I cast most of my own bullets I intend to shoot in .44 Special revolvers myself. My .44 caliber pills are made using either the Lyman 429421 or the similar RCBS moulds. I size them to .430". I once bought very cheaply a big pile of RCBS cast bullet lube at a gunshop that was closing down and I doubt I will run out of it for a long time.
For a handload that duplicates the ballistic performance of the traditional 246 gr. RNL bullet from W-W's and R-P's original offerings, I use either 4.1 grains of Bullseye under that cast SWC or 5.5 grains of old Unique. From a 4 inch S&W .44 Special conversion revolver, I got velocities that averaged 698 from the Bullseye load and 707 fps from the Unique load, although the range of velocities from each powder pretty well over-lap each other.
The vast majority of my 44 Special brass is W-W accumulated mostly from shooting factory ammo. The rest is Federal Cartridge, some from shooting their 200 gr lead hollowpoint load, but most were new, unfired bulk.
I usually primed Winchester brass with Winchester large pistol primers and the Federals with CCI large pistol primers. Both of these cast SWC's have generous crimping grooves and I seated them and applied a heavy roll crimp in two separate steps.
I think a good, tight grip of the bullet inside the case neck, enhanced with a stiff roll crimp, made better, more concistent performance as far as accuracy and velocity are concerned.
The vast majority of my .44 Special shooting, thus also most of my .44 Special handloading involves Skeeter Skelton's old load, the cast 250 gr SWC bullet from the Lyman 429421 mould sized to .430" and loaded into Winchester brass under 7.5 grains of old Unique. Depending on the gun, velocities range from about 950 fps to slightly over 1,000 fps. The Skeeter load is fairly stout but not "Magnum intense." I enjoy plinking with it but might choose the lighter Unique charge or the Bullseye charge if I anticipated some volume of shooting the .44's at an indoor raange or letting others with little experience in shooting powerful guns try the .44 Special out.
The light Bullseye and Unique loads mimic the traditional lead round nose ammo. I think that my handloads with those charges topped by a 250-ish grain SWC bullet or a swaged 240 grain bullet from Speer are the perfect cartridge to shoot from the Charter Arms Bulldog revolvers. I bought 2 of the early ones, 3 inch barrels and fixed sights, back about 1976 and promptly beat one of them to death by firing Skeeter's loads through it. The other one has been fed more judiciously, with the factory equivalent handloads, and shows no signs of distress
Two of my .44 Special sixshooters are Colts, a 1979-ish Single Action Army with 7-1/2 inch barrel and a New Frontier of more recent vintage with a 4-3/4 inch barrel. These guns have tighter bores and I sized the same bullets down to .428" for those guns.
I have a project in mind that I hope to get to during the next year or so. I have a Ransom Rest again and am shopping for a chronograph. Using them, I am going to shoot and measure the Skelton load in 3 different guns, a 4 inch M-24-3, a 6-1/2 inch M-624 and a 5 inch M-624 if I get it done in time. I'll use the resulting velocities and group sizes as a standard. Then, using the same cast bullets, I will round up 6 or 8 of the popular handgun powders in the same range in which Unique is often employed, and load the bullets to the same velocity I get from the 7.5 Unique charge.
I hope to see if something else can give the .44 Special "Skeeter Skelton-level" performance, which powders group better or worse, which powders shoot cleaner or dirtier, things like that.
A 250 grain flat-faced semiwadcutter zipping along at 950 fps is a great all-around load whether fired from a .44 Special, .44 Magnum, .45 Colt or .45 Auto Rim. I am partial to the .44 Special S&W sixguns as the launch vehicles. I hope to find better fuel!
Might be interesting.
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), instead of a lead bullet, over 4.7 gr. HP-38. The manual lists 4.5 gr. as a starting load and 5.6 as the max. 1.450" min. OAL.
