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lead_her_fly
04-26-2008, 09:49 PM
The loads posted in this thread are deemed safe in my firearms. Seeing as I can't see yours you have to be the judge if they are safe enough to shoot these loads. All of these loads, except the WC820 ones, are from printed material. It may not be from a current manual but it is in one! USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!


I traded a 500 S&W Magnum Handi-Rifle in on a brand new synthetic Handi-Rifle in 44 Magnum. The commonality of bullets was the main reason to switch. I had no desire to get a mold for the 500. I have one of the best molds ever made for the 44 Mag/Spl, an H&G #503. It puts out 4 Elmer Keith 250 grain bullets at a time. None better, some near as good! It is lubed with my home brew of 50% Liquid Xlox and 50% Beeswax. With the deep and wide grease groove it is plenty for the rifle or handgun to keep it from leading. I need to clean the rifle to see just how bad it got last night and today. I ran some loads that I have had around for quite awhile last night. Starting out with some jacketed and moving into the cast bullets described above. At one point I had the barrel pretty hot, hot enough you couldn't leave your hand on it for an extended period of time!

Today I shot 3 loads.

Here they are:
20.5 grains WC820
#1: 1683
#2: 1612
#3: 1641
#4: 1682
#5: 1651
#6: 1652
#7: 1673
#8: 1623
#9: 1655
AVG - 1653
ES - 71.56
SD - 24.67
For reference purposes these are the same rounds I got 1580fps out of my friend's Marlin 1894 just before the hog hunt. They seemed very accurate @50 yards. More about that later.

21.5 grains AA#9
#1: 1789
#2: 1794
#3: 1772
#4: 1762
#5: 1785
#6: 1774
#7: 1788
#8: 1793
#9: 1795
#10: 1797
AVG - 1785
ES - 35.08
SD - 11.70
I think I am going to like this round! Going to do more with the WC820 load to see if I can get the velocity up in this neighborhood and not sacrifice anything. Remember I am working "blind" when loading WC820 as I have no pressure transducers! ;D

13.0 grains SR4756
#1: 1535
#2: 1504
#3: 1523
#4: 1525
AVG - 1522
ES - 30.74
SD - 12.92

There were several things I noticed. One thing is the volumetric of these three powders is almost the same. The weights I used all were pretty close to the same setting on the powder measure. In fact, the first two loads used the same settings. The AA#9 is well within the published data with this weight of bullet. Like I said testing accuracy wasn't the goal for today. When I go to do that I will take a cleaning rod along and use it after each shot. One thing I was able to do though was hit a bowling pin almost every time @ 100 yards. The optics on the rifle aren't that good. I bought a BSA 4 x 40 at Wally World for like $20. I bought it for the 500 and didn't want to "blow up" a good one. I may have to invest in a nice variable power scope for this baby!

I got to use another "NEW" piece of equipment today too. Son #2 bought me a new one and it is much nicer! It is the "Beta" model from Shooting Chrony. The nice thing about this model is I didn't have to write anything down. I didn't have to hook up a printer either! Just push a button, it stores it in non-volatile memory, take it home and sit on the couch and read off the numbers! Very cool!

Some pictures of the stuff I used today:
The Bullets:

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r115/Sackettwannabe/Boolits/PHOT0032.jpg

The rifle:
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r115/Sackettwannabe/riflebullets.jpg
The chronograph:
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r115/Sackettwannabe/chrony1-1.jpg

trickyasafox
04-26-2008, 11:55 PM
Very cool!

for the money- I think one of the best rifle scopes to be had is the nikon pro-staff. probably about 150 mounted at your local bass pro or gander mt. cabelas etc.

keep it up! I will be in need of some good 44 loads soon :)

Three44s
04-27-2008, 12:51 AM
With the RCBS 250K my favorite upper midrange .44 mag load:

HS-6 @ 11.8 gr. and the Federal Mag primer.

In my Smith MG ..... I get just 7 fps SD and 1066 fps (4" barrel).

With my 7.5" Redhawk this load gives me 1175 fps and about 15 fps SD.

Three 44s

lead_her_fly
04-27-2008, 08:40 PM
Thanks for the kind words folks.

I have a lighter bullet mold that I am going to be working with. I would like to make this a squirrel gun this fall. Shoot 44 spl type of rounds out of it. I am going to be working up some jacketed loads for this rifle as well. Not sure if anyone wants to hear about them on this forum though! [smilie=1:

OBXPilgrim
04-28-2008, 08:35 PM
Bowling pin sized groups at 100yards are "breadbasket" deer size. Your mold must do pretty good on the size or else you have one of the newer 44 Handi's. Most of the older (just a few years) have some pretty large bore sizes. If your's isn't leading due to the size, you must have the sizing about right.

If that AA#9 load has any kind of accuracy, looks like you have a decent "bambi blaster".