I currently own a Marlin 1894 in 44 mag. I have been working on a load to get it to shoot accurately. My barrel is the Ballard style rifling with 6 grooves and a 1:38 twist. The bore slugs out at .4325.
I bought a mold from Tom at Accurate Molds that drops .434 240gr. bullets that I powder coated and sized to .4335 I loaded them with a light magnum load of 9.5gr. of Unique because that has been a very comfortable round to shoot. Hornady book says to expect about 1150 FPS from a pistol. When I tested the round, the accuracy was terrible. I could not hit a 4x4 target at 50 yards. Bullets were even hitting the ground before the target. What could the problem be? I have not had much luck with this gun shooting factory loads where the bullet is .429, .430 jacketed bullets seem to work much better, buy not great past 25 yards.
I am very tempted to buy a Winchester 1892 in 44 mag from my local gun store. The twist rate on that is a 1:26. Will that stabilize my light magnum 240gr. rounds better? I would really be frustrated if I spent over $1000 on this rifle only to find I have the same problem.
Thank You in advance for you replies.