Downloading 44 Magnum to 44 Special

[bluetopper]

Sounds like your looking for a load of 7.0gr of Bullseye to me for a 240gr cast bullet. Very accurate and very nice and enjoyable to shoot.

Bullseye performs wonderfully in full house 44 Mag too. Listed max is 9.8gr. I tried 9.4gr and I didn't go above that. No point in it. Still very accurate.

 

[running iron]

I just got a ruger bisley 44 magnum and found that the throats were .430 and shoot the laser-cast swc 240's at .431 best. I have been trying to duplicate my 240 swc loads I shoot in my 44 special ruger and have had to increase the powder by 1/2 - 1 grain to get the same results like other members have said. I started with 5.5 grs of 231 then went on to 6 then 6.5 grains and the 6.5 grs shot the one hole groups I was after. I also went from 5.5 grs of WST to 6 grs of WST to match what I was getting from my 44 special at 5.5 grs. The old stand- by of 7.5grs of Unique was a winner too. I have yet to try 7grs of AA#5 and 7 grs. of Auto Comp, but that's next. It seems that around 850 fps seems to be a good place for light recoil and accuracy. Thanks for every ones input, Semper Fi.

 

[duckloads]

USE TRAIL BOSS POWDER. I load heavy 45 Colt-type loads in my 460 mag brass with Trail Boss and 250 gr XTP bullets. I forgot exacty, but those are around 1000-1100 fps.

 

[mobocracy]

I concur with the previous poster urging caution -- to the point where I don't even bother loading sub-minimum magnum loads (aka, heavy special) anymore. I load specials in special cases, and magnums in magnum cases.

I suppose a careful person, with the aid of a chronograph, caution and a bullet/powder combination with both a special and magnum published load could probably carefully reduce the magnum load below the magnum starting point.

But I'm not sure what the point would be. Even though the gap for the same bullet/powder combo in Special and Magnum loads appears to be 4-5 grains, in my opinion there's not a ton of difference in recoil or terminal ballistics between the "max" Special loading and the starting Magnum loading.

I've shot a lot of 180gr JHPs as maximum Specials and magnums; about the only real difference was that I found the Specials slightly easier to shoot one-handed.

 

[Snapping Twig]

My favorite "spl." load in a magnum case is a 250g cast SWC (Lyman 429421) over 7g W231/HP38 with a WLP.

These shoot well out of my Marlin 1894.

 

[Dusty Miller]

If you're using a 240 gr. bullet then 9.2 gr. of Unique will launch it at 1077 fps from a 7.5" barrel. That's a pretty limp 44 mag. load.

 

[VAdoublegunner]

I was just looking at a Handloader where Brian Pearce discusses loads for the 329PD. There are some pretty decent 44 Mag handloads there at reduced velocities. I still stand by my earlier advice in this ancient thread to use Trail Boss for reduced loads in a rifle/carbine, but there are a few favorites in that particular article. It is issue #251, Feb 2008. One old favorite is a 240-250 gr cast bullet with 6.0gr of Red Dot. Velocity is around 850fps in the 329PD. I have used 6.5gr of Green Dot and a 240gr LSWC in my Win 94 Trapper to shoot cowboy lever action silhouette; it is its most accurate load. It gives me a little over 1100fps. Yes, there is a lot of space in the cases so guard against double charges, but those powders are not position sensitive.

 

[David LaPell]

A very nice loads that were a joy to shoot out of my 4-inch Model 29's was 10.0 grains of Unique and a 250 grain cast bullet (Lyman #429421). I could shoot 40-50 of these at a time with no problem.

 

[specops65]

Normally shoot 2 loads in 44's. 17grs of 2400 with 240 gr LSWC in 44 Special cases or 18 grs of 2400 in 44 Mag cases. Other load is 7.5 grs of Unique in either case with same bullet. I have used 6 grs of Bullseye in Mag cases with 429421's but I don't like to use it since it takes up so little room in the case it is very easy to make a mistake. Have you looked at 5744 or Trailboss?

 

[running iron]

I just got a ruger bisley 44 magnum and found that the throats were .430 and shoot the laser-cast swc 240's at .431 best. I have been trying to duplicate my 240 swc loads I shoot in my 44 special ruger and have had to increase the powder by 1/2 - 1 grain to get the same results like other members have said. I started with 5.5 grs of 231 then went on to 6 then 6.5 grains and the 6.5 grs shot the one hole groups I was after. I also went from 5.5 grs of WST to 6 grs of WST to match what I was getting from my 44 special at 5.5 grs. The old stand- by of 7.5grs of Unique was a winner too. I have yet to try 7grs of AA#5 and 7 grs. of Auto Comp, but that's next. It seems that around 850 fps seems to be a good place for light recoil and accuracy. Thanks for every ones input, Semper Fi.

I just got home from shooting the 7grs. of Auto Comp with a 240gr. SWC and was very pleasantly surprised to see that this load also shot some nice one hole groups at 15 yards. I'm no spring chicken and should wear classes but don't, so I was very happy with my results. This load is the starting load from the Hodgdon web page. I didn't try the AA#5 load even though it is from the Accurate Arms data. At 812 FPS it just seemed a little weak. The Auto Comp is rated at 886 fps but have not checked it yet. I know there are people out there that bad mouth Auto Comp but I have had good results with it from 38 special to 45 acp.