.44 Magnum roundball help please.

[429421Cowboy]

Can anybody give me a loading procedure for a roundball load for my .44 please. I`m looking for both a low noise single ball and a mutiple ball load. What size ball ball i need, load data, any tips would be great. Thanks for any help in advance.

[DGV]

I have used a .433 dia. ball and 3.5 grains of bullseye. Ball will still go through 1/2 inch of plywood. Be careful! Experiment with powder charge and use a fast burning powder. Bullseye, W231 etc. I tried to put some alox on them but had little success. Leading was generally not an issue at those velocities. A light crimp with half the ball seated in the case worked for me. I have never tried any type of multiball load. Perhaps others here can chime in

[Guesser]

Speer load manuals have a good supply of load options, at least they used to. Check #'s 6,7,8,9,10,11, You'll find it in some of them. I also used a .433 ball for 44 mag and Special. Never tried multiples.

[JIMinPHX]

My experience just about mirrors what DGV said. The only thing is that not every revolver is the same. His load was safe in my gun, but a revolver with a looser forcing cone gap may leak too much pressure & get a ball stuck in the barrel. That is a very dangerous situation. If you are going to load cat sneeze charges, make sure that you see a new hole in the target after every shot that you take, or else inspect your bore for a blockage.

These lite loads tend to be pretty dirty in terms of powder fouling, but they are fun. Speer manuals up to & including #11 used to list "gallery loads", which are basically the same as the single ball loads we are discussing here. They were omitted from #13. I haven't seen #12, so I don't know if they are in that one or not. I have no information on multi-ball loads.

[429421Cowboy]

Thanks guys, i'll try and look around for .433 roundballs. Any idea what they weigh? I'm thinking it would end badly if i tried to mash a .45 rb into a .44 case but i seem to remember somethin on Gunblast about that. Any suggestions on a load? All i have is Unique and 2400 which pretty much leaves me with Unique. What about fillers? Gosh dang it now i'm all excited! thanks for the help, i'll see if i can borrow an older copy of the Speer manual as mine doesn't have gallery loads.

[MT Gianni]

Thanks guys, i'll try and look around for .433 roundballs. Any idea what they weigh? I'm thinking it would end badly if i tried to mash a .45 rb into a .44 case but
Run it through your sizer. Slightly oblong works OK.

[9.3X62AL]

My only experience loading RBs into revolvers was in blackpowder cap & ball Colt repros.

That's not to say I won't try it in the future, just for grins. How about seating the ball a little deeper into the case, and squeezing a couple drops of LLA onto the case wall/boolit radius junction?

One trick I learned while loading the 7.62 x 38R for the Nagant revolver......to set a "crimp" on the case to prevent boolit jump under recoil, I ran the loaded cartridge into a 32 SWL sizer die minus decapping rod to a point just above the boolit's front drive band inside the case. I would think the sizer die minus decap assembly and set to the proper depth would have the same effect for RBs seated a bit below the case mouth. I call the process "Kiss Crimping".

[blackpowder man]

I shot some .433 roundballs in .44 special and.44 mag with unique and I recall not getting consistent ignition until 5.5-6.0 grains. In my .45 colt 6.0 grains of unique works good and reasonably quiet from a 24" barrel.

[NickSS]

I have shot round ball loads in both a 357 mag and a 45 colt but not in a 44 mag but the same technique should work fine. In the 357 I use a soft lead 375 ball sized down to 360. this makes them oblong but they load fine I used 3.5 gr of red dot with both one ball and multiple balls. For single ball I seat the ball flush with the case mouth and smear some lube over the top. With the multi ball loads I sized the balls to 357 and pushed two down in the case on top of the powder and dribbled a little LLA on top of the second ball the seated a third on top and crimped the load around the middle of the third ball. The multi ball load pretty much was a disappointment as far as spread went. At 15 yards they all hit inside of 3 to 4 inches. The single ball load was pretty accurate. Same result in the 45 colt except I used 454 balls and never tried a multi ball load.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Just push your RB through a .432 sizer. The RB elongate a little forming a "belted " RB. For cat sneeze loads use fully expanded brass, just resizing the case mouth enough to firmly hold the elongated RB for a good firm crimp. For multiple ball loads, figure the weight of the multiples, start testing with reduced charges for that weight.

BvT

[Thumbcocker]

I used .433 rb cast of acww and lubed with liquid alox. If memory serves 4.0 of red dot was the charge. Shot pretty well out to 25 yards got sooty cases. You may have a problem with not being able to adjust the sights up to point of aim. I beleive that the balls weigh around 130grains. I used unsized cases. When I tried .454 round balls in .45 colt I seated the ball way deep in the case and it seemed to improve accuracy and give less soot. Dan Walker mentioned round balls and seating depth in some of his posts.

[longbow]

I have loaded 0.440" RB's as is into my .44 Marlin. Believe it or not they chamber because the chamber is sloppy. Recovered balls show a "belt" around the middle.

Later I made a push through sizer to take them down to 0.434" which worked well too.

Now I have an Accurate Mold mould from Tom that is terrific. If you are looking for a lightweight boolit for .44 for plinking and/or a little screamer look here:

http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=43-165B-D.png

Mine is PB in 0.433" diameter but Tom can make it GC if you want and in whatever size suits your groove diameter.

I have only good things to say about the service, product and price. It is exactly what I wanted and the mould is beautiful. Even better, it casts perfectly and the boolits shoot very well in my gun.

Longbow

[longbow]

Oh, for the RB loads, I had a lot of Winchester 473AA shotgun powder left over so used that up at 10gr. under the 0.440" ball which worked well.

Later I loaded 10 grs. of Unique under the ball.

Lately I am using 10 grs. 700X under the 43-165B.

All work well for me but may be a little louder than you want. These do make a light ball/boolit scoot along. Just back off the charge by a couple or three grains and that should get you into into the noise/velocity range you want.

Longbow

[JIMinPHX]

i'll try and look around for .433 roundballs. Any idea what they weigh?

.433" lead round ball = 120 grains

[MT Gianni]

My only experience loading RBs into revolvers was in blackpowder cap & ball Colt repros.

That's not to say I won't try it in the future, just for grins. How about seating the ball a little deeper into the case, and squeezing a couple drops of LLA onto the case wall/boolit radius junction?

Al, Don was doing that a few years ago at the NCBS. He was using a 303 and it was enough lube for the rifle. OBSSD1958 is his handle.

[acemedic13]

Am I missing something? is there a real advantage to loading RB in a metallic cartridge revolver? I am not being a wise guy. I Seriously wanted to know if there is an advantage in doing so. Like if its an accuracy issue or if its more cost efficient,easier to cast or something like that.

[JIMinPHX]

is there a real advantage to loading RB in a metallic cartridge revolver?

The round ball uses very little lead compared to a bigger boolit. The round ball has very little bearing surface, & therefore less drag, so a smaller powder charge is needed to push it out the barrel. It is a frugal round to load & very mild to shoot. Those are the only advantages that I am aware of.

[longbow]

Cheap light low recoil loads for plinking and maybe small game is the goal.

RB works okay but I wanted something I could also push a little harder so I asked Tom to make the 43-165B mould for me. He had one for .45 but not for .44, now he does and so do I.

The collar button is the same idea but with a large lube groove. RB's and collar buttons are easy on lead, powder and shoulder for light load shooting.

I have to figure that the collar buttons were developed because RB's left something to be desired. Weight is about the same as RB if you look back at old Ideal and Lyman moulds for collar buttons in .38, .44 and .45.

This isn't a new idea by the way, people have been loading RB's and collar buttons into brass cartridges for more than 100 years. RB's and collar buttons in .45-70 were and are pretty popular. A group buy for collar buttons in a .44/.45 has just ended:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showpost.php?p=1018317&postcount=20

Just another option to make one's guns more versatile and in this case, cheaper to shoot.

Longbow

[acemedic13]

Thanks jim. Did not know. Gonna look into this......darn...a new twist in the road for.... moulds... lead.. load work up... I love this stuff!

[krag35]

I load RB in my Redhawk. 8.5 gr. Unique, .437 RB seated with belling die stem, 44 cal wad, drop of Lee Alox, .437 ball seated just past center and crimped. six shots, 12 holes in the target @ 25 yards, IIRC 6" or so group.

[NavyVet1959]

The round ball uses very little lead compared to a bigger boolit. The round ball has very little bearing surface, & therefore less drag, so a smaller powder charge is needed to push it out the barrel. It is a frugal round to load & very mild to shoot. Those are the only advantages that I am aware of.

Also, no tendency to keyhole... :)

[bassnbuck]

4 year old thread.

[NavyVet1959]

4 year old thread.

Sometimes, I'm just a bit slow at getting around to things... It's called procrastination AND I'm really good at it...

Besides, my comment is still valid...

[waksupi]

Bringing back old threads is a good thing.

[bassnbuck]

Not trying to be critical, I enjoy your posts, good info.

[NavyVet1959]

What I hate (not really) is when a thread that has hundreds of posts gets brought back that I haven't read -- because it might be a good thread and then I end up wanting to read all of it and learning something. Plus, I don't want to add a comment until after I've read the whole thing.

I bought a Rossi Model 92 in .44 mag yesterday and with the availability of .22 ammo these days, I think this might end up as my new small caliber plinker rifle. Couldn't find one in .357 and I got this one for $300. Round ball loads will make this even cheaper to shoot. I tried the Lee 214 gr SWC in it last night with 4.3 (or maybe it was 4.6, I forget) gr of Red Dot. No recoil and pretty quiet. Definitely quieter than the .300 AAC with a 147 gr M80 bullet that I fired next. :)

[Michael J. Spangler]

Surprisingly this is one round ball thread I have not read yet.
Old threads are good.
I'm going to be loading double ball loads in my 44 for giggles soon. Good info here.

[longbow]

"Also, no tendency to keyhole... "

Are you Sure? How would you know?

Actually in my limited experience they shoot darn well and the .22 comparison is a good one. Cheap to shoot, low recoil, easy on lead, fun, all good stuff!

[Michael J. Spangler]

What I hate (not really) is when a thread that has hundreds of posts gets brought back that I haven't read -- because it might be a good thread and then I end up wanting to read all of it and learning something. Plus, I don't want to add a comment until after I've read the whole thing.

I bought a Rossi Model 92 in .44 mag yesterday and with the availability of .22 ammo these days, I think this might end up as my new small caliber plinker rifle. Couldn't find one in .357 and I got this one for $300. Round ball loads will make this even cheaper to shoot. I tried the Lee 214 gr SWC in it last night with 4.3 (or maybe it was 4.6, I forget) gr of Red Dot. No recoil and pretty quiet. Definitely quieter than the .300 AAC with a 147 gr M80 bullet that I fired next. :)
I wanted to comment on this. With the price increase on 22 we're lucky we cast. Most of us, even given the high price of components lately can still plink cheaper with centerfire than we can with rimfire.
I have a friend of a friend that was giving me any spare lead he found around his shop. He's been shooting tons of .22 and has not stepped up his game to centerfire yet. I'm trying to convince him it's cheaper if he casts and reloads, but he doesn't see it yet. I guess I need to bring him to the shop and then the range.

[NavyVet1959]

"Also, no tendency to keyhole... "

Are you Sure? How would you know?

That's my point... It doesn't matter if they are rotating vertically/horizontally in addition to longitudinally since they are a sphere. :)

Yeah, I know that theoretically a vertical/ horizontal rotation is going to affect the point of impact, kind of like a curve ball in baseball, but as long as it is consistent for a given distance, you can compensate for it by adjustments of your sights. Without a Ransom rest, I'm more inclined to blame any variations on point of impact to my own ability / eyesight. Yeah, it sucks getting old...

[Duster340]

I too was looking for an ultra light plinker/small game load for my 44's found several old Lee molds that really fit the bill nicely. A 116 gr WC, 162 gr WC and 172 gr RN. The RN in particular does minimal meat damage on rabbits and squirrels. Don't see the molds out there alot, but they pop up on occasion. Will post a pic when I get home tonight.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f105/emandm/Hunting/d75dc6e9-7a36-4704-8efa-204334581458_zpsspvkrma3.jpg (http://s46.photobucket.com/user/emandm/media/Hunting/d75dc6e9-7a36-4704-8efa-204334581458_zpsspvkrma3.jpg.html)

The 116 grain WC is purely a very close range round (May try a "duplex" load for fun some day). The 162 gr WC and 172 gr RN over light charges of Bullseye and Red Dot work quite well. Able to cast and load bunches of them for each lbs of lead and powder vs my heavier weight field loads.

Be well all.

[NavyVet1959]

I got my .440" round ball mold in on Monday and cast a few for testing. Not wanting to wait for the JPW+alox to dry on them tumble lubed, I just loaded them without any lube and then rubbed some pan lube on the nose for a couple of shots. First attempt was with 4.0 gr of Red Dot. I saw a few flakes of burning powder exit the barrel after the first shot. Upped it to 4.3 gr and was able to shoot a few more before seeing a burning flake of powder leaving the barrel. Figured I needed to up it some more, so I decided to call it a night and tumble lube the rest of them with JPW+alox and let it dry overnight. I'm shooting the rounds in a Rossi Model 92 with a 16" barrel. I've loaded them after being resized to .430" and some with no resizing at all. I'm using the Lee FCD in the 4th stage to get a bit more of a grip on the round ball.

Not being sure about the charge, I checked the barrel after each shot initially to ensure that the bullet was not stuck in it.

The round balls ended up being stopped by a phone book. The phone book is probably 1.5" thick and the paper torn pretty much all the way through it, but the bullets stopped at about the 1" mark.

Turns out that a few of the ".44 mag" brass are actually .44-40 brass. Figured this out when they would not fit in my shellholder and upon closer examination with a magnifying glass, I saw that they were .44-40 instead.

[rhouser]

Speer still sells the .44 cal round ball for the 44 mag and published load data for the ball in the 44 mag cartridge. I have a couple of older speer manuals that show the load data for the 44 round ball. thanks rch

[Tom W.]

I did it some many years ago with my SBH and .440 rb that were pushed through a Lee sizer. Can't remember the charge except it was a moderate charge of Unique. It shot fairly well, so my curiosity was satisfied. Haven't tried it since.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I found that if I belled the mouth of the cartridge and set a .440 round ball that I just happened to halve and cast for my 45 muzzle loader that they squeezed down just fine when put in the seating die to push them just past the equator into the case , this was over a small charge of tight wad the same as I use in my 38spl loads

I din't do any extensive testing but they held decent group off hand at 25 feet for the few cylinders worth I loaded to try it

[NavyVet1959]

The ones that I cast with the Lee .440" round ball mold averaged 124.2 gr each with the (approx) 50:50 WW:Pb alloy I was using. Makes for pretty miserly use of lead.

For a 50-round box, that works out to be:
$1.33 for the bullets
$1.35 for the primers
$0.43 for the powder (4.3 gr of Alliant Promo per round)

So, $3.11 for 50 rounds. Makes for pretty cheap plinking.

Probably a bit more than a brick of .22LR at Wal-Mart is supposedly currently listed at, but I haven't seen one of those boxes on the shelves in quite a few years and the going price around here is quite a bit more.

Besides, if you are shooting into a bullet trap (and can hit what you aim at), you can forget about the cost of the lead since you'll probably recover most of the lead. :)