44 mag cast for hunting

[Surfdog]

I am looking for a good cast bullet with velocity and a lower bh than 18 to do some deer hunting with my Henry big boy steel. Wondering if gas check is a must. Good powder recommendation would be nice too. I've never loaded for 44 but do load for a Henry 45 colt. Gas check or not. Maybe they need powder coating. I'm not sure with the extra pressure of this gun. Powder I have on hand but willing to buy whatever necessary.
HP38
Titegroup
H110
Unique
HS6
That's all the handgun powders I have in hand.

Wendy,

I you want to have a repeating load, you’ll need to pick a bullet that the Henry Big Boy will cycle well. I had a .44 Big Boy for a year before I gave it to my brother (he absolutely loved the thing).

My .44 Big Boy was very sensitive to bullet length and profile. It would not load longer Keith style bullets, nor the longer Lyman Devastator hollow-points. I finally settled on an LBT 260 WFNGC and a MP 433-640 for my cast bullets of choice. It seems to me that the Big Boy was designed to shoot jacketed hollow-points, and other profiles may not feed as desired.

That being stated, I found the Big Boy to be extremely accurate, even with the 225gr Barnes solid copper bullets necessary to hunt with in California.

One of my favorite loads is using W231 and the MP 433-640 bullet. I expect it would chronograph about 1100 fps, which is plenty fast enough to kill a deer at 50 yards. You should be able to easily replicate a load like that with Unique.

I hope this helps,

Surfdog

[DougGuy]

I was going to mention the LBT WFN designs, you can get some from Montana Bullet Works if you want to order a 100 pc box to try out. Ask them which of the WFN designs they make with their softer alloy and Veral's soft blue lube. These will make excellent hunting boolits.

[wendyj]

Got to the range today and Federal fusion gave me this 5 shot group at 25 yards and the 3 shot group at 50 yards. Bullet was still rising and it has a red dot on it. Tried paper at 75 but kept going over the target. The lever evolution didn't do very well. Lots of flyers. I think a cast bullet maybe a little slower might tighten things up.

[44 flattop]

Killed a lotta game with .44s and a multitude of bullets/loads over the years. Too many to list.

Most shot load over the past 40 plus years? RCBS 255gr PB and 9 grains of Unique. Also most deer killed with this bullet/load just because of it's accuracy and longevity in my reloading room. 1320 fps from a 24" Cowboy. 1050 fps from a 4" barrel.

Lyman's 240 grain silhouette weighs 260 grains ready to load and cast very soft with a hefty charge of W296. Quite a few deer and at least three elk I can remember fell to this bullet/load, maybe more. 1760 fps from a 24" barrel. Never forget my son's eyes when he used it once after a scope broke on his .270 short mag on an out-of-state hunt for elk. He pulled the trigger on a big bull at around 80 yards and the wapiti dropped at the shot. His eyes were big as saucers when he handed the rifle over after assuring himself it was dead!

320 PBs and max charges of W296 will shoot end to end through an elk running directly away from a 10" T/C(guess how I know!). 180 wadcutters and Unique in a .44 Russian case on the opposite end of the spectrum is fun, too! Nips the heads cleanly from grouse.

[wendyj]

Crusty I tried some cast today but didn't run it hot enough to keep it from keyholing. I need to up my charge a little. No leading at all.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Key holing ------------------- That is not good!

Keep us posted!

CDOC

[wendyj]

It's my fault for running it too low. Just looked back over load info and I used Lee manual for soft lead verses Lyman for Lynotype with gas check. Bet I wasn't pushing 7-800 fps. Book shows 900 but I don't believe it. At least they were all key holing within the size of a coffe cup. I'm going to try and push Lyman's book to around 14-1500 next time. I slugged and they are perfect size 1 thousands over bore. Lubed great and no lead at all. Pulled a ore snake with clp through about 3 times and barrel looks new still.

[Blanket]

did you slug your barrel? My Henry runs right at .432. Keith bullets are to long to feed. I am running Unique under a 260 wfn without a GC at .433 cast 1-16

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

The 240gr cast that Wendyj tested are sized .432. The 280gr are .431

CDOC

[Hickory]

From what I've read, any boolit you use to shoot a deer loaded in a 44 magnum, it will kill it.
Looks like you can take your pick.

[Tripplebeards]

Here's a mushroom from a Lyman devastator 80/20 mix and adding 6% pewter to the mix. It had a BH of 15.4. I shot into water at approx 15' out of my ruger 77/44 rifle with a stout load if 23.8 grains of W296. Started at 270 grains and ended up at 155 grains nod measured .679". I've tried 50/50 and added 2% pewter to the mix and ended up at 124 grains and .780". This one tested at 10.5 BH. The mushroom wasn't as uniform and was peeling apart. I have the tests with photos under my profile if anyone is interested. The heavier boolit was shot into a 3' tote and cracked the other side before stopping and the 50/50 stopped in the 4th milk jug, more than enough penatration for deer. I'm sure both loads will work great on thin skinned whitetails transferring a lot of energy and shock at rifle velocities instead of poking a hole in and out with a harder alloy.

[BigMagShooter]

I'd start with a Long Flat Nose Gas Checked bullet.