.

Me either but I sure eyed one of those things for the longest while! The one I looked at was a Texas Ranger Commemorative.

Welcome to the forum and be sure to let us know. Oh, and by the way, we have a rule here:

In the interest of harmony, here 'tis!

Smith made nearly 5,000 of these, and for the past few months I've suddenly seen them on Gunbroker & Gunsamerica at 'shootable' prices - this one was $660 plus shipping when I grabbed it last week. Try buying a 24 or 624 unfired, especially with 5" barrel, for that price!

And thank you for the welcome!

First, you need to be aware of the fact that most .44/40's have .427" bores as opposed to the standard .429"- .430" for most .44 caliber handguns. I haven't measured a 544's throats, but I would do that right away to determine what size they are, and what size bullet might best be used for getting top accuracy. Also, .44/40 brass is normally quite a bit thinner than say .44 special or magnum brass is, and it's a bottlenecked cartridge, so care must be taken when adjusting dies for sizing and for seating/crimping. Keeping cases all the exact same length will help with having uniform crimps.

You didn't mention whether or not you would be using jacketed or cast bullets, but I can list some loads that are safe in any smokeless era.44/40 in sound mechanical condition. They are well within the limits of an N frame 544. These loads are all 13,000CUP or under.

Starline cases and Winchester large pistol primers were used.

>6 grains of Bullseye under a Hornady 205 swaged lead cowboy bullet= approx. 822 fps (depending on barrel length)


>7.1 grains of 231 under the same bullet = approx.829 fps
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>8 grains Unique under a 200 Oregon Trail cast bullet= 852 fps

>8.5 grains of Unique under the same bullet = 921 fps

>9 grains Unique under the same bullet =985 fps


There are many more listed, but these will get you started.

BTW- 5" N frames are by far my favorite!

Thanks for the complete reply! I'm going to slug barrel and one throat with .451 RB of soft lead just to be sure of what's best.

The N-frame 5-inchers are just perfectly proportioned, IMO.

A .451" RB will require an awfully big redcuction in size to drive it through the bore and throats (.020"-.024"). It would be much easier and just as accurate to use a .430" -.431" soft swaged cowboy style bullet to determine size.

Don't forget, S&W's have a 5 groove, 5 land system of rifling so it can be tricky to measure a slug from the bore since any given land has a groove directly opposite if it. You can use a .001" feeler gauge wrapped around the bullet, measure it, then deduct .002" to get a pretty accurate number.

That is really helpful info; the RB suggestion was made by a local 'smith who isn't a factory repair site for anyone. I think I'll go with yours on the Cowboy bullet as I haven't used a feeler gauge in decades.

Alliant Powder - Reloader's Guide

These 'Cowboy Loads' from the Alliant site are pretty much in line with whats already been posted. They use a 200gr cast bullet.
I've used the RedDot load in a Remington 14 1/2 carbine to test the gun out and it burned clean.

I used to load Unique for a Colt Bisley. Lately most all of my 44-40 has been for a Winchester 73 loaded with American Pioneer BP sub powder.
Some of it goes through the Bisley too.

Have you tried any jacketed rounds?

I have used 6 grains of Unique with a 200grn Laser Cast in both my 73 Winchester Uberti clone as well as my 73 Colt Uberti clone revolvers with great success in SASS shoots. Might work for you as well.
Randy

Took my 544 for a test drive. I decided on Remington .429 210 grain SJHP bullets, 2400 powder, and CCI 300 primers. As the revolver was unfired, I started low - for 200 grainers, Lyman's 49th recommended 14.4 grains of 2400, so I knocked off 5%
(.7 grain) because the 210 grain bullet weighed 5% more and 5% just because (.7 grain), so I started at 13.0. I loaded ten rounds each at 13, 14, 15, the 5 rounds at 15.5 grains.

The revolver worked withut flaw and just kept giving me tighter groups as the charges increased; I think I'll stop a while at 15.5 grains (16.0 is max at 13,000 CUP) and get more well-acquainted with the revolver before tinkering more.

I have to tell you that these revolvers seem undervalued as shooters - what a pleasure it is to shoot!

Too cool!

Its nice to see someone understand a little bit about internal ballistics and figure out some things on their own.

Did you happen to run them over a chronograph? It would be interesting to see just what your external ballistics ended up being!

Did I say, too cool yet?

No chrony; Lyman suggests that 15.5 grain load should be about 900 fps, but Hornady suggested around 1000, both with 200 grain bullets rather than 210.

Do not attempt to 'magnumize' the round or the revolver. The 44/40 has more powder capacity than a .44 magnum 'tis true , but a thin weak case and a very thin cylinder wall does not mean ya can hot-rod it. S&W N-frame .45 Colts are held to the same levels as Colt SAAs for good reason.

"The one I looked at was a Texas Ranger Commemorative."

Actually, the Texas Ranger commemorative was a M19.

The M544 was the Texas Wagon Train commemorative-1836 to 1986. The serial number prefix was TWT.

__________________
John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

No interest in magnums - I don't like the noise or the bite! I had a couple of M29s and a M57 many years ago and sold them for that specific reason. Lyman's 49th shows 44-40 200 grain JHP max at 16.0 grains of 2400 at 13,000 CUP.

Yep, it's the Texas Wagon Train commemorative; as a non-commemorative heretic I bought it to shoot and covered that less-than-attractive commemorative stamp with a Hogue's Monogrip. The box is for sale here on the Forum.

I knew it was Texas something commemorative!

biku324-
I have done a little more checking since you started this thread, and it appears that S&W anticipated most guys wanting to use regular .44 bullets in these guns, and reamed the bores to spec at .429". If that's true, and so far it does appear to be, then you now have a wide variety of warheads to choose from for your gun. I would think that the Hornady 180 XTP, 200 XTP, or Speer 200 GD for the .44 Special, at somewhere around 1000-1100 fps would be a good all around choice for target, SD, and small, mid sized (like coyotes), and smaller big game like Texas whitetails sized game hunting if you so desire.

The revolver sure seems to like the .429 jacketed bullets I tried; I was a little concerned about chamber throats being small, but if they are it doesn't seem (at this early stage) to have a negative effect on accuracy. These revolvers are, IMO, undervalued - I've now got $595 in this one. Try finding a comparable, unfired M24 for that price, let alone one with a 5" barrel! I've seen a few more 544s on Gunbroker from $650 to $750 (there are two there now) with no bids - I suspect they might go for a lower price by now.

After I get more rounds out of her I'm going to pop a coyote or two just to see how they fall and check bullet performance compared to my 357s; we'll see how that works out. There are only mule deer where I live, but they are truly no tougher than whitetail, and many aren't that much bigger, so we'll see. . .

i have owned two of these that i shot. one liked .427 lead bullets best and the other liked .429 bullets. i currently have another to play with but due to the arrival of winter, am unable to get to the range. maybe by april. i agree that these are undervalued as shooters compared to prices of other n-frames. might be a good project to have a 44spl. cylinder built for one. i use green dot powder a lot simply because i used to trap shoot and have quite a bit left since retiring from that game.

When I mentioned "bores" above, I was refering to the barrel, but it stands to reason that the throats would be reamed for the same diameter .44 caliber bullets.

A good cast bullet will up velocity by 100-150 fps for the same weight bullet, and do it at the same or even slightly less pressure. That's a win/win situation for a round that really doesn't push JHP type bullets fast enough to obtain proper, and thorough expansion. Just pick one with a wide flat nose on it for game shooting purposes, and watch them fall.

I do like lead bullets; if I could find a mold similar to Lyman's 429215 except without a gas check that would be perfect. Had a 452 238 grain mold many years ago that was a Keith-type SWC for the 45 AR and found those mid-weight-for-caliber SWCs to be wonderfully accurate. Since it was excellent and useful, I of course sold it.

Probably should mention than dealing with gas checks give me a slightly naseous feeling. . .

I have this mould. It is a Lee 6 cavity and casts really well. Most Lee moulds cast on the large size but I think it would be fine for your modern revolver. If it was an old black powder gun, well........I'm not sure. They might need resized to .428", dunno.

I use this bullet in my Marlin rifles and it shoots very well. In fact, it is the next accurate bullet to the Hornady 240gr XTP in them. It comes out of those rifles just under 2000fps with no gas check. The bore does foul, I'm not going to tell that lie BUT not excessively.

The Lee moulds are cheap and available. Since you already cast, you may have handles. For $40 I don't think you could go wrong trying one.

Maybe I'll give it a try - the mold at $40 is about the same price as 170 jacketed bullets! I have Lyman handles, but I thought most Lee molds came with handles?

All two cavity, no 6 cavity. I wouldn't waste the time to get a 2 cavity. The 6 are pretty inexpensive and are much higher quality. IMO

Thank you!