.44 mag loads, opinions wanted...

[lead-1]

I got a 7.5" Virginian Dragoon in .44 mag and loaded up some boolits that I cast several months ago to try them out.
7 grains of Unique grouped a 195 grain lswc at aprox. 2" at 25 yards off hand and,
7.5 grains of Unique grouped a 240 grain lswc at aprox 2 1/4" at 25 yards off hand.
Recoil was light, no pressure signs, no gas check and no leading. I used a boolit cast from a LEE C429-240-SWC mold and lubed with an altered Barry Darr's lube.

How do you guys feel about loading up to 10 grains of Unique in a .44 mag. cast load? Alliant's site lists 7 grains as a max with a 240g. lswc but 11 grains with 250g. lead boolit so I would like some opinions on 9-10 grain loads.

BTW the two boolits are from the exact same mold, even though there is a 45+ grain difference in the weights they are physically the same dimension. The 240's are known WW and the 195's are an unknown alloy with a BHN of 16. I'm pretty sure I can get better group sizes but I haven't shot more than 30 rounds thru this handgun and haven't touched it since before the snow started flying.

[Bass Ackward]

Wow that's great. Usually those Dragoons have LARGE throats and bores and LEE molds aren't noted to throw large bullets.

The 10 grains is safe and ideal for a lot of guys. The only opinion that counts is Professor Gun's.

[Lloyd Smale]

I shot a ton of lead with a 250 using 10 grains of unique. Ive also killed pigs deer and bear with that load. that load or something real simular using power pistol or herco is about all my N frame smiths see anymore.

[44man]

The V.D is a strong gun like a Ruger. You need a hard boolit for Unique that fits close to throat size.
I think you would do better with your boolits with 2400 or 296.
Some of those guns were a little loose but others were perfect and you should really slug and measure your gun.
2" off hand is nothing to sneeze at though. Good shooting. :drinks:

[Forester]

I worked up a load with Unique and a Lyman 429421 last weekend with good results. They cut one ragged hole at 25 and backing out a ways I was able to ring my 8 inch plate 6 out of 6 at 60 yards and 4 out of 6 at 75. That is out of a 4" S&W N Frame.

The load I settled on was 10.4gr of Unique at an average velocity(10 shots) of 1095fps.

[Larry Gibson]

lead-1

The "lswc" usually refers to the soft swaged lead commercial SWCs from Speer and Hornady, thus the lessor load. The swaged lead ones will lead horribly if driven too fast. Somewhere in the literature there should be an explanation.

Larry Gibson

[lead-1]

Thanks for the clearification on the "lswc" note on the load table and as far as sizes, I had slugged this several months ago. I slugged each cylinder throat and got a consistant measurement of .430 on my slugs, and I slugged my barrel and the measurement was .429 across the groove. I never measured the forcing cone.
I was shooting boolits that I had sized to .429 before I really knew to leave them a little big but I "think" they worked OK.

[dale2242]

My favorite 44 mag loads:
Both with 429421.
8.5 gr Unique for plinking.
22gr 296 for heavy loads.
dale

[Whistler]

I've shot plenty of this load in my Ruger Super Red Hawk, it is very accurate and has plenty of oomph! :)

Bullet: Lee C-240-429-SWC
Gas check: Hornady
Alloy: Range scrap (hardness ~8-10, bullet drops at roughly 247-250gn)
Lube: Transparent rust protective wax, spray then tumble in a plastic container before sizing and tumbling again
Powder: 19.5gn of Vihtavuori N110

Seat the bullet to crimp into the first grove, leaving the bullets shoulder outside the case. I use a medium/hard Redding Profile Crimp.

When I reamed the chamber throats of my SRH I got rid of all leading (I've shot 150 bullets in one session without cleaning and still it has no leading). The load is plenty accurate for 200m big bore silhoutte shooting.

[southpaw]

My lyman book shows 13gr. unique with the 429421 as max. It is a pretty stout load:smile:.

Jerry Jr.

[MtGun44]

I've shot many hundreds of .44 mag loads with 10 unique. PERFECTLY safe load,
often the maximum loads shown in cast boolit loading data is set by some silly ignorant
self imposed limit of what the person putting together the data thinks you can use
"before leading sets in", not anything related to max pressure.

By the way, 10 gr unique will do about 1050 to 1100 fps with a Keith 250 boolit.
Stout but not max.

Bill

[lwknight]

10 grains unique in 44mag is a mild load for sure. And fun too.!!

[Shuz]

10g of Unique and a 429421 @1.710 was a very popular .44 magnum load with the IHMSA shooters I associated with during the 80's and 90's. Like Bill said, 1050 to 1100 fps, stout, but not max. Personally, I found a less expensive load that works every bit as well and it is 8.5g of Green Dot and the 429421, again at 1.710. Velocity again is in the 1050 to 1100 fps outta my 4 and 5 inch bbls.

[lead-1]

Well I guess I will load me up some 10 grain charges and see how they fair. Thanks for the input from all of you, now if we can get a break in the rain here.

[10mmShooter]

7.0g of Green Dot 250 LSWC approx 975fps......pleasant load you can shoot all day.

[excavman]

If you want a light plinker load try 6 gr of Trail Boss with the 195 or the 240.

Larry

[Char-Gar]

10/Unique/240 Keith PB is my standard 44 Magnum load. It will deliver 1,100 fps and that is enough clout for anything in Texas. This load also won't batter and wear older Model 29 Smiths like full snort loads will.

The same bullet over 5/Bullseye is a great target and plinking load.

The same bullet over 21/2400 is a great full strength magnum load if such is needed or wanted.

There isn't much mystery to loading good cast bullet ammo for the 44 magnum sixgun. It is one fine and accurate cartridge and very useful to boot.

[JIMinPHX]

I recently worked up some .44 mag LSWC loads. I found that Unique upset the boolit much more than H-110 did. I agree with 44-man that Unique works best with very hard alloys. I've had my best .44 mag results with H-110.

More on that here - http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=81258

[HeavyMetal]

I only use two powders in my 44 mag. loads:

10.0 grains Unique and 22.5 grains WW-296 429421 either straight or HP usually gets the nod for these loads although I sometimes use the 250 grain full wadcutter GB we ran a year or so ago on the Unique load.

Currently have a 429434 single cavity mold that I got here in trade Haven't used it except to cast a few and make sure they were the right diameter, they cast .434, when times are better it will get the gas check removed and HP'd and then we'll see if it will shoot better than the 429421.

[lead-1]

Finally got a chance to get out and try some loads with 10 grains of Unique and didn't fair so well this time. The loads with 7 grains were better but I am going to try the 10 grain load again as I just didn't feel that I was as steady as I needed to be plus the gun slides in the grips on recoil. I am afraid if I tighten the grips any tighter they will split.

[DragoonDrake]

I tried 10 of unique and had the worst leading that I had ever had. I went back to 18 of 2400 and am still happy.

[Char-Gar]

The grips of a sixgun should not shift on the frame during recoil. If they do, glass bed the frame pins and stock locator holes.

[243winxb]

Alliant Unique works well. Click photo for larger view. http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n420/joe1944usa/th_IMG_3306B.jpg (http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n420/joe1944usa/IMG_3306B.jpg)

[mdi]

I wasn't sure of the data I got out of the manuals (Speer, Hornady) a few years ago so I went with Lyman's Cast bullet Handbook, 47th Edition I think. I believe Mr. Gibson is correct, the loads in the Speer manuals (and others) were for the company's swaged bullets, aka "BBL Leaders". With your gun measurements I'd go with .430" to .431" bullets and stay away from a Lee Factory Crimp Die...

BTW; I shot a lot of 250 gr. cast boolits, WW, with 10 gr. of Unique.

[healey55]

I don't know why anyone likes Unique in 44 mag. In my 4" guns I am lucky to get 4" groups from sandbags. It is about the least accurate for me of any of the powders and the dirtiest.

10 grains of Unique was shooting 250 cast bullets into 4 or 5 inches for me and the same bullet with 13 grains of AA# 5 was doing 3" while 21.5 296 was 2 1/2".

I did get some 1 1/2" groups from AA #5 at 13.0 grains behind a Saeco cast 245 FN. That was about the best I have ever gotten out of my 4" guns. It was with my Dan Wesson 744VH. The same gun with the 8" barrel is very accurate also.

[stubert]

When I look for a new load I use J-bullet data, Lead bullets of the same weight generate less pressure.

[44man]

This is what I get with 231 and Unique at 25 and 50 yards. Much testing has shown me the boolit must be protected from the initial thump of fast powders.
These were somewhere between 28 and 30 BHN. I added tin and antimony to WW's and hardened them. As boolits got harder, accuracy got better in every test.
These were PB boolits, RCBS semi wad cutter.

[44man]

I forgot to mention the patch. I shot close to 100 rounds that day and there was zero lead in the bore, just carbon.
I don't normally clean the gun after shooting cast, sometimes going a year, but I wanted to see what, if anything, was happening.
Many times I clean the cylinder because it gets sticky to turn even with STP on the pin and ends, but I leave the barrel alone because I hate to clean guns and I don't get leading.
I do not believe in barrel "seasoning", it takes one shot before all the rest go in a group and I can change lubes and see results with the first shot. I change hardness and see results with the first shot too.
I just will not shoot boolits that cause leading or a lube that does.

[MtGun44]

healey55 -
Because most people get excellent groups at a good speed from many different
guns. My typical group is 1" at 25 yds, 1.5" in a few guns.

Any "known good" load like the classic 10 gr of Unique is based on the averages
for a lot of people. Your experience is unusual.

Bill