Sorry it took me awhile to get back to ya'll. It's been a crazy week. Had a big old oak fall and take out two fences, and had to take down a smaller dead tree so that it didn't do the same to my shop. Here's my results. The chrono results might be off, I'm not sure. It's been acting odd lately. They don't seem to be unrealistic, just a bit slower than I was expecting. I'd be interested in seeing what kind of results others are getting with this bullet.
Alliant 2400 seems to be a good powder for this bullet, no surprise there. All the different versions of this bullet seem to shoot about the same, but the Penta HP groups a bit looser for me. I'll have to play around with that one a bit more. I'm very happy with the accuracy of this bullet overall. Recoil is manageable, but you start to feel in in your bones after round #75. I was happy to see that my 629 had plenty of room in it's cylinder for this big beautiful bullet. I was worried that I might have to regulate this bullet to 44 special only. It also fit in my Rossi 92, though the flat nose version seems to like to hang up a bit. You have to work the lever with some authority to get them to feed right. Playing with the OAL would probably fix that. I haven't had a chance to test the expansion of these bullets, but I did try to catch one in some one gallon water jugs. I used the small hollow point, and it went through five of those jugs. It completely obliterated the first and second jugs, jugs three, four, and five had a decent sized hole in them. All I could find was a TINY little piece of the bullet in jug five. I didn't chrono that bullet, but based on a couple of others I did chrono, I'd say it was probably going between 1550-1600 FPS out of my Rossi's 20" barrel. These things are a hoot and a half to play around with. I could shoot water jugs with them all day long. They're kind of smokey, but that's part of the fun. It kind of makes you feel like a gunslinger in the old west when your gun lets out a puff of smoke with each shot.
As with any data you find online, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. I tested these loads in MY gun and took MY safety into MY own hands. If in doubt, DON'T USE IT. Find a safe load and work up from there. I'm posting this data only for the sake of passing on my results.
Gun used - S&W 629 - 6" barrel, Rossi 92 - 20" barrel
Bullet diameter - 0.430"
Lube - Simple Lube
Mould - Miha 44 Terminator - PLAIN BASE
44 Magnum load data --------------------------------------------OAL - 1.680"
BULLET-------------------POWDER---------VELOCITY (6")------VELOCITY (20")
Flat point (255gr) ---- 20.5gr (2400) --- 1241 FPS ---------- 1568 FPS
Cup (248gr) ---------- 19.5gr (2400) --- 1193 FPS ---------- 1550 FPS
Small HP (245gr)----- 20.0gr (2400) --- 1212 FPS
Penta HP (245gr)----- 20.0gr (2400) --- 1218 FPS
Large HP (240gr)----- 19.5gr (2400) --- 1215 FPS
I did not see any pressure signs up to 20.5gr of 2400, which was what I chose for my max load originally. You MIGHT be able to load these hotter (I'd use extreme caution in doing so), and I'll probably play around with doing that soon. I might play around with some other powders like Blue Dot and H110 too.
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