44 mag wadcutters

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Rich Richardson

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I’ve searched and only found HSM and Armscor semi wadcutters. Anyone have another manufacturer that sells these as target ammo? I know Underwood and Buffalo Bore have them but too expensive for target practice. I’m not a reloader unfortunately.
Thanks
 
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Have never seen a commercially loaded wadcutter in .44...only .32 and .38 as they were Bullseye competition cartridges.

A good SWC cuts a nice clean hole in paper.
 
Even handloading, a wad cutter in a 44 magnum is a bit frustrating.
They tend to tumble above 950 fps or so. You always find yourself wanting a bit more from it.
This may be what's behind it's absence in the market.
See what you can find in the way of a wide flat nose load.
This might be close enough to get you where you want to be
 
I had a Lyman .44 caliber wadcutter mould some years ago. I believe the cast weight was around 180 grains or so. I never tried it in .44 Magnum, only .44 Special. I was never able to get anything close to decent accuracy.
Perhaps others have had better results with this design.

I can understand there being no commercial .44 caliber wadcutter ammo available. Seems the demand would be minimal.
 
rockquarry said:
I had a Lyman .44 caliber wadcutter mould some years ago. I believe the cast weight was around 180 grains or so. I never tried it in .44 Magnum, only .44 Special. I was never able to get anything close to decent accuracy.
Perhaps others have had better results with this design.

I can understand there being no commercial .44 caliber wadcutter ammo available. Seems the demand would be minimal.
Click to expand...
I have that mold 429-348 185 gr flat and flat bullet. You really can't try to go too fast. Mine shot real well in 44 Russian and special. not as well in the mag case. Never tried it with powder like Trail Boss though. Hard mold to find so is the 180 gr spire point 44 mold Got one and can't remember the number You gotta try reloading
 
I have loaded both 185 grain and 250 grain wadcutters from Matt's bullets and got very good accuracy. Most accurate was 7.5 grains of Unique and the 185s in 44 Special and 9 grains of Unique and the 250s in 44 mag. I did not chrono them.
 
I have some Underwood 200gr wadcutters but have not shot any of them. I'll have to see if they tumble as velocity is well above 950fps.
 
I used to assume that a cast wadcutter would be more accurate than a bullet of a different configuration. I found out that wasn't true in some instances, .38 Special in particular.

It takes a good bit of load development and shooting groups to verify what works best in a particular handgun. Twist rates and muzzle velocity also have an effect.
 
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rockquarry said:
I had a Lyman .44 caliber wadcutter mould some years ago. I believe the cast weight was around 180 grains or so. I never tried it in .44 Magnum, only .44 Special. I was never able to get anything close to decent accuracy.
Perhaps others have had better results with this design.

I can understand there being no commercial .44 caliber wadcutter ammo available. Seems the demand would be minimal.
Click to expand...

I used the Lee 208 wc. It did quite well till you exceeded the speed limit. Nonetheless, I consider it mostly retired, favoring tchp and SWC designs in the same approximate weight.
Outside of handloading, it's something that will never be cheap. It just doesn't have the volume of production that makes the 9mm the cheapest centerfire cartridge we have to shoot.
 
smoothshooter said:
Maybe you should become a reloader.
You can get into it pretty cheap if not trying for high-volume.
Click to expand...

The cartridge in question has gotten more folks into the art than any other. It's not a question of maybe, but rather, when. You cannot fully appreciate the 44 magnum without a reloading bench to go with it. It is then that one realizes what a spectacular round this thing is.
Factory offerings represent perhaps 15% of what the caliber can do. It would be well if the OP wandered into the reloading section and acquired "the rest of" his gun.
 
Years ago the timber company in NE Oregon paid a bounty on porcupines, which were legion, so I shot many with various cartridges and bullets. Most devastating was a 180 gr. full wadcutter .44 magnum which I cast from an NEI mold. 'Bout 900 fps depending on barrel length. The porcupines would explode in a shower of quills, leaving little but wet rags remaining. Significantly more terminally impressive than a SWC or even JHPs. But this is all anecdotal, hardly scientific.
 
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Venom6 said:
Years ago the timber company in NE Oregon paid a bounty on porcupines, which were legion, so I shot many with various cartridges and bullets. Most devastating was a 180 gr. full wadcutter .44 magnum which I cast from an NEI mold. 'Bout 900 fps depending on barrel length. The porcupines would explode in a shower of quills, leaving little but wet rags remaining. Significantly more terminally impressive than a SWC or even JHPs. But this is all anecdotal, hardly scientific.
Click to expand...

My formula was a cast HP in the 220 grain range with a cavity large enough to deliver the death certificate to save time.
Deployed on raccoons, rabbits, skunks and squirrels by myself, Yotes chucks and P dogs by others, it was a good bit of fun at around 1200 - 1350 FPS.
I may revisit this design and further refine it. Nose pin changes made it quite versatile
 
venomballistics said:
Even handloading, a wad cutter in a 44 magnum is a bit frustrating.
They tend to tumble above 950 fps or so.
Click to expand...

This is utter bunk! A 148 Gr. .38 WC and 240 Gr. .44 have nearly identical sectional density, or in other words they are close to the same length! Bullet length as it relates to twist rate is what stabilizes bullets. The .44 will be just as stable as the .38 at the same velocity. If you experience tumbling from a .44 full wad-cutter there is something else wrong, not the bullet shape!


I have been shooting cast bullets, and even designed several, so I think I have a bit of experience with this question! I guess the real question is why you would even want to drive a .44 WC over 950 FPS? Just because it is in a magnum case? Any bullet that works well in .44 Russian, and .44 Special will work just as well in a .44 Magnum case as long as everything else is correct.
 
Alk8944 said:
This is utter bunk! A 148 Gr. .38 WC and 240 Gr. .44 have nearly identical sectional density, or in other words they are close to the same length! Bullet length as it relates to twist rate is what stabilizes bullets. The .44 will be just as stable as the .38 at the same velocity. If you experience tumbling from a .44 full wad-cutter there is something else wrong, not the bullet shape!


I have been shooting cast bullets, and even designed several, so I think I have a bit of experience with this question! I guess the real question is why you would even want to drive a .44 WC over 950 FPS? Just because it is in a magnum case? Any bullet that works well in .44 Russian, and .44 Special will work just as well in a .44 Magnum case as long as everything else is correct.
Click to expand...

I'll take my own observations as well as the corollating theories put forth by Julian Hatcher of US Army Ord department over this.
Air pressure on the nose of a wadcutter through, and above the transonic region impart enough force to destabilize a cylindrical body.
The wadcutter as used in a 38 special will never reach this velocity.
A 44 magnum not only can, but almost insists
 
Hey Rich, another helpful thread drift. I don't know of anyone who can supply you what you are looking for but not only should you start hand loading you also need to casting your own bullets :)
 
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