Any Success in 44 Mag Rifle with 280 LFN?

[Themoose]

Hoping that someone has had some success loading 280 LFN's in a 44 mag rifle(Rem 788)... I have been close a few times(at least I thought I was close) then reality set in... I have been all over the board in working up loads from the low to high end using H110 mostly, but have also used Blue Dot and some 2400... I have water quenched, air cooled, ordered a custom sizer, custom expander and crimp die... and have had the sizing plug stop squared up... but still seem to get fliers... next step will be to vary crimps and try pressure point on the barrel(it is now free -floated)..

Any and all advise would be greatly appreciated

Themoose:veryconfu

[lead chucker]

I had all of the above with my ruger 77/44 I was ready to get rid of it but then I started to use softer lube and slow it down a bit. Rigt now I'm pushing a 310 gr lee close to 1300 fps with 14.5 gr 2400. It's repeatable and have shot a couple deer with it and it goes right through, one went straight down and the other ran maybe 50 feet. My problem was I wanted max load with best accuracy and that wasn't going to happen. I have learned a lot with the folks here they have been very helpful.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Themoose, LeadChucker might have the answer in his post.

Trying to get my RUGER #1 45/70 to shoot, I did a couple of things, I did change molds to a much heavier boolit - 355gr to 465gr - which has given me MUCH better groups and consistancy.

However, and I won't know the answer here until I get some more testing done this Summer, I really wonder if the decrease of velocity with the heavier boolit isn't the reason for the much better results.

Loading with the 355gr. boolit was my first attempt to cast and hunt with my own rifle hunting boolits, and because of the huge, "mild to wild" range of possiblilties with 45/70 loads, depending on the rifle being used, I did work up towards the higher levels. I saw as high as 2500fps during testing.

But with the 465gr WFN boolit, I took the mold maker's recommendations and am putting the boolit over the screens in the 1600 - 1700 FPS range.

I plan to test different lubes and go back and retest powders which did not do well with the 355gr since I now have a bench mark to work from, so will hopefully know more on the subject by hunting time this Fall.

I will take higher velocity if it comes with good groups, but that WFN 465gr boolit REALLY PUTS EM DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! at my present velocity!!

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[725]

Just curious - did you slug the barrel? Wondering about the barrel. Does it slug around .429? Many rifles come out around .432 or so. Might be a good point to cover before too much experimentation.

[Themoose]

I did slug the barrel and sent the slugs to Veral Smith to make the mold... I actually think I stumbled on to something in today's trip to the range... I picked the best load from the last trip and used it for a control... weighed each powder charge exactly the same(21.0 H110)... used two different brands of brass.. StarLine and R-P... indexed my dies (previously done)my marking them with "White-Out" but also added additional increments on the factory rifle crimp(Lee custom)...I used four settings and I also tested the rifle with "free-floating" as it is currently set up and also placed a pressure point about two inches from the end of the tip of the forearm... pressure was too much so did testing with "free-float"...While I only changed the crimping settings minimally(all four in total less than 1/8 of a turn) there was a dramatic change in grouping as well as point of impact with each adjustment...five shots groups were shot @ 100 yds from a Caldwell Lead Sled. The best group of the eight
had three of five touching in a super tight cloverleaf with the other two less than 1/2" off... this was using Remington brass on crimp setting #3...this group was less than half of the others... and you could see them change as the settings changed... for Rem #1 was really bad, #2 better, #3 the best and # 4 worse than numbers #2 and #3... Starline also showed changes, but #4 crimp setting was best, but still not as good as Rem #3... Remington brass felt "softer" when seating and crimping... so, taking today's experience in... I have already loaded up another set of tests for my next range visit... using Rem brass, crimp setting #3 I will test increases in powder in 0.5 grain increments and see if I can fine tune it more...even if I can't improve on today's best group, I would be happy if I can duplicate it with regularity in a hunting rifle... The deer won't know that I may have missed my mark by 1/"... I won't tell!

Thanks to all for your input,

Themoose