696 purchase

[Marshal Tom]

I recently traded for a 696 no dash and love the .44special. I took it to the range and shot it briefly last night. Who has one and likes it? What do you shoot in it for practice and carry? I have heard that you have to be careful of heavy loads due to the rather thin forcing cone on these. What is a safe but adaquate loading for it? I am interested in any loading data that would be helpful

Tom

 

[TAROMAN]

Look for Brian Pearce's article on the .44 Special in issue #236 (Aug '05) of Handloader Magazine.
That said, my 696 shoots great with any decent load.
I do lean toward the lighter bullets.
Picture says it all:

10 shots - 50 feet.
Recently, I have been shooting Lyman #429348 180 grain full wadcutters over 4 grains Bullseye.

 

[jdb3]

I shoot the 200 grain bullet from Oregon Trails at about 700 to 800 fps for practice and load the Speer 200 grain factory load for carry. Love it, my hunting partner who is the finest pistol shot I know, fired a sub 1 inch 5 shot group (off hand double action) at 50 yards the first time he shot it.

 

[Snapping Twig]

Great revolver!

I feed mine a 250g cast SWC over 6.5g W231 for @ 850fps. It's the high velocity stuff that's not good for them. Anything under 900fps is good to go.

In my mind, a 250g slug motoring along @ 850fps is no joke and a perfect target, SD round.

Please forgive me for posting this again - it's a 696.