44 Mag & Blackpowder?

[HPT]

Anyone use blackpowder in their 44 mag levergun?

[TXGunNut]

Will your rifle feed 44 Spl loads? I think it would be more pleasant to shoot that way, otherwise a heavy boolit seated deep would reduce case capacity somewhat. I'm hesitant to shoot BP in my M94 (45 Colt) because I want to be sure I clean out every bit of powder residue.
Quite honestly, I don't know but I'd like to do it someday. What rifle are you wanting to load for?

[Boerrancher]

There is no big deal shooting black powder out of your 44 mag, it is capacity wise almost equal to the 44-40 WCF. I have shot the holy black out of all of my pistol cal lever guns. Clean up is easy. I point the barrel down toward the floor and spray moose milk (3/4 distilled water and 1/4 Balistol) into the chamber and let it run through the barrel. Then I soak a couple patches with moose milk and drag them through the bore, always working from the breech to the muzzle to avoid dragging **** into the action, and put it away until the next time I am ready to shoot it. I will usually go back in a couple of days to make sure it is not rusting up, but I havn't had it happen yet. I can clean one of my BPCR rifles as fast or faster than after shooting a smokeless load. The difference being you can't leave the rifle go a couple days like you can a smokeless. You have to get on it right away. You should try it, just make sure the load fills the case and is slightly compressed by the boolit. DO NOT leave an air gap. I also use lanolin as a boolit lube for black powder rounds, as some modern lubes can cause the fouling to become hard.

Best wishes,

Joe

[EDK]

REMEMBER to use a non petroleum base lube...definitely not 50/50 ALOX either! The fouling in the barrel allegedly will look like road tar and not be a lot easier to remove, There are enough horror stories that I didn't need to find out for myself. Do some searches and you can come up with a home made lube if you don't want to buy SPG, etc to experiment with.

I would use 44 MAGNUM brass so as to get maximum powder capacity...IIRC it holds around 30 grains. Modern 44/40 brass holds about 35 grains? You would also reduce the amount of chamber exposed to the fouling, as opposed to using 44 SPECIAL brass.

Joe/Boerrancher gave you some good advice. You might also want to see if you can find Mike Venturino's book, SHOOTING LEVER ACTION RIFLES OF THE OLD WEST or some of his numerous magazine articles on black powder cartridge guns. You can improvise a compression die for the powder with your neck expander die. An over powder wad might not be a bad idea either.

Loading black powder isn't hard, but there are some necessary extra steps that MUST be done to get it to work safely and efficiently. I load black power for my treasured 50/90 SHILOH SHARPS, but it's a PITA for lever actions or revolvers as far as I'm concerned. You quickly learn to appreciate smokeless for daily/volume use and why smokeless became so popular. Some sources suggest that the stories about black powder "eating up a barrel" are wrong; that it was actually the corrosive primers also used during that era.

:redneck::cbpour::2gunsfiring_v1:

[Nobade]

I have been winning the local pistol caliber levergun match regularly using my Marlin 1894 44 mag and black powder. I use KIK FFFg, the NOE big lube boolit that John Kort designed, lubed with Pearl Lube or NASA. It shoots great for 50 shots, and is as accurate as it is with anything.

When loaded with BP I call it the "44 extra long American" just to confuse folks.

[HPT]

I have been winning the local pistol caliber levergun match regularly using my Marlin 1894 44 mag and black powder. I use KIK FFFg, the NOE big lube boolit that John Kort designed, lubed with Pearl Lube or NASA. It shoots great for 50 shots, and is as accurate as it is with anything.

When loaded with BP I call it the "44 extra long American" just to confuse folks.

Nobade,

I was not sure if the .44 mag case was big enough to shoot black. Can you give some more details:

- weightof the NOE big lube bullet?
- how much powder do you use?
- what kind of velocity do you get?

I'm wanting to load for a Rossi Puma with 24" barrel. I have a .38-55 Winchester also with a 24" barrel that I use blackpowder in and its pretty accurate.

[Nobade]

Nobade,

I was not sure if the .44 mag case was big enough to shoot black. Can you give some more details:

- weightof the NOE big lube bullet?
- how much powder do you use?
- what kind of velocity do you get?

I'm wanting to load for a Rossi Puma with 24" barrel. I have a .38-55 Winchester also with a 24" barrel that I use blackpowder in and its pretty accurate.

-The bullet is 200 grains when cast from wheelweights. Accurate Molds has this same design with a better nose on it that John Kort used in his now famous video to shoot highpower pigs at 300M with his 44-40.
-Not sure of the weight of powder, IIRC it's about 31 grains. I just set the measure so I get 1/8 inch compression when I seat the bullet. Any more deforms the bullet since I am using it to compress the powder rather than use a compression die like I use with the 45-70.
- Don't know the velocity. It is plenty powerful, I'd guess about 1200 fps but really can't be sure.

The 44 is plenty big to give good performance with black. It's not a 45 Colt but it sure isn't a pipsqueek either. Those 200gr. boolits will knock over the full size rams at 200M most of the time, and it has no trouble at all with the pistol caliber targets at 100. The Rossi ought to have a little more hit than my Marlin since it's got 4 inches more barrel.