wc860 in 44mag, 5 inch barrel

[Harpman]

anyone tried this ?. it work ?

[Scrounger]

anyone tried this ?. it work ?

I'd bet against it. If it does leave the barrel, that bullet would be slower than CarpetMan running to save a cat.

[BCB]

Harpman,
Are you sure you don't have the numbers rearranged? How about WC-680? That one will work...BCB

[Harpman]

its wc860..I have a bunch and was wondering if it would work..

[lastmanout]

820 is the powder I used in 44 mag. 860 is a slow rifle powder, it will be dirty and slow (as mentioned). Slow rifle powders are never listed for this use. There has to be a GOOD reason. I would be concerned about SEE (sympathetic detonation). I would find another place to use up that rifle powder.

[Harpman]

Thanks...I will just go buy some new stuff..I posted over on the ruger forum, to see what they use...I do have plenty of rifles that will eat this 860...just got the vaquero not long ago...sweet pistol too..

[Ricochet]

I wouldn't worry about SEE with a .44 Magnum case full of WC860, but I would worry about bullets stuck in the barrel. Even the far faster WC680 is awfully slow in the .44 Magnum, at least till you get up to outrageously heavy bullets. (It's kinda like a Ball powder equivalent of 4198.)

[Ricochet]

+1 on the WC820 for the .44 Magnum, BTW. The batch I have is equivalent to AA#9, and is my main powder for the .44 Mag.

There seems to be a good bit of batch to batch variation in that powder.

[Harpman]

I just found some W231...LOL.man, I didnt even realize I had it, till I started looking..I think its time to organize my powder..

[carpetman]

Harpman---Your pristine reloading room had something unorganized????? Did you call 911?

[Harpman]

I know ! I know !. I swear I was just thinking about that...thats one thing that aint perfect !..I got 3 kinds of black, then surplus, then regular rifle like 4895, red dot etc...I need to line it all up in one of the bottom shelves under the bench..:neutral:

[CSH]

I loaded some WC860 in 44 mag a few years ago....by accident. I had been shooting the Lee 310gr FN with 26 grains of WC680 with excellent results. In a moment of dyslexia I grabbed the wrong container. Fortunately there was no harm done since WC860 is super slow as compared to 680. A caseful of 680 in the old '06 probably would have been disastrous. I realized my mistake after the first shot. Lots of unburned powder, low recoil, and a weak report. I would guess the muzzle velocity was not more than 300 fps, but none of the bullets stuck.

[CSH]

Harpman, I forgot to include my vote for WC820. As Ricochet noted, WC680 is not very versatile with all bullet weights, but works great in 300+ grain range.

[Junior1942]

Another vote for WC820 in 44 mag. Medium-high to heavy loads only, however, or you'll get an occasional squib load.

[Ricochet]

I've just loaded some .44 Magnums with Lee 429-255-SWC boolits weighing 273 grains over 19 grains of WC820 that acts like AA#9 and tried 'em out in the SBH and Marlin 1894. Didn't chrono them, but they shot like normal full power .44 Magnums. Probably will be my standard load for the time being.

As for the original question, seems like I recall someone posting over on the old board years ago an experiment with WC860 in the .44 Magnum, with very poor results as noted above. Might've been back on the old Shooters board.

[BD]

A few years back I put some data on Castpics using WC820 behind 260 gr. WFNs and WC 680 behind the Lee 310 rnfps. These two loads work so well that I haven't needed to try anything else in the .44 mag for a while now.
BD