444 with less blast?

[nekshot]

I have a win 94 in 444 ported and want to shoot a 300 gr boolit around 1600 to 1700 fps. Is there any way to achieve this with the least amount of muzzle blast? I generally use 335 and H4895 for this cartridge but the thought of using 4350 in it kinda made sense, or something slower. Any input, this load is only to help keep locals from placing the boom after I poke ole mossy horn with excessive head gear. I guess I would do better with shotgun and slugs but the area is really thick and that 94 is handy.

[I'll Make Mine]

You should be able to get into that velocity range with a relatively small load of faster burning powders (possibly even pistol or shotgun powders, which typically don't require fillers the way slower rifle powders do); generally, the faster the powder, the less blast it will produce, as pressure will be dropping off by the time the bullet leaves the bore. The other side of this is that your porting will work less effectively with this kind of load, since it requires gas to compensate for recoil -- but a 300 grain at 1600 shouldn't kick you silly anyway.

You might start with Unique; it's been used successfully in many different rifles for reduced loads. Do be very, very careful to avoid double charging, though -- a double charge of Unique will ruin your day (not to mention your rifle).

[Larry Gibson]

Concur with Mike, you'll want lessor of a faster powder for less muzzle blast.

Larry Gibson

[pkie44]

The Black Spot has a thread going in the leverguns section, might find some good, or bad, ideas there

[nekshot]

Thanks for your input. After I posted I dug out lymans loading manual and saw they have loads for 1200 fps for 245 gr and I believe I can slow this up to 44 mag speed also. Maybe I should drop below 1150 for what I want. Shooting a deer at these slow speeds is new territory for me and yet the longest shot would only be 75 yards. Is ww to hard for these slower speeds and still get expansion?

[pkie44]

Cut the ww 50-50 with soft lead will work fine at that velocity. Check my avatar, look familiar?

[singleshot]

A cast boolit of proper design in that caliber doesn't need expansion. That being said, at the speed your looking at, pure pb would work fine.

[nekshot]

pkie44, they sure look nice. I always have said a bad day hunting is still good if you have a nice piece of wood and metal to look at. I never thought of bp but now you got me thinking. Thanks everyone!

[rexherring]

You may want to give AA 5744 a try. Works great for cast boolit loads. check their load datra on their website. I've used it in the .45 Colt in my BH with heavy boolits.

[leadman]

I have used 4198 for slightly reduced loads and Unique for 44mag equivalent loads. 13grs of Unique with the Lymaan 235gr GC worked real well.

[Wayne S]

Instead of lowering the bullet Wt. to the 245-255 range, I's see if anyone that has the NOE .432-300 HP mold would sell you some, or invest $ 20.00 in a Lee 310 gn RF .432 mold and as others have stated cast using 50/50 WW/Pb. SR 4759 would be another powder to fill more of the case.

[Marlin Junky]

25-26 grains of 4759 or 33-34 grains of Re7 should get you in that velocity range with a 300. These are the charge weights I use with my 345 grain boolit and I'm running them in the 1550 to 1650 fps range with < 1MOA accuracy. You may need to play with boolit hardness a bit in order to maintain that level of accuracy but your Winchester shouldn't be any more "fussy" than my Marlin with its .003" (at best) tall lands. The 4198's should also work fine somewhere between 30 and 35 grains. I don't have any "real" 300 grain data in front of me but if you've got some 4227 on hand, QuickLoad says you can approach 1700 fps from a carbine length barrel with 33 grains and < 25K PSI.

MJ

[nekshot]

thanks for all advice. This is a great forum for help. today I worked with 2400, unique, reddot and then trail boss till my gun fell apart.( not the fault of my loads)I think the trail boss is what I will use. This load is only for a certain application , but I kinda fell in love with this cartridge at these slow speeds. I always shot 300 gr at max loads and said the gun is too difficult to control and keep my fillings in place. This is what you miss when you have too many toys!

[helice]

Nekshot,
That Big Bore 94 is a great piece in 444 Marlin. Here's some loads I've tried:
255 cast 231W 13 gr got 1309'/s
RedDot 13 gr got 1362'/s
280 LFN 700X 13 gr got 1380'/s
RedDot 13 gr got 1333'/s
300 WFN 700X 13 gr got 1325'/s
RedDot 13 gr got 1333'/s

[Mark85304]

Great Thread! It is giving me some ideas to chew on.

I'm trying to decide where to start loading for my 14" Contender pistol chambered in 444 Marlin. This will be an interesting experiment to say the least.

[subsonic]

I was trying basically the same thing in a .30-30 a few years ago. Oddly enough, the faster powders were louder. The quietest powder I tried was a reduced load (30gr) of H4895 behind a 125gr. I think you should try to acheive the lowest pressure while still keeping your velocity, but maybe it was some other variable I was seeing?

[.22-10-45]

I wonder if IMR TrailBoss wouldn't work for you? After working up an accurate load using the Lyman 245498 and H4227 in an 1895 Winchester 6mm straight-pull sporter, I tried TrailBoss..found an equally accurate load with less muzzle blast.

[softpoint]

Maximum or near maximum loads of 335 in either the 444 or 45/70 sound like Naval cannon. And Accurate 2495 is similar to 4895, but MUCH louder. I don't know why. All are good powders.