29-2 and hotter .44 mag loads

[steelslaver]

Yes, but wearing a shooting jacket and glove all wrapped up in the sling laying prone is about as good as any field rest. I always had trouble at the 200yd off hand. I always maxed out the 500 prone on wither course. Plus, now my rifles all have nice scopes. The range here goes from 100 to 600 so I am pretty familiar with each. The only ones I fire at 600 are my 300 and 3338 win mags, but should figure out the 6.5 Creedmoore. Hard to find that good a rest for anything but prairie dogs. Then I just pile some bags on my truck hood.

 

[AJ]

Yes, but wearing a shooting jacket and glove all wrapped up in the sling laying prone is about as good as any field rest. I always had trouble at the 200yd off hand. I always maxed out the 500 prone on wither course. Plus, now my rifles all have nice scopes. The range here goes from 100 to 600 so I am pretty familiar with each. The only ones I fire at 600 are my 300 and 3338 win mags, but should figure out the 6.5 Creedmoore. Hard to find that good a rest for anything but prairie dogs. Then I just pile some bags on my truck hood.

Never wore a shooting jacket or a glove after I got out of Boot Camp. Qualified nine times on the KD Course after that.

 

[derek45auto]

10.grs. UNIQUE or 9.0grs UNIVERSAL with a 240gr SWC makes a fine 1050 fps practice load. It's a problem solver that won't beat you or the 29 up.

A max load of H110/win296 over a 240-310gr will fix any troubles your have. Load like this are hard on the older 29.

Keith's excellent 44 SWC ( Arsenal #503 is my favorite mold)

LEE 310gr.

 

[Buddro]

Does anyone have experience with vihtavuori 110? I know it's not a duplicate of h110 and its a little costly. But it's mighty close in burn rate and more importantly a local sporting goods store has a few 1 pounders of it in stock. It might be just the ticket for my 240 grain hunting loads.

 

[derek45auto]

Does anyone have experience with vihtavuori 110? I know it's not a duplicate of h110 and its a little costly. But it's mighty close in burn rate and more importantly a local sporting goods store has a few 1 pounders of it in stock. It might be just the ticket for my 240 grain hunting loads.

buy a few lbs if that's the only magnum powder they have

 

[DeplorabusUnum]

Another vote for IMR 4227

I shoot a load that I really like from my 6" 629-1. It's 21.6 gr of IMR 4227 pushing a 250 gr cast lead projectile. Accuracy is very good, it averages 1193 ft/s, and recoil is stout but very manageable. In your pistol I'm sure it would get you over 1200 ft/s.

 

[M29since14]

The .44 shouldn't need anything at all in the way of fancy bullets or powder for what you have in mind. Any decent cast bullet in the 250-275 grain range, 19-20 grains of #2400, and standard Federal large pistol primers should give you around 1250-1300 FPS (in an 8-inch barrel), should not be too hard on your revolver, and should shoot into 5-6 inches at 100 yards from a good 29-2. A friend, who is a bit better shot than I am, can usually hit a clay bird with this load at 100 using my 629, which has a red dot sight, to aid our old eyesight. It does everything I expect a .44 Magnum revolver to do. Just make sure your bullet "fits" your gun. All 29-2s I have seen have very large exit bores (0.432-0.433", generally) and are well served by the biggest bullet you can stuff in them. In my experience, with US commercial .44 brass, that is about 0.4325", for my guns.

 

[Snapping Twig]

My favorite load is a 260g Lyman 429244 over 22g H110/W296 with a non magnum LP, typically Winchester.

Very accurate and if my info is correct (no chrono), it's @ 1200fps.

For fun, I use a 250g Lyman SWC mould and load it over 7g W231/HP38.

Somewhere in the 900fps range and I would consider it good for most things out to wherever a 45lc would be used since it's basically the same thing.

 

[Drm50]

I've only got one 44mag that I shoot heavy loads in. A Ruger SBH. I've shot 240gr JHPs ( now XTPs ) over 22.5 gr of H-2400. Been shooting that since 1960s, only in that SBH. It shoots that load or I would be backing it down several clicks. The 29s I only shoot cast at moderate velocities. If I was shooting a bear with cast, I wouldn't go crazy on velocity. All I've ever used for magnum loads was 2400. I got a pound of H-110 and was going to check it out. Mostly for Marlin 94 / 240g XTP for deer. Sold rifle and have never cracked the seal on the 110.
I shot a deer with 242gr cast WC at 750fps with Unique in a 83/8" m25.
Classic shot at about 30yds, shot through deer. Unless you are dealing with grizzly something like 1100 to 1200 FPS would be plenty.

 

[Benchrest1]

My heavy load for 44 mag is an Oregon Trail 310 WNFPGC with 21 grains of H110 in a Fed case and a Fed mag primer.

 

[old tanker]

My standard load for the 44 Magnum since the can said DuPont has been 23 gr. IMR4227 under a Lyman 429421 cast from wheelwieghts. It was accurate enough to shoot silhouette when that game was popular. Two hundred meter rams fell over and it did not lead.

Took a couple of whitetails, worked fine, no problems.

 

[snowman]

Does anyone have experience with vihtavuori 110? I know it's not a duplicate of h110 and its a little costly. But it's mighty close in burn rate and more importantly a local sporting goods store has a few 1 pounders of it in stock. It might be just the ticket for my 240 grain hunting loads.

I've burned more VV N110 than any other powder, but I've used it only in .357s. That's not because I don't think it would be a good powder in .44s -I just decided to try H110 for those, and stayed with it.

I'm well satisfied with N110 and would recommend it to anyone. The only downside is that, since it is a stick powder(I'm thinking that all VV's powders are -may be exceptions), it doesn't meter quite as consistently, at least in my experience. The fellows who test loads at Sierra Bullet recommended I use a magnum primer with it, and I followed their advice. As I recall, they said that ignition improved for them when they used magnum primers, especially in cold weather testing.

Regards,
Andy

 

[cowboy4evr]

I agree with old tanker : 23 grs of 4227 has been my 44 magnum load using the Keith 245gr swc for years . It's a very accurate load , has plenty of power , yet easy on the gun and easy on the shooter . Regards Paul

 

[jcelect]

H110

I have many 240gr XTPs down the barrel of my 10 5/8" 29-3 Silhouette with H110 @ 24grs. This is a hot load which REQUIRES mag primers, I use Federals because of my light triggers. I would be careful of lead loads at this level, 1300-1400fps, which can cause leading problems. I would suggest gas checks(pictured above). Practicing with a lighter load is fine to acquaint yourself with the gun but you must fire enough of your hunting load to become proficient at any yardage! My outer limit was 200yds, from a rest(a tree, a large rock, my backpack on the ground, tree stand rail, etc.)
jcelect

 

[DB404]

Black bear aren't exactly brown bears. If you're shooting over a bait station a 1200 fps load will work well and be easy on your 29-2. If you want more thump try 23.5 gr of Win 296 with a CCI 350 primer and a good quality 250 grain cast bullet that slips through your guns throats with thumb pressure. I also use a 300 grain LBT LFN GC over 21.5 gr of Win 296. I wore out a 29-2 6.5" shooting the 250 gr Keith bullet (429421) over 21.0 gr of 2400 and a standard large pistol primer. The W296 load is a tiny bit more accurate and a wee bit less pressure. Practice with 9.5 gr of Unique under a 250 cast bullet with standard large pistol primer. It is accurate and gives 1030 fps from my 4" 29-2.
Have fun! Dave

 

[Buddro]

Thanks for the advice guys. I just got ahold of an 8 pounder of h110, I may be able to get some gas checked bullets between now and the hunt but if not I am sure I can make something work with what I have. I will let you know how it goes.

Btw, the hunt will be spot and stalk. If I am not 100 percent on my shooting before the hunt I will fall back on my bow or the wsm.