44 levergun load guidance please

Henry Big Boy 44 with 20” barrel, 1:20 twist (thank you wifey)
The loads I’ve used for the Anaconda, 2400 17.4 grain , were terrible. I have 3 different options a lee SWC 240 TL, a Keith LIKE 255 SWC beveled base, and Lyman destroyer 429640 GC. All powder coated.
I have tried unique 9, 10, and 7.5 with all 3 projectiles. The 7.5 were better but still relatively poor.

I have several powders to try. Titegroup, 231, unique, bullseye, 2400, 296, 800x, lilgun, TCM, and a few rifle powders. Metering won’t matter for this cartridge as everything will be weighed on a validated scale.

My use will be 50-100 yards mostly.

Thank You for your help

Bevan

Slugg your bbl!!!!! My Rossi is .432 and I had to get a custom size die made. Sami specs are .432 for the 44 mag rifle, why, beats me. Once you know what diameter you need get a mold or size .01 over and you'll be right as rain. I got this mold from NOE and it shoots the best out of all that I've tried: https://noebulletmolds.com/site/prod...34-298-fn-av2/
Also don't change your grip, bench rest all till you find a good group. Some rifles like to be held, even on a rest. Don't use a sling or put pressure on it like you would a bolt gun. Make sure that you have the same cheek weld every time. These are the things that helped me. From what I learned it wasn't so much the powder but the fit of the bullet and the consistency of the hold that got me to the right combo for my rifle. Hope that helps.

SAAMI spec for .44 mag rifle is actually .431 +.002". So a barrel with a .433" groove diameter is still within spec. Definitely slug the barrel--that's the only way you're going to know.

Bigger boolits are almost certainly required. My Marlin needed the same thing--the .430 boolits that grouped just fine in my Redhawk were shotgun patterns in the Marlin until I made a .433 sizer and bought an Accurate 429-421 clone made to drop .434 with wheel weights.

What they said^

Slug your bore to check groove diameter then get a mould that casts at least 0.001" over groove diameterin your alloy.
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My Marlin 1894 runs 0.4315" groove. I made the mistake of buying a Lyman 429421 mould after I gfot the gun because of course the Keith bullet was said to be the best... well for revolvers anyway. Not only did the boolit cast at 0.429"/0.430" from Wheelweights but the COAL was too long to feed reliably if crimped in the crimp groove. I got poor feeding, bad leading and and poor accuracy with that boolit! Once I fattened up the boolits to 0.433"/0.434" leading was much reduced and accuracy was good. These were PB boolits.

My powder of choice is IMR4227. For the powders you list, for light to moderate loads Unique should be good and for heavy loads 296 or 2400 should be good. I am not familiar with the other powders. I found Unique lacking in the rifle as it is a bit fast so not great for heavy loads/high velocities. H110 did well but I had IMR4227 on hand and use it for other cartridges so stuck with that. Also, if a guy doesn't want a max. load all the time H110 and 296 are not good powders to download, IMR4227 is more versatile that way and I believe 2400 is too but no personal experience there..

Longbow

Thanks for the responses. That Sammi spec is a surprise to me. Thank you for pointing that out. I’ve got some measuring to do before I go any further.

2 questions. Did you get the plain base or GC version? Did you use as cast or make/ purchase a special sizing die?

I bought a .433" sizing die from Buffalo Arms for mine, and it works very well. They have good prices and are great to work with too.

For my own rifle (a Rossi 92) I shoot both plain base and gas checked cast bullets, and as long as they're at least .432" they both work very well.

I use mostly PB boolits. I have one Ranch Dog 265 gr. mould that is GC so I made a gas check maker for it. I have no problems with the PB boolits though except at max. loads I get minor gas cutting on the base band but accuracy seems good... a lot than it was anyway.

Longbow

Check your barrel to see if it’s got micro-groove rifling. At one point, Henry used it. If that’s the case you’ve got two options, a larger diameter bullet or go jacketed

As mentioned above, slug the barrel. If you have acces to pin gages, use them to find out what your land diameter is as well and whether you have a reverse taper in the bore, just so you have complete info on your bore dimensions. Given the SAAMI specs for lever rifle chambers and their "funnel" entry into the rifling instead of a true throat like in a bolt action, my usual method is to load the largest boolit which will chamber freely and see what the result on target is. If accuracy isn't what it could be, I can always size them down a little at a time to fing what it likes.

Some years ago, some fellow had a Rossi that was .426 on the lands and .434 in the groove. Many mystery misses and shotgun pattern groups. No help for such a thing but a .435-.436 boolit or one soft enough to obturate on firing.

Have done quite a bit of shooting with .41 and .44 carbines. The only thing I've found is that none of mine liked target velocity loads made for handguns. 8.0 grains of Unique in a .41 and 10.0 in a .44 with most any bullet is exceedingly accurate in any handgun...lackluster in a rifle. But these same bullets pushed hard with H110 group nicely from 50-100 yards...