Hornady .44 cal 240gr LSWC-HP

[Vulcan Bob]

I read Lane Pearce in Handloader magazine and he stated that the Hornady .44 cal 240gr LSWC-HP expands reliably in the .44 special, however I did not note any velocitys to go with that. Now I have a good accurate load for the .44 special that clocks 904 fps out of my M21-4 with a hard cast 240gr LSWC. I subsituted the Hornady LSWC-HP for the hard cast in that load and gave it a try, I dident chrono the load however. Accuracy and POA was good, that soft swaged bullet really leaded up the bore after fifty rounds but accuracy stayed good. Has anyone here done expansion tests with this bullet?

 

[grendelbane]

I have a little experience with this bullet. I found it to be accurate when loaded in .44 Special brass. I worked up several loads with different powders, all the way to the recommended maximum load. The ones I tested never displayed good expansion. I fired these from a 3" 696 and a 6 1/2" 29.

The most expansion I got was just barely opening up a bit wider than the actual bullet.

If expansion is what you want, I would look else where. It is a good bullet for accuracy, economy, and moderate penetration.

 

[Vulcan Bob]

Thanks for the info Grendelbane. What I sort of had in mind was a .44 special version of the .38 special FBI load. Perhaps I should just stick to the tried and true hard cast SWC.

 

[Dale53]

The Lyman 429421 or the H&G #503 (both Keith 250 gr SWC) run at 1000 fps or more in the .44 Special in hollow point form will expand quite nicely when cast of 20/1 lead/tin.

That is from personal experience.

Dale53

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Accuracy and POA was good, that soft swaged bullet really leaded up the bore after fifty rounds but accuracy stayed good. Has anyone here done expansion tests with this bullet?

Where in the barrel are you seeing the leading? If it's up near the end by the muzzle you are running out of lube. that can be fixes by adding lube, something in the order of Liquid Alox.

 

[Vulcan Bob]

Where in the barrel are you seeing the leading? If it's up near the end by the muzzle you are running out of lube. that can be fixes by adding lube, something in the order of Liquid Alox.

The leading was the entire length of the tube with the rifleing just peeking out above the lead in the grooves. The Lewis lead remover got quite a workout.These Hornady swaged bullets are quite soft and have a knurling impressed into the bearing surface that they impress a dry type lube. Kept at 850fps or so they work fine but a bit faster they lead quite badly, perhaps the Lee liquid alox would help but if these things do not expand it's not worth the effort. With these bullets being so soft I would have expected expansion but with Grendelbane's info I guess one cannot make such assumptions! As accuracy was good for the entire fifty rounds on a load that performs I would not mind such leading as not many rounds would be fired at one time. As Dale53 said I guess I should get back into casting my own.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I hear what you're saying. A little cleaning is worth a good accurate load. If they do expand I suggest trying the Liquid Alox, it's not a lot of work when it comes down to it. (as long as they do expand that is)