Shooting 44 Special in 44 Mag?
 

I know it works obviously, but is there a down-side to shooting my 44 special loads in my 29? I know it could form a "ring" from the shorter case length so 44 mags might not load if filthy, but other than that, is there any reason not to just use 44 special brass when loading for the model 29? I shoot 7.5 grians of Unique under a 250 gr lead Keith style now in 44 special.

As you have said, apart from fouling from the shorter case interfering with the longer case there is really no down side. Same with .38 Special in .357 Mag.

Some may think accuracy might suffer from the increased bullet jump, but from a practical point of view I haven't seen any evidence of it myself. I would be interested in someone with a Ransom rest checking this out to see what, if any, effect it really does have.

I've not come across more than just mentioned; one real, one rumor.

I’ve never had a problem with the so called ring in any of my magnums whether it’s a 357 or 44.

I did find that I had a real problem with saying no to the 44 special revolvers. Bought & sold several of them over the years & just can’t stay away from them. The 624 that I have right now is the cat’s meow & is a pure joy to shoot. It gets used more that my 629 & the tc contender.

And that doesn't happen if you clean your revolver well after a range trip.

No reason not to enjoy shooting 44 special ammo in your .44 Magnum. That's one of the good points of owning a .44 Magnum or a .357 Magnum, the ability to shoot lighter ammo for practice.

Perhaps this depends on things like what load a person shoots and how many they shoot, whatever else, because my experience with both a 686 and 60, different trips in different years, neither would seat .357s at the end of the respective trips- and it took several hours to clean the charge holes each time. I'll never do it again (as long as my memory holds up :)). I wouldn't have done it a second time if I'd remembered the outcome from the first episode beforehand.

ArchAngel has a simple solution for this problem. He'll be back to share it.

p.s. It works! Then you don't have to trust to that fading memory! ;)

I've got LOTs of new 44 special brass and would like to use that in my Mag instead of buying Mag brass.... just wanted to see what everybody thought first.

Thanks!

I just started with a 44...so I had no empty casings at all. I bought 200 nickle Starlines to use to HOT loads...and 500 brass Starlines to use for "less than hot" loads. No mixing up there and not even a chance of the dreaded "ring buildup"

The big and obvious safety problem is that if you get tempted to use that 44 Special brass for loading 44 Mag loads which brings up the possibility of one of those hot rounds slipping into a standard 44 Special handgun. Could make for a big kaaboom. .............. Big Cholla

Hey Skip, you taught me that tip. I thought it was your idea??

Well I'm gonna share it cause my memory is a little better than yours;)

Take a 44 mag case and flare it as you are going to seat a bullet, only flare it just a little more that it will barely fit in the cylinders. Push it in and it will snag at the 44 special carbon ring. Tap it in with a piece of wood, small plastic hammer, whatever. It will act like a round scraper and remove all the crud. You will have to tap out the extractor.

After you do each cylinder, just use a over size bore brush and solvent and you are good to go.

Yes I do... All you need to do is carry a spent .357 Magnum case in your range bag. After shooting several hundred .38 Specials insert the .357 Magnum case into each charge hole and tap if necessary. That will easily remove any Carbon fouling in the cylinders and you are free to load .357 Magnum ammo during the same range trip. Works every time! :)

BTW, I didn't come up with this method but I do tell anyone who will listen...

That cleaning method is pure genius!
I can find 44 mag brass easier than 44 Sp, so I just load the 44 mag brass lightly. I shot a bunch of it today.

Sorry, didn't mean to steal your thunder.;)

I have shared it with several guys at my range. I flared a few 357's for them as they do not reload and usually shoot 38's but occasionally blast a few 357's. They thought it was like sliced bread!:D

See, I told you he would be by! :)

That's not all you talk about when folks will listen. Seems I remember another topic near and dear to your heart! (HS-6! ;) )

Good deal bud!

A Brownells "Tornado Brush" reduces the chamber cleaning to about 6 miinutes. I shoot thousands of .38 through 686 and 66 in a years competition. A normal revolver cleaning after a match only takes a half hour start to finish.

Me talk about HS-6, naaaa! :p

I would be worried about not just fouling, but erosion, shooting
the warmer short loads in the long chambers. This is why I
took Skeeter's advice and got 624's. Want a light load in the
magnum? Just load em in the longer brass. Not going
to shoot specials in the .445 or .444 either :)

JMHO

Nemo

Since you say you already have lots of 44 Special brass, and I would assume a lack of enough 44 Mag brass, then no reason not to load them up and shoot them. If you were primarily shooting 44 Mag and that was the bulk of your brass then downloading it would be better. But if you rarely intend to shoot full 44 Mag, then just clean the charge holes well when you do and you are good to go.

In my early days of shooting 44, I used to do the switch back and forth thing. It was too much of a pain to load 2 different cases and clean between switching. So I just started downloading 44 Mag and now keep my Special brass just for the Specials. Of course, my downloaded 44 Mags are still pushing 240gr cast bullets about 1150fps. I guess over a long enough period with a hot burning powder there could be some erosion concern, but I think that would take many thousands of rounds before it became significant.

love that
 

HS6 and.....SR4756....