.44 Russian in a S&W 629

[Rosco Shooter]

I am thinking about using my 629 in my club's Bullseye Shooting matches, both the indoor and outdoor versions. I have a Millet Red Dot mounted on the weapon. I am thinking about hand loading some .44 Russian ammo as I believe this cartridge was used at the turn of the 19th-20th century as target ammunition, and because it would recoil less than .44 Special and be easier to shoot in the timed and rapid fire stages.

Are there any drawbacks to this concept?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Dosgatos]

I've used my 624 with some .44 Russian cowboy loads from a friend - 3 grains of Trailboss with a 200 grain bullet for 647 fps. This is a very mild and controllable load, but I did have a lot of lead fouling in the 624.

 

[rburg]

The drawback I see is if you're shooting it in volume, you'll run the chance of fouling the cylinder with the short brass. The same thing was we see with 22 shorts in LR chambers. You might even want to build a few test loads and pay particular attention to how clean they fire. The alternative would be to load the super light loads in magnum brass. It completely removes the short shell problems.

While you're testing the early loads, try using different bullets. You can use the old RN 246s, but some of Elmer Keiths loads might be better for you. The only way to tell is to test them.

 

[k22fan]

What theoretically might be most accurate of course has to be tested by firing in the individual gun, but my prediction is that accuracy would be better using mag. brass to seat the front driving band in the cylinder throat for better bullet alignment. I found 700X and PB powders burnt very clean and gave good accuracy in drastically down loaded .44 magnums in my 29. The same 180 gr. lead bullets estimated to be at the same velosity produced groups slightly larger in .44 spl. brass.

Best Regards,
Gil