Info needed on Ruger Bisley Flattop 44 Special

[AlanF]

I have a Lipsey's Ruger Bisley Flattop 44 Special on order with Long Hunter Shooter's Supply and hopefully I will be able to pick it up later this year when I go home on leave. In the mean time I'm hoping to get some rounds loaded. Can one of you guys tell me what the max length can be from crimp groove to meplat and what the max overall length can be. Thank you.

[yotatrd4x4]

It is built on the old 357 size frame or the new vaquero sized frame. Anyhow this will answer your questions. My Google fu was good today. http://www.handgunsandammunition.com/revolvers/7669-44-special-ruger-blackhawk-flattop.html

[Thumbcocker]

FWIW 429421's crimped in the crimp groove work well. 8 grains of power pistol has been good to me.

[PWS]

Just mic'ed the length of my .44Spl Ruger cylinder with a case in the chamber - 1.660". Special brass trimmed to 1.16" will allow 0.500" projection. Keep in mind this is the actual length, not a load OAL recommendation.

FWIW, I've shot plenty of loads at 1.620" OAL with no troubles and have a batch of shortened mag brass as the chambers are a bit long. I've read that this is common with Ruger .44Spls.

[PWS]

FWIW 429421's crimped in the crimp groove work well. 8 grains of power pistol has been good to me.

Me too!! Cast with 8-10bhn lead, they're running just over 1000fps and group 4" or less at 50yds all day long.

These are loaded to 1.570" OAL in 1.16" long Special brass and run 1075fps.

Or, they're loaded to 1.620" OAL in 1.19" cut back Magnum brass and run 1025fps.

[44MAG#1]

LYMAN 429421 in normal 44 special cases will fit just fine. That is what I use no Problem in the same exact gun.

[AlanF]

Thank you guys for the information. Great link. Man, I can't wait to get my hands on that thing!

[Snapping Twig]

I like 6.5g W231/HP38 under the 429421. I figure it's @ 850fps, accurate and hard hitting.

Certainly safe in a Vaquero.

[44MAG#1]

There are a lot of good loads for a 44 Special. My go to load in my NEW (not large frame) Vaquero is 9.0gr PowerPistol with a standard primer for 1056 from a 45/8's barrel with a 250 Keith.
Enough power and won't beat the gun or yourself up.
Plus it duplicates the BuffaloBore 44 Special.

[beagle]

Works well in mine as well with Unique and I pretty well wrung out all of the .44 designs that I had./beagle


FWIW 429421's crimped in the crimp groove work well. 8 grains of power pistol has been good to me.

[runfiverun]

another vote for the 429241 in the ruger 44 specials.
I run 7.2 grs of unique in mine and it's right about what the round is meant to be.
the bisley doesn't need a new set of grips but the standard black hawks sure do get a lot more comfortable with a set of hogues on them.

[MakeMineA10mm]

I have a Lipsey's Ruger Bisley Flattop 44 Special on order with Long Hunter Shooter's Supply and hopefully I will be able to pick it up later this year when I go home on leave. In the mean time I'm hoping to get some rounds loaded. Can one of you guys tell me what the max length can be from crimp groove to meplat and what the max overall length can be. Thank you.

So, Alan, did you make it home and pick this honey up?

I'm picking up mine next week. I've been re-researching 44 Special loads. My standard loads have been two:

5.6grs W231 with 225gr RNFP cast from a custom group buy mould Catshooter ran a few years ago, and
15.5grs AA#9 with my group buy 265gr Hvy Keith SWC.

Both have been excellent loads, but I don't currently own a special to shoot them from.

So as I've been researching, I've run across certain loads which many sources keep repeating are particularly good loads. All of these are with the 245-250gr Keith SWC.

• 5.5grs W231 for small game and target practice (VERY close to my pet load). (700-800fps)
• 8.0grs Power Pistol for about 950 fps for a field/defense load.
• 7.5grs Unique for about 1000fps.
• 17.0grs Alliant 2400 for a heavy load for about 1100fps.
• 19.0grs H110 for a heavy load of about 1100fps.

I'm thinking of looking for some Power Pistol to try that 8.0gr load. I already load the 5.5grs of W231 (or close enough) and I'm happy with my AA#9 load for a heavy field load.

Let us know what you're getting for results.

[35 Whelen]

I've owned a 5 1/2" Flat Top .44 Special for a couple of years now and done quite a lot of load testing in it. I pretty much limit my bullets to two Keith SWC's; NOE's version of the 429421 (260 gr) and the RCBS 44-250KT (258 gr).

I've tried lots of different powders, but my favorites are:

6.5 grs. of Unique or AL20/28- 850 fps with the 429421 and 835 fps with the 44-250KT; VERY accurate target/plinking load.
7.5 grs. of Unique or AL20/28- 950 fps with the 429421 and 935 fps with the 44-250KT; Good hunting load that shoots quite well. Took three whitetails with this load.
8.0 grs. of AL20/28- 994 fps with the 44-250KT; Another good hunting load that has on occasion grouped in the 5" range at 100 yds. for me.
17.0 grs. of AL2400- 1218 fps with the 429421; VERY accurate grouping in the 6" range at 100 yds.

Those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head.

35W

[rintinglen]

As an alternate to the above listed 429-421 Unique loads--which I also use and endorse--I am getting very good results with the NOE 432-230 WC. For those unfamiliar with this boolit, it looks like a corpulent H&G 50 or 358-495. 5.0 grains of Unique or 4.5 of Red Dot shoot very well to 50 yards, but accuracy falls off as the distance increases.