Looking for a .44 special load

[earthquake]

I have a Rossi M720 [3" barrel] that I want to find a good load for, I have a bunch of Oregon Trail 240gn laser cast bullets and a few pounds of Red Dot powder I would like to use. Has any body ever loaded a 300gn cast bullet in 44 special? I would like to do it at about 600-700 fps. I have a inside case reamer for making 44 auto mag cases that I could cut the inside taper deeper to get a longer bullet in the case.

Casey

[triggerhappy243]

9 gr. Unique

[tsubaki]

9 gr. Unique
This is the load I'm using with my M720 but it's with a 180gr XTP getting 985fps.

Lyman lists a load with their #429667 240gr of up to 6.5gr of Unique at 816fps.
That is about what I'm going to try when I do the 240gr Lee swctl that I've got painted.

[Wally]

I use 5.5 grains or Red Dot with a 250 grain bullet. IMHO a 300 grain bullet in a 3" barreled .44 Spl is too heavy.

[dubber123]

I have never had much luck getting a 300 gr. .44 boolit to shoot decently much below 900 fps., and that is a bit of a stretch in a short .44 Spl.

[Lloyd Smale]

the 720s are not that stout of a gun. When I had mine the go to load was 6 grains of unique and a 250. I wouldn't personaly go over 7 if you want your gun to last. Don't really know why youd want to push a 300 to 650fps when a 250 at around 900 is a much better hunting load. Also back to the part where there not a single action ruger in strength. Heavys will probably pound on your gun. There actually a pretty cool gun. I had one for years until I bought a 696. Didn't see much use in having both. I treat my 696 the same way. There excellent packing guns but I wouldn't push the power level envelope in either. Max loads for me would be 7 grains of unique or 16 grains of 2400 and id only use those loads on a limited basis. One other problem with both guns is there prone to crack forcing cones with heavy loads.

[Blackwater]

I have 3 friends who have that exact gun, and they're all using the 240 gr. Ogegon Trail SWC or Lyman Keith bullets over 7.0 gr. of Unique, and are VERY happy with the load. I have a Ruger Flat Top in .44 Spec., and the best load for it so far is the Keith bullet over 7.5 gr. Unique. Both these are slightly over the SAAMI max. pressures for it, but both guns are stronger than many older guns in that caliber, and these loads shouldn't strain either of them, and particularly so the Ruger. The Flat Tops have a smaller diameter, and thus slightly weaker, cylinder than the std. Blackhawks, so aren't quite as strong as the std. guns, but still plenty overbuilt. Don't know what the metalurgy is in the Rossis, but I doubt seriously that the 7.0 gr. Unique/240 gr. cast loads would strain it much.

That 9.0 gr. load above may be a misprint??? It's way above what I've ever seen listed for the Special, and if you want that much power, you should probably have gotten a .44 mag anyway, so I'd be VERY leery of using it. We all have to watch for typos here, and everywhere on the 'net these days, and I suspect that's the situation there. It wouldn't likely blow up a Blackhawk or Flat Top, but it'd strain even those guns some, and surely would likely stress the Rossis, I'd think.

And BTW, all 3 friends with those Rossis just LOVE them! I suspect you will too. Main thing they've come to realize is that for self defense especially, they want and need a load that's not only accurate, but allows fast follow up shots, and they've all settled on the 7.0 gr. Unique load, and one sometimes uses the same load with the Lee 200 gr. RNFP so as to allow even faster followup shots, and is satisfied with that load as well. I suspect you're gonna' find that Rossi is a really nice keeper.

[runfiverun]

some may have confused the special for the mag case.

7 grs of unique under a 240 is all the 44 special you really need, and probably more than some guns can handle on a regular basis.
but the O/P has 300's and red-dot.
which is unfortunate because I looked through a bunch of my manuals and none of them have data for this combination.
if I HAD to use this combination I'd make a stab at 4 grs and maybe work up to 5 ish.
but that's what I might would maybe do.
more than likely I'd melt down the store bought too hard boolits and use them to sweeten some of my soft but not pure lead, into something I could shoot.

[45-70 Chevroner]

There is a big difference in reaming a automag case and a 44 special case. If you remove any of the brass from the inside of the 44 special case you have just weakend the case and that is a formula for disasters. I personally would stick with the 240 grainer. Start with 5 gr red-dot sence you have a good supply of it and work up to your desired fps and watching for sings of pressure.

[earthquake]

Thanks guys, I will try the 5gns of red dot with the 240 and see what it like. I will save the 300's for my M29 S&W.

Casey

[Lloyd Smale]

yup that 9 grain of unique load is pretty much the generic load for a 44 mag. NEVER in a 44 special, even a ruger. I would guess that one shot at that level in a 720 would probably bulge the cylinder (at least!)
some may have confused the special for the mag case.

7 grs of unique under a 240 is all the 44 special you really need, and probably more than some guns can handle on a regular basis.
but the O/P has 300's and red-dot.
which is unfortunate because I looked through a bunch of my manuals and none of them have data for this combination.
if I HAD to use this combination I'd make a stab at 4 grs and maybe work up to 5 ish.
but that's what I might would maybe do.
more than likely I'd melt down the store bought too hard boolits and use them to sweeten some of my soft but not pure lead, into something I could shoot.

[tsubaki]

I worked up the 9.0gr of Unique for my M720 in 1993 trying to get 180gr Sierra JHC's to expand in a 50lb block of modeling clay, they never would.
Swapped over to the 180gr XTP's with that load and they expanded perfectly.
For the 44spl Sierra's 5th Edition (2003) does list up to 9.1gr of Unique with their 180gr JHC at 1000fps in a 6 1/2" S&W model 24.

The published load with a Sierra 240gr JHC is 8.1gr of Unique at 900fps.

For what it is worth Lyman 46th edition lists a 240gr jacketed SP with 4.8gr (571fps) to 5.6gr (713fps) of Red Dot out of a 4" universal barrel and Sierra lists a 240gr JHC with 5.8gr (700fps) to 6.4gr (850fps) of Red Dot.

[Lloyd Smale]

9 grains with a 180 is a lot different then 9 grains with a 240. personally I wouldn't run a gun like a 720 with more then 7 grains of unique and a 250 or 8 with a 180 and if I wanted it to last for my grandkids id back off that to 6 and 7 respectively.

[W.R.Buchanan]

My goto load for .44 Special is 6.0 gr of W231 with a 240 gr SWC like Lyman 429421. I have the Mihec equivalent of that boolit.

I shoot these in my S&W 696 and my Ruger BH both in .44 Special. These are not heavy loads but with a 240 gr boolit hitting anything at any speed will be devastating. For reference they are a little over 1/2 oz.!

If you want to see the whole gambit of loads for the .44 Special I would suggest buying a back issue of Handloader Magazine #236 and read the article by Brian Pearce on this subject. It has loads for every bullet weight from 200 to 300 gr and loads in pressure ranges for every strength gun.

Pretty much everything you need to know about this cartridge and the various guns in one article.

Randy

[rintinglen]

5.0 grains of Red Dot under a Lyman 429-421 or an RCBS 44-250-k works very well.

[nicodiesel]

i use 4.5 gr. of 700x and 240gr. lyman

[Jtarm]

I have 3 friends who have that exact gun, and they're all using the 240 gr. Ogegon Trail SWC or Lyman Keith bullets over 7.0 gr. of Unique, and are VERY happy with the load. I have a Ruger Flat Top in .44 Spec., and the best load for it so far is the Keith bullet over 7.5 gr. Unique. Both these are slightly over the SAAMI max. pressures for it, but both guns are stronger than many older guns in that caliber, and these loads shouldn't strain either of them, and particularly so the Ruger. The Flat Tops have a smaller diameter, and thus slightly weaker, cylinder than the std. Blackhawks, so aren't quite as strong as the std. guns, but still plenty overbuilt. Don't know what the metalurgy is in the Rossis, but I doubt seriously that the 7.0 gr. Unique/240 gr. cast loads would strain it much.

That 9.0 gr. load above may be a misprint??? It's way above what I've ever seen listed for the Special, and if you want that much power, you should probably have gotten a .44 mag anyway,

9 grains is an old Elmer Keith pre-.44 magnum load.

It might not blow the 720 but I sure wouldn't want to try it.

Like you said, there's .44 magnums for that kind of pressure.