Accurate No. 7 in 44 Mag?

[ScottJ]

Anyone have much experience with No. 7 in the .44 Mag?

I decided to start load development for the Lee 214-SWC I got off eBay some time back.

I had 18 lubed with mule snot. Did the first 6 over 10gr Unique:
Lee 429-214-SWC
10gr Unique
629 Classic 6.5"
Avg: 1224
Hi: 1258
Lo: 1184
Es: 74
Sd: 24
1184, 1258, 1232, 1223, 1234, 1216

Then on a whim I had loaded 12 over 15.7gr Accurate No. 7 which is the start load for 210 j-word in the Sierra book I have (well, the book lists 15.6 but my auto disk delivers 15.7).

The results were impressive:
Lee 429-214-SWC
15.7gr Accurate No. 7
629 Classic
Avg: 1319
Hi: 1354
Lo: 1235
Es: 119
Sd: 33
1293, 1300, 1311, 1336, 1310, 1323, 1235, 1342, 1336, 1346, 1354, 1350

That's close to the same sort of velocity I get with a 200gr boolit over 24gr WW296 but without nearly so much blast.

I know it's only 18 rounds but there was little leading to speak of and it came right out when I brushed.

I didn't evaluate accuracy but I have about 100 more to load and this batch is lubed with NRA formula. Unless anyone reports major headaches with 7 I might load up this batch as above for evaluation.

[leftiye]

That weight boolit should love 2400. Use large pistol standard primers to smooth out es. If you like AA#7, then maybe blue dot should trip yer trigger too. After all the crapola about spikes, it's still an awesome powder. Both will load down nicely if you don't want max loads.

[mustanggt]

Here's some more discussion on #7. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=128182