Weeks ago I asked for help with my first experiences with 44-40. Thank you to those who jumped in with good advice. This has, so far, been the easiest new caliber and rifle to get up and running with which I have worked. I have been working up loads with a 205 grain bullet cast from a Lee mold long ago custom ordered by Mav Dutchman, a bullet that is a down sized version of my own 45 Colt PRS bullet. These designs are similar to the more refined black powder bullets that John Kort left us. My loading has been with Unique startin with 7 grains working up to 10 grains by 1/2 grain steps. My first noticed symptom of over pressure occured today with very slight flattening of the spent primers. A 5 shot string over my old Chrony had an average velocity of 1,412fps with an an extreme spread of 11fps and if my West Virginia cypher is correct about 911#' of energy. This is hotter than I anticipated although I was sort of dreaming of 1,400fps as a goal. The boolits are cast of approx 95/2.5/2.5 (Lyman #2 cut in half with pure lead) air dropped, powder coated and sized at .430". I do not know how it prints on paper and I really do not care, I shoot off hand at or about 50 yards and smack 6" round steel AR500 with consistent ease. I am going to back off the charge of Unique to about less than or equal to 9.6gr per the current Lyman data and have that as my charge.
prs