This cold winter has kept me in the basement cranking out LOTS of ammo with my great Lee Breechlock pro. I have a large variety of powder (H110/2400/universal clays/titegroup/bullseye/unique)/primers (mag and standard) and couple different bullets.

Load 1: Missouri Bullet "smasher" 44 240 Grain RNFP Brinell 18
I have previously loaded these with 9-9.5 Grains of Unique. Also have some 240swc's that I load at 10 grains unique that are very good. They shoot great, super accurate and low recoil out of my scoped long tube Model 29. I only have a couple pounds of unique left but have many pounds of Hodgdon Universal clays. I'm not seeing anything in my Lyman 49th (or my other manuals) for Universal. Does anyone know the max or recommended start load for this? Any reason not to use Universal?

Load 2: Zero 240 JSP
I have previously loaded these with 19.0g of 2400 and a standard primer. Thinking of trying H110 and some mag primers here (have way more H110 than 2400 currently). Lyman 49th shows a Sierra 240 JHC 22.5-23.5 H110. Was thinking of starting with 22.5. Anyone have experience with these bullets or load configurations?

Thanks in advance and happy loading!

I've had good luck with H-100. I suggest you go to the Hodgdon Reloading Center website as they have an extensive list of loads for this powder.

__________________
Left Turn On A Red Light

I have plenty of powder on hand. Not at ALL interested in buying more powder.

rosco shooter was pointing you to their reloading data site for recipes on all the different powders, not to buy more powder.
have fun with the 44

If you go to this link you can download (free) the Midway Loadmap for 44 Mag.

Caliber specific data

Hodgdon confused many of us with the introduction Clays in 1992; and International Clays. And Universal Clays. At the same time. Before the internet. Now the latter two are simply called International, and Universal.

Hodgdon's 2022 "Annual Manual" burn chart shows Unique at 29, and Universal right next to it at 30.
Same book (p. 178) shows 240 gr. cast SWC with a start charge of 6.5 gr. Universal for 852 fps (8 3/8" barrel), max of 10.2 gr. = 1276 fps./37,500 cup, which I would not want to exceed.
Their data for 240 JSP/H110 very close to Lyman's.

About your second load with Zero bullets, I checked their web site and it says the JSP have a 0.431" diameter. All the jacketed bullets I knew (Sierra, Speer, etc.) are 0.429". I would approach maximum loads with extra care and I personally would only shoot them through a Ruger. Add to that the fact that your crimp needs to be firm, the pressure spike could be significant. Not worth the risk in my view.

__________________
"Well, do ya punk??"

Every time I post here I get answers to all the questions I don't ask. We can close this thread. I know how to use Google and also how to reload. Just wanted opinions... Guess I'll look elsewhere.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Have shot thousands of them. Not a single issue in any of my pre 29s

Your hands, not mine

__________________
"Well, do ya punk??"

240 cast and 8 to 12 grains of Unique, in 44 Mag brass. From mild up to WILD. Seat at top crimp groove. (8.0 is about like a 44 Special load from my 2 5/8" 629.)

Ivan

Probably a good idea Mr. Roll eyes. People trying to help you out and I sure didn’t see anything that derserved the rolleyes.

But you do you, boo….

Regards, Rick Gibbs

Unique and 2400 are my favorite go to powders for 44 mag. I like a flat base up to 1100fps. I use 10 grains Unique with a 245 lswc for target also.

Same here. I shoot them in 629’s and never any signs of high pressure.
Probably the best deal out there on .44 JSP bullets . They also work great in my Ruger SBH that has .431 cylinder throats.

I load Clays like Bullseye and Universal like Unique. Works OK for me.

Load 2: Zero 240 JSP
I have previously loaded these with 19.0g of 2400 and a standard primer. Thinking of trying H110 and some mag primers here (have way more H110 than 2400 currently). Lyman 49th shows a Sierra 240 JHC 22.5-23.5 H110. Was thinking of starting with 22.5. Anyone have experience with these bullets or load configurations?

I’d say you’ll be ok trying h110. My 629 sees a fair amount of 240gr Xtp and aa9/2400/4227. I’ll load maybe 40/yr of Xtp/296. It ain’t blown up or rattled loose yet. The 296 load doesn’t do as good, plus I use 296 for 454/460/500 work.

It’ll need maintenance sooner than a “I can throw the bullet faster” life of loads. No doubt about it, but it’s a magnum and can handle book standard magnum loads just fine.

If you were in the Ruger/Thompson Center only section, I’d tell you to stop because those are higher pressure loads, your not though, so you should be fine.

I too have several pounds of Universal. I switched from Unique 20 odd years ago. Between availability and cleanliness going with Universal just made sense for me. With Universal I usually start in the middle of jacketed data of the same weight cast. I would start at 8.5 or so and likely end up between 9.5 to 10.0 grains with a 240 cast. My goal with Universal is an accurate, comfortable, and efficient load. Like Unique, the lower charges tend to leave more residue.

With H110/W296 I admit loading hard cast using jacketed data. I’ve been more concerned with using too little of the slow burning ball powder than not enough.

For me performance with hard cast has worked quite well with jacketed data in magnum chamberings. The only significant leading I’ve dealt with was when I followed jacketed bullets with cast without cleaning between switching bullet types.

I hope my experience is useful.

__________________
GOA
USA Shooting Supporter