44 Special

[Rocky Raab]

The gun is a 4 5/8" Flattop, from the Ruger run, not Lipsey's. The trigger is typical Ruger: a bit draggy and heavy.

I don't really call shots less than two inches out "flyers" but if you choose to, feel free to blame me! I don't recall where in the multi-hour shooting session I fired that group, but if it was towards the end, eye fatigue does come into play. Also just plain fatigue, to be honest.

I shoot handgun groups with wrists on a sandbag but the gun unsupported.

[shdwlkr]

Rocky
When that happens to me I just smile and shoot a few more shots to see if I am consistent with my flyers or if they are a fluke. ha ha

[AnthonyB]

I have two of the Lipsey's 44 Specials, standard and Bisley, both with 4 5/8 barrels. The balance is off with the Bisley and I wish I'd bought it in 5 1/2. Still two of my favorite revolvers, but I'm looking for a S&W 696.
Tony

[Rocky Raab]

The Lipsey Bisley I bought first just never felt right in my small hands. I sold it and bought the standard one. By that time, Ruger was listing them, so I just got one of those. I didn't like the "cheese grater" finish on the factory stocks, so I bought some fake ivory aftermarket ones. MUCH nicer.

[kelbro]

I did the opposite Rocky, traded off the plowhandle for the Bisley. Feels much better to me. Did the same with my Blackhawk Hunter. Different strokes I suppose. Thank goodness Ruger offers the options.

[oscarflytyer]

Chargar :

For the same money I could have easily bought the same pistol in .44 Mag.

Catch is.....I wanted the 44 Special. The Special will do everything that I want in a revolver.
Ben

+10!!! Have had a 44 Mag SBH for many years... ALWAYS wanted a specific 44 SPC, but couldn't ever afford to buy and have a 357 converted. When Lipsey did the Special, I ordered one sight unseen!

LOVE MINE!!! What I religiously carry as a hunting sidearm now. Shoot it the most of all my handguns, including the 45 acp.

[Hammerhead]

Lovin' my Bisley grips on my flat top.

4.0 Clays is sure clean shooting under the 200 LRN-FP. Informal plinking on the 100 yard sand berm, it seem to be very consistent. Off hand at 25 yards I'm still around 4" for all 6, but I don't think I can blame that on the gun. 3 or 4 will group within just 2 inches or so of each other.

I need to get some paint on the front sight.

[Matt_G]

I didn't like the "cheese grater" finish on the factory stocks, so I bought some fake ivory aftermarket ones. MUCH nicer.

I too couldn't stand those stocks. "Cheese grater" is a good description of them. They were down right painful for me to shoot with Skeeter loads.
Bought some black micarta grips from Cary Chapman and I am a much happier camper.

[MakeMineA10mm]

I can appreciate digging up a good old thread. I'm a recent convert to .44 spl. Bought a S&W 624 and a 5.5" flat top Bisley.
My issue is that other than Clays, I'm having trouble with excessive amounts of unburned powder with the 200 RNFP and 240 SWC. I've been using Universal and HP-38/W231. I guess I need to shovel more coal on the fire to get it to burn more cleanly, but I'm at Hodgdon's max with the 240 and Universal, and I'm getting enough 'corn flakes' (unburned Universal) to interfere with chambering fresh rounds.

Clays burns super clean, but is so quick, I don't want to use it for anything but my target loads using a 185 DEWC.

Hey Hammerhead, I think you're right about the low pressures contributing to the soot problem, but most 44 Spl. loads you're apt to find in published data are going to be low-pressure, around 12,000 psi or so. Nature of the beast. (SAAMI)

Another factor which must be considered is the raw material and chemical make-up of our smokeless powders. With the exceptions of some fancier (more expensive) powders, virtually all powders available in America have wood as the raw material of their base ingredient. Scandanavian, European, and Australian-produced powders tend to use cotton instead, and they get a less sooty by-product in the barrel when they're shot. Hence, why your Clays powder shoots so clean...

Considering the mild pressure limits of factory loads and published handload data, I'd consider sticking with the Clays for all my loads, and not just the target ones, if I were you, and soot made that big of an impression.

[Hammerhead]

Yeah, I gave Unique a good try, and it worked well at 6.3 grains and above with 240's, but at 5.8 grains I got a lot of unburned powder besides the soot. it doesn't like to meter well either, even in my manually operated meter giving a firm double rap at the top and bottom of the stroke.

So I think you're right, Clays is the way to go for light and medium loads.

[Wally]

I have a S & W M-24 and a Ruger Superblackhawk...the Ruger is far more accurate with any .44 Spl load that I have tried in it and shoots them @ 50 FPS or more faster. I bought the M-24 thinking hat it would be a better shooter w/.44 Spl ammo and that has not turned out to be the case.

[NHlever]

Ben.. If I wanted a light target load I would use Bullsye around 4 to 4.5 grains. If I wanted a mid-range load I would look to Unique around 6.5 to 7.5 grains. If you want something hoter than that, then buy a 44 magnum.

Those combos are working well in my newer Ruger FT, and I have been seeing quite a bit of promise with Red Dot. Good luck with yours Ben!

[NHlever]

Ben.. If I wanted a light target load I would use Bullsye around 4 to 4.5 grains. If I wanted a mid-range load I would look to Unique around 6.5 to 7.5 grains. If you want something hoter than that, then buy a 44 magnum.

Those combos are working well in my newer Ruger FT, and I have been seeing quite a bit of promise with Red Dot. Good luck with yours Ben! I've also played just a bit with Dave Scovill's 2400 loads, but don't have much interest in pursuing that for some reason.

[odis]

I have been seeing quite a bit of promise with Red Dot. I did some shooting this past few days and am using the accurate molds 43-250K with WW I loaded them with 4.5 grs of bullseye and 5grs of red dot. The bullseye load was very good but the red dot load was truly splendid, very very accurate and the bore of my 624 looks factory clean after 200 of them.

[scattershot]

For those of you who have the Flattop Bisley, are the grips the same size as on the original Bisley Vaquero? I know the plowhandle grips are slightly different, but how about the Bisley?

[dougader]

Well, I got out to shoot a couple loads. I used some mass produced 240 grain bevel based SWC bullets from Tennessee Valley. Like Rocky, I was impressed with the accuracy as these are not target grade boolits. My groups ran between 2-3" at 25 yards, but the bullets were hitting 6-8" high at that distance. I guess I need a taller front sight.

Mine is the 4-5/8" barreled Bisley. Anyway, here are the loads I used:

1) 240 gr SWC/6.2 grains W-231 for a 6 shot avg of 785 fps. Fed 150 primers.

2) 240 gr SWC/10.2 grains Hercules Blue Dot, 6 shot avg. was 917 fps. Fed 150 primers.

According to the data I was looking at, these should be near max 15k psi loads, and they burned fairly clean... tons better than the 357 mag HS-6 loads I ran through my old model BH.

BTW, this is my 1st 44 Special, and my 1st OM 357 BH. I bought the "shooter grade" OM 357 with the idea of converting it to 41 or 44 Special, but it was so darn accurate I think I had just better leave it alone. Winchester white box 110 grain JHP at 25 yards shot 6 rounds into a bit less than 1 inch. I was amazed.

[dougader]

Well, I'll tell you this: my 357 OM Blackhawk has very tight chambers. I had a box of handloads I made up about 12 years ago with the Lee 158 grain tumble lube bullet. I used the bullets as dropped, with no sizing. Never had a problem shooting these in my GP100 and a couple S&W Wesson revovlers... Models 64, 19 and a 686.

About 9 rounds from this box of 50 would not chamber in my Ruger OM 357. I tried forcing one, and that was a mistake. It took me awhile to get it out!

[Rocky Raab]

That's my experience with OM 357s, also. Rounds that drop into my Security Six or .38 Special Colt Officers Match won't begin to go into my original flattop 357. That's especially true with some 158 SWC/GC bullets someone gave me. They mic .358" and ought to fit, but the spot on the case where the gascheck sits is too fat for my flattop's chambers. Darn the luck, because that's the gun they'd shoot best in with warmish loads...

[lonnydk]

I have a NOE group buy 110 grain wadcutter mold on the way. Has anyone had any experience with bullets this light in a Lipleys 4 5/8 barrel? Or any other barrel length for that matter?

Should I change my order to the 153 grain mold?

It is for plinking and minute of turtle accuracy.
Thanks

[Rocky Raab]

I have long been an advocate of sticking to a cartridge's design weight. That means something near 240 grains in .44 Special. That's what the gun's twist rate and sights are regulated to handle with the least amount of finagling.

Bullets a lot lighter than standard have to be launched at "underhand toss" speed to allow enough barrel transit/rise time to match the sights. Otherwise they hit cubits low.