44 Mag brass...What gives?

[PhilOhio]

Very entertaining and informative thread. So there must be a lot of us serious scroungers out there. I've done most of the things MaximumBob admits to, but to cut out the middle man and save my back...not searching parking lots...I get my wheel weights a quarter ton or so at a time, from a large tire shop. And topping Bob, I use some of the empty .22 LR cases to make jackets for my .22 centerfire swaged bullets, for up to about 3000 FPS.

As for .44 Magnum case life, I still have all but about three from the original box I bought in 1960 with my Model 29. Those three reloads were discarded because of the failure of solidly hit Remington primers, before I knew about bullet pullers.

I've only had a couple split necks in my life. Those I cut down for .44 Russian. And I don't think I own more than about 400 - 500 .44 Mag cases, all but 51 loaded at the moment. I shoot them in the 29, an Interarms Virginian Dragoon SAA look alike, and a Winchester 94.

The secret to almost indefinite case life? I keep only a couple boxes of full power loads, using my 240 gr. lead gas check bullets and my swaged 240 gr. jacketed soft point hollow points. For all the rest of my shooting with these guns I load the cases to what amounts to .44 Special values. They are extremely accurate, don't punish me or the gun, are fun to shoot, the cases size easily, and they just seem to last indefinitely, like 9mm and .45 ACP brass. What's not to like about that formula?

I have a cousin who, every now and then, gets out his Ruger Red Hawk and pointlessly burns up a box of factory ammo at a cardboard box or something; penetrates every time. So every few months I have another box of empties.

If I could have only one handgun and one caliber to reload, it would be a 6" Model 29 in .44 Magnum and a few hundred cases and the necessary tools and lead. All of that I do have. This is how you measure happiness...or at least the handgun variety of it. That one gun and caliber can be loaded to do just about anything you want, from very accurate paper target shooting to shattering concrete blocks and hunting deer and larger game. I have no need for one of the .500 big boomers.

Oh yes, I also have the semiauto version of this, a first run Pasadena .44 Automag. But I rarely shoot it; I don't want to lose the cases, which I have to hand make.

 

[Maximumbob54]

Very entertaining and informative thread. So there must be a lot of us serious scroungers out there. I've done most of the things MaximumBob admits to, but to cut out the middle man and save my back...not searching parking lots...I get my wheel weights a quarter ton or so at a time, from a large tire shop. And topping Bob, I use some of the empty .22 LR cases to make jackets for my .22 centerfire swaged bullets, for up to about 3000 FPS.

As for .44 Magnum case life, I still have all but about three from the original box I bought in 1960 with my Model 29. Those three reloads were discarded because of the failure of solidly hit Remington primers, before I knew about bullet pullers.

I've only had a couple split necks in my life. Those I cut down for .44 Russian. And I don't think I own more than about 400 - 500 .44 Mag cases, all but 51 loaded at the moment. I shoot them in the 29, an Interarms Virginian Dragoon SAA look alike, and a Winchester 94.

The secret to almost indefinite case life? I keep only a couple boxes of full power loads, using my 240 gr. lead gas check bullets and my swaged 240 gr. jacketed soft point hollow points. For all the rest of my shooting with these guns I load the cases to what amounts to .44 Special values. They are extremely accurate, don't punish me or the gun, are fun to shoot, the cases size easily, and they just seem to last indefinitely, like 9mm and .45 ACP brass. What's not to like about that formula?

I have a cousin who, every now and then, gets out his Ruger Red Hawk and pointlessly burns up a box of factory ammo at a cardboard box or something; penetrates every time. So every few months I have another box of empties.

If I could have only one handgun and one caliber to reload, it would be a 6" Model 29 in .44 Magnum and a few hundred cases and the necessary tools and lead. All of that I do have. This is how you measure happiness...or at least the handgun variety of it. That one gun and caliber can be loaded to do just about anything you want, from very accurate paper target shooting to shattering concrete blocks and hunting deer and larger game. I have no need for one of the .500 big boomers.

Oh yes, I also have the semiauto version of this, a first run Pasadena .44 Automag. But I rarely shoot it; I don't want to lose the cases, which I have to hand make.

"And topping Bob, I use some of the empty .22 LR cases to make jackets for my .22 centerfire swaged bullets, for up to about 3000 FPS."

If I ever buy the dies I intend to do that. The Corbin press is just a chunk of money I don't have in one shot. I have been thinking of trying to use some of the surplus .40SW to swage them into brass jacketed .44 magnum. 9mm can be made into .40SW bullets but I don't have nearly as many of those. The Rockchucker can do some but it can crack under the pressure. There is a guy on the castboolits forum that redoes by hand some CH4D dies to do this. I should PM him again to see if he has done another batch. My luck the RC will blow up on the first try...

 

[Littledragon777]

I shoot about 50 to 75 rounds a month in my Super Redhawk. I shoot 240 gr JHP XTPs over 23.5 grains of Win 296. I hunt whitetail with this load and it serves me well. As for brass it does seem to be hard to get at times for a decent price. I shoot them till they crack which doesn't happen very often. I have a couple of hundred on hand that I reload and heep to hunt with made with new brass and each load double weighed and done on an RCBS Rockchucker. The other loads that I am going to be shooting just for fun and practice are done on my 550b. I traded a guy 200 new 44 special cases for the same in 44 mag just the other day. As for range brass where I shoot the owners of the range will allow you to pick up your brass only and they better not catch you straying to far from your shooting booth picking up brass as they recyle it all themselfs and resale what their customers leave behind.

 

[Maximumbob54]

annealing the brass also helps case life.

 

[625user]

Get Starline Brass way cheaper then WW Rem etc.
Do not over crimp

 

[DCameron]

When did you last buy it

At $13 / hundred for once fired...and $19/hundred for new..nickle Starlines....I dont consider that to be outragious. After all...you DO use them over and over again. Lord knows how many reload a person can get out of a casing. I buy mine from a place right down the road from you....

I just ordered 100 unprimed cases (they are new and not once fired) for $28 Magnum and $28 special. The once fired was running anywhere from $25 to $35 and most of it is miced.

 

[DCameron]

That is mixed brass versus starline new and I purchased it from, Midway

 

[fredj338]

If I could have only one handgun and one caliber to reload, it would be a 6" Model 29 in .44 Magnum and a few hundred cases and the necessary tools and lead. All of that I do have. This is how you measure happiness...or at least the handgun variety of it. That one gun and caliber can be loaded to do just about anything you want, from very accurate paper target shooting to shattering concrete blocks and hunting deer and larger game. I have no need for one of the .500 big boomers.

Oh yes, I also have the semiauto version of this, a first run Pasadena .44 Automag. But I rarely shoot it; I don't want to lose the cases, which I have to hand make.

I agree, but make mine a 4". I could even ccw that if restricted to one handgun.

 

[M1A]

I started using .44 mag brass many years ago. Somewhere over 1000. I only load mag brass. Either to special specs. or mag specs.

 

[zeke]

Sent 100 rounds downrange today, milder handloads with 180 sjhp at 1250 fps (4 inch). Practicing fast da shooting at 25 feet. Bad grips for volume shooting 3 incher, cleaned blood off pistol while cleaning it this evening.

 

[BC38]

Interesting that this thread should be resurrected right now. I got a 44 magnum for Father's day and knowing what the ammo costs I started pulling together the stuff I needed to add this caliber to my reloading bench.

For some reason the brass just seemed to be in short supply. I was finding everything I needed EXCEPT brass. None of the local retailers had it, including Cabelas, White Elephant, or Black Sheep - and those last two are well known locally for their stocks of reloading supplies.

Gunbroker had some but with shipping it ended up being around $30-$35 per hundred new and $20-$25 per hundred for once-fired. I finally found a guy on Armslist selling 300 pieces of once-fired in shell-holder boxes (one 100 rounder and four 50 rounders) for $60 including shipping. I jumped on it. I also bought one box of ammo and 43 rounds of once-fired brass from a local guy.

So I now have roughly 400 cases to work with. I don't understand why, but for some reason the brass still seems to be in short supply 4 years after this thread was started.

 

[gregintenn]

It is available, but it's brass; not gold!

Wow. This was an old thread resurrection.

 

[Hook686]

Back in the day I bought 1000 rounds of 240 grain JHP for about $400 from Georgia Arms. Today that same 1000 rounds goes for $630. I still have unopened bags of it, as I also reload. I load light, middle and heavy .44 magnum and heavy .44 Special. I have lost very few cases over the years and definately do not leave any empties at the range. The gun club I belong to empties the range brass buckets, sorts the brass and puts the sorted into zip-lock bags. These are sold at club meetings. I bought .44 Magnum/Special brass so sorted for about a nickle a case.

All calibers I shoot I do this way, buy the commercial I intend to shoot, chronograph it, then work up reloads that come close to matching it. This has worked for me.

 

[BC38]

It is available, but it's brass; not gold!

Wow. This was an old thread resurrection.

Yeah, but thanks to DCameron for resurrecting it.

Does it strike anyone else as odd that it's still in as short supply now as it was 4 years ago? I mean it isn't as if they stopped making it or something.

Or maybe it has been more available most of the time since then and we're just now experiencing a new shortage? I wouldn't know since I just started reloading 44 mag.

 

[ajgunner]

I have had some 44 brass listed on 2 forums for about 3 weeks. As I am reading through this thread a guy just hit me up for 200 of them. What are the odds of this happening??? I do have 300 more to sell. The problem is I can only get 200 in a small flat rate box and to get 300 the shipping price doubles. Shoot me a PM if you need some. Remington---$50 per 200 pieces.
SOLD ALL of it to the original buyer.

 

[rwsmith]

If it's anything like .357.....

If it's anything like .357 it seems they make runs only periodically. It's been scarce and expensive. I haven't checked to see if it is any better.

 

[MJFlores]

It is funny how the .44 brass situation hasn't seemed to change. I always figured that most people who do any real shooting with a .44 tend to be fellow reloaders. I think I'd be shocked if I saw .44 mag brass laying on the ground somewhere. It's so easy to dump from the cylinder and put it right back in the box!

I do quite a bit of shooting and reloading for my 629, and have accumulated a decent stash of brash. Cabelas seems to get regular shipments of Starline .44 mag brass, so check there. I just got 2 more bags just to sit on in case some of my older brass starts to split. My go to load is a mild one, using plated bullets, mag cases, and averages 925 fps over the chrono. I haven't started wearing out brass yet. If I were just starting to load for .44 mag and couldn't find any brass I think I'd go buy a box or two of Federal .44 mag. You'll get a decent and stout magnum to shoot, and then have pretty decent brass afterwards. Federal factory ammo seems to shoot clean too and I really like Federal...it's just behind Starline if you ask me, and worlds better than Winchester white box, which is filthy and the brass always measures very short, with very poorly cut case mouths and flash holes. The good thing about reloading pistol brass, revolvers in particular is that once you have the brass and you can get powder, primers, and bullets...you're all set for a long time.

 

[scooter123]

I just looked and Starline has 44 Magnum brass in stock, for 101.00/500 and 176.00/1000. Those looking for brass in 44 Mag really should think about placing an order.

 

[BC38]

...Shoot me a PM if you need some. Remington---$50 per 200 pieces.

Two weeks ago I was posting on local boards looking for some and would have jumped on that deal. I didn't think to post on here looking for it or I'm sure we'd have done business.

With 1 box of loaded rounds and another 350 empty cases on my bench, I'm pretty much all set now...

 

[Drm50]

44mag Brass

I've got Norma brass bought in 1964. Bought 500 for my "new"
M-29. This is my Target brass for that gun. Has been loaded
countless times, mild loads with old Ideal wadcutter. The few
I lost were due to not expanding enough for the cast bullet. I
have several thousand other brass. The only ones I notice short
life on is Remington, with 240JHPs/ 21 1/2gr of 2400. They get
recycled into 44 Sp or 44 Russian. I get approx 7 loadings out
of the Rems. The others 12-15 with hot loads. I have a Ruger
44 Deer stalker that I don't shoot much because it bails brass.
Use it for hunting only.