Has anyone worked up a light 44 magnum load? I don't want to shoot 44 specials in my model 29, so I was figuring on working up a light load in the 44 mag cases.

8.0 grains of 231 is a great load. I use that one a lot in my .44 mags. Standard primer and any bullet of 240-250 grains in weight works well. It works well with either cast or jacketed bullets too. It runs about 900-975 fps depending on barrel length. 8.5-9.5 grains of Unique is another one, using the same bullet weights. About the same velocity, again depending on barrel length used.

Seven grains of 231 w/240 grain bullets is about equivalent to a .44 Special...

They would be used in anything from 3" up to 6.5" barrels at this point. Thanks for the info so far.

I've used H Universal & 200 grn plated bullets with the 44mag. They are very pleasant to shoot.

No one has mentioned it but 7.5 gr of Unique is a pretty good load. This one will get you about 950 fps.

240gr LSWC and 7.6 gr of Universal works for me.

9.5 to 10.5 of Unique with a 240/250 is a great all around load.........accurate, controllable, easy on you and the gun, but still has enough oomph for deer sized game (within pistol ranges...under 50 yards) and personal defense.

Trail Boss powder works beautifully for light loads with lead bullets. You can find the data on the Hodgdon website.

5.0 gr of Bullseye with a 240 gr cast bullet. Recoils like .38 and extremely accurate at 25 yds.

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NRA Pistol Instructor

My standard is 7.0 of Unique and a cast swc.

9.5 gr. Unique and a 250 gr. Keith style hard cast bullet. This is the only load I shoot in my no dash 29's. I find it accurate and it is easy on both gun and brass.

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Have Canon, Will Travel

8 grains of Unique under a 240g JHP has served me well for years. Very pleasant load to shoot and very accurate.

Another user of 8.0 grains of Unique with a 245-250 grain cast lead SWC. Goes 950 fps from my 8 3/8-inch Model 29 and performs well for most realistic handgun chores.

8.0gr 231 with a 240-250 LSWC is my favorite midrange 44 mag load.

8.5gr of Unique with the same bullet weights give similar velocities as the 231 load, but kicks a bit more, and leaves some unburned powder around.

I had the same goal and no 44 special brass. I now use 6.0 231 with a 200 gr. Laser Cast, 7.0 231 with a 240 gr Laser Cast and 12.0 gr of Trueblue with 240 gr laser cast from Oregon trails. The Grand kids lile those light loads and can hit cans up to 25 yards with Ruger SBH 4 5/8. The Trueblue load is a little hotter but still not bad for recoil.

I started using 7 gr. of Auto Comp with a 240 SWC. The book says 886 f.p.s. Also use 5.5 gr. in 44 Special for around 760 f.p.s. Both are very accurate and clean burning. If not for the powder shortage, I never would have tried Auto Comp, a pleasant surprise.

Hello everyone. Just found and joined this forum. I agree with TSQUARED- I've been using 5.0 grain of Trailboss in my 44 magnum for about a year. It burns clean, minimal recoil and the loading density is great with a 250 grain cast SWC. I shoot the same load in my Winchester 94 Legacy at silhouettes. I haven't chronographed this load but I can say I have no problems knocking down those steel chickens at 50 yards or the pigs at 100 yards. I used 8.0 grains of Unique with that same bullet until I found Trail Boss.

I have used 4.5gr of Bullseye with a 200gr LRNFP in magnum brass. There would be no reason that you couldn't use the same load in a 44spl case. This is a minimum load!

I like 15 grains of AA#5 under a 240 grain XTP. This is a pleasure to shoot and highly accurate in my Super Redhawk.

I like to use a good 240 gr LSWC cast bullet, and 8.0 gr of WSF for a light load (around 930 fps) up to 10.0 gr for a moderately heavy load (1150 fps). The latter load has proven exceptionally accurate in my 5.5" Ruger Vaquero and 4" 629-4. Why WSF? Well, I have it around for shotshell loads and several other pistol cartridge loads, it works great in pistol cartridge applications like many shotgun powders do, and with the current powder shortages and with everyone else using Unique and 231, it is plentiful and easy to find. Plus, it burns a lot more cleanly for me, with less leading, and measures far better than Unique. Green Dot is also a good moderate load powder for 44 Mag light cast bullet loads, and 44 Special too.

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" I said, good DAY! "

I have been using 9.5 grains of Unique with a 200 grain JHP bullet in my 329PD, yielding about 1050 fps. This makes for an 'All day at the range" load for me.

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Hook686

That is good info to have on the powder. Thanks

I like 8.0g of Green Dot and Lyman's 429421 as an easy comfortable shooting load outta my 4" Smiths. Velocity is between 895 and 975fps depending on which particular 4" I'm shooting that day.

S&W 29-4 3" barrel .44 Magnum Cartridge - mid-range loads, defensive loads

powder, grains, fps (low to high), fps (avg), Mean absolute deviation (%), Notes

2400 15 823-898 854 28 fps, 3.3%

Unique 8.5 863-903 881 15 fps, 1.7% good choice

Unique 9 866-944 914 20 fps, 2.3%

HS-6 9.8 766-796 780 6 fps, 0.78% excellent potential

W231 8.4 885-896 890 4 fps, 0.47% my first choice

H4227 17.1 854-870 853 8 fps, 0.98% excellent potential

H4227 18.5 886-962 912 21 fps, 2.23%

Gun in 98% condition. Barrel/cylinder gap is 0.003". THESE WORKED IN MY GUN. BE CAREFUL.
Five rounds fired for each test. Notes: All extractions of fired cases were easy.
1.72 cartridge OAL Starline case, WLP primer, hard-cast bullets
All powder loads measured within +/- 0.1grain using RCBS digital scale, verified with Ohaus balance scale.

PM44-250K .44Mag .431" diam hardcast 253grains SWC 0.300" meplat, 0.800" OALLeadheads Bullets, Inc., St. John, KS 620-549-6475
Leadheads Bullets,Gas Checked and Plain Based Bullets
Again, be careful. If in doubt, use established loading tables or known references. I'm not responsible for these loads in your gun. They do work fine in mine. Note my gun is a 3-inch barrel, so your velocities are likely to be somewhat higher, depending on barrel length.

Good day I have a ruger super red hawk that leads real bad within 2-3 rnds of Mo.bullet 240 gr lrn. Starts at the cylinder and all through the barrel especially the forcing cone. All different loadings of green dot from 7. to over 8 gr Greendot. It seems accurate at 30 yds but leads badly. The forcing cone into the rifling seems to have a copper color in the groves once you get it cleaned. "copper"?

I have tons of greendot and would like to use it. It works realy good in my pt1911 in .45.

Any thoughts?

Mike

Seen at "SEIPSG.NET"

Ive had great accuracy with 8 gns of Universal Clays

ranger,
Copper fouling is a real problem. It needs to be cleaned out or you will get some serious leading. There is an electrical process for doing so, see if someone has that setup in your area. Some of the cleaning solvents are specially formulated to remove copper fouling, try one of those.

I don't think I have ever seen a copper color very pronounced in any handgun, if you can see it, that may be the problem.

Of course, fit, hardness and size still play the biggest part in any lead fouling. Make sure your bullets aren't too hard and too small. If they are, you will NEVER use them without leading.

I've used 5.0gr. Bullseye 240-250 SWC when shooting on indoor range, an accurate load that recoils about like a .38 no complaints about noise. Outdoors I like 7.5-9.0gr. Unique 240-250 SWC, the 7.5 is a load I can shoot all day 9.0 when I want a little more punch.

Load 7.0 grains of about anything fast-burning that you have available (Bullseye, Red Dot, Green Dot, Solo 1000, 231, AA#2, etc) behind a 240 grain Lead SWC in either 44 Mag or 44 Special cases. Depending upon your barrel length, etc., muzzle velocities will run 950 - 1000 fps. Accuracy is quite good at 25 yards. Whether you use of Mag or Special cases is immaterial, as I have found that average MVs with the same load in either casing are essentially identical in the same revolver. It's also a good Cowboy load, and I have fired many thousands of them in my Super Blackhawk.

I agree with TSQUARED, Trail Boss. I like the way the powder fills the cases, light recoil , clean burning, and accurate.

7 grains of Bullseye is hard to beat behind a 240gr lead bullet.

I guess I need some new manuals. I haven't started reloading the .44 mag. and I will be getting some new books before I start. I'm looking at an old speer #10 just for grins and most all of the 'mild' loads listed here get to be past max of what that old book says.

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Pete.

I second this. I have taken deer with a 4" 29 with 10gr of Unique and a laser cast SWC. Put them right down.

Still pleasant to shoot at the range but serious enough for defense.

In my 4'' 29, magnum brass, 6.2 gr. Bullseye, CCI 300 primer, Lyman 429421 bullet gives 830 fps. 8.2 gr. 231 and Rem 2 1/2 primer gives
980 fps. Both loads are consistant and accurate.

7.2 grains Unique behind 240 LSWC with CCI std pri...my daughter's favorite load in the Dan Wesson 6in.

I've been working with lighter loads for my 3" AND 4" 629s.


While I heartily recommend Trail Boss in 45LC cowboy action loads, for some reason I just don't get as good accuracy in 44 Mag loads of any recipe.

And while Trail Boss is very pleasant in 41 mag, I am not convinced I'm getting 'good' accuracy there either.

.....[sigh].....guess I'll just have to trundle back out to the range for a little more evaluation....

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

Read this old article:
http://www.riflemagazine.com/magazin...8LO%29%202.pdf

Ditto on the Unique. 9 grains behind a 240 grain cast semi wad-cutter.

7,5 gr, Unique 265gr soft lead keith bullit mild to shoot and small groups.In 44 mag brass

6 grs. of Bullseye with a cast Keith bullet works for me. Also 10 grs. of Unique with the same bullet.

Normally when people post youtube videos shooting their .44 Mag revolver you can see the kick and flip of the gun. When Jerry Miculek shows he can shoot 6 shots at target in 1. sec it looks like it is a .22 revolver. What is the trick? .....strong underarms?

Watch his videos again and take note of how high up on the frame he holds the gun. This brings the barrel center line very close to his wrist, dramatically reducing torque at the wrist, or "muzzle flip". It works. For me that grip causes quite a lot trigger finger surface area contact with the trigger...the 10lbs double action trigger. 200 rounds is about the upper limit for me with that grip in any caliber. After that the blisters start.

Edit:
That also grip also puts the majority of recoil force into your strong hand thumb and thumb knuckle. Watch out when doing this with wood grips. The factory targets on my 6" 629-1 drew blood doing this a couple months back.

Use any Cowboy load.

Mine is a 180 grain lead flat-point Cowboy bullet (Missouri Bullet Co.) and 6.5 grains of Bullseye. Shoots great for me. I lower to 6.0 grains of Bullseye in a .44 Special case.

I throw a 215 gr hard cast lswc down range with 8.4 gr of Hodgdon Universal . Its easy to shoot and accurate.

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Not so Free in the Free State

I enjoy a 200 gr xtream over 10.5 grs of unique gives me excellent accuracy and about half the recoil I use starline brass and federal large pistol primers.

7.2gr of 231 under a RCBS 44-250-KT or 5.5-6.0 BullsEye under the same bullet just plain works!

The 5.5-6.0 BullsEye load also works very well under a 429215, but it is a gas checked bullet that weighs out at about 232gr lubed and checked and ready to load, cast from softer alloy.

I don't shoot jacketed bullets in handguns, or short cases in magnums.

For long range work, I use an entirely different load.

Since l have not seen ANY Unique in 3 years for sale l will pass on mentioning my favorite load of 8gr and H&G#503 250gr KT.

l did find an alternate in PowerPistol with the same wt.. ln fact it burns a bit cleaner than the Mythical Unique and accuracy has been about the same

Haven't been to this site for a while and just wanted to check in.

I came into a good deal on a bunch of Accurate #2 so I loaded some up in 44 mag cases behind Xtreme 200gr RNFP plated bullets. The Accurate reloading guide doesn't show any 44 Magnum load data but it does show 5.1gr - 5.6gr in 44 SPECIAL cases.

My Lee Auto Disk Measure was consistently throwing 5.7gr so I loaded up a few. I figured that since I'm using magnum cases, in a gun strong enough for full-boat magnum cartridges, loading just .1gr above their max spec for SPECIALS couldn't hurt.

As expected it made a VERY nice shooting load. Just on the warm side of 44 specials but not even close to fire-breathing full-boat magnums. Shot clean and very consistently in my gun with about the same recoil as 44 mag "cowboy" loads.

I make no claims regarding the safety of this load data or it's appropriateness for use in anyone else's firearms, so use this recipe at your own risk. But it worked well for me out of my 2-3/4" barreled Astra Terminator. YMMV.