.44 special, just can't get it right

[BeMan]

Been playing with several load variations in my Ruger Blackhawk flat top .44 special. Have yet to find any combo that gives me a decent 20 yard group. Tried Unique, 231, Red Dot, AA#7 and AA#9. Cylinder throat mic's at .4296, and I have used .430 boolits of 200, 235, 240, 252, and 258 gr. There is slight blackening of cases with most powders, with Unique being nasty.

Any suggestions?

[nagantguy]

Tryed any bullseye? Always had good luck with that but also unique and aa7 and 9. What oal? And the real question have you slugged the bore? Are you vetting any leading?

[lonewelder]

The blackening of the case is from not enough pressure to seal.might have to bump your load up a little.have you slugged the bore?I think the 44 flattops are some of the best to come from ruger in awhile.

[WALLNUTT]

My best load is 2400 and a NOE or Lyman Keith sized .433. I don't get crazy though. I'm not using Keith's old load. Start at 12g and work up.

[jrmartin1964]

Tryed any bullseye?

What he said.

[True.grit]

I was sizing to 430 with the same results. Went to a .432 size boolit and now very accurate. I have several Rugers and they like oversized boolits. It is hard to beat unique for the 44cal.

[SethD]

I experienced much the same thing when I first started with the 44 special. I did finally find a load I liked though. I use 9 grains of power pistol behind a milhec 210 grain or so cast hollowpoint. It is a warm but not dangerously hot load for the 44 special in reasonably strong guns and gives me what I want out of a couple rugers and a taurus. Accuracy, fair power, and less kick than a 44 mag.

[phonejack]

A 240kt and 5.3 red dot gets about 840 fps . Plenty accurate and soft shooting in mine. I have magnums if I want more umph .

[rintinglen]

6.5 grains-7.5 grains of Unique--somewhere in there you'll find happiness with a 429-421. My own flat top dotes on the 6.5 grain load, but shoots about as well with 6.9 grains or 7.5. Another goody is 5.0 grains of RED DOT. If you are getting case blackening, you are loading too light.

[Forrest r]

You might want to check your crimp, the 44spl seems to like a good solid crimp to get consistent ignition. Light crimp + a heavy load ='s soot on the case.

[Petrol & Powder]

I agree with rintinglen- "........If you are getting case blackening, you are loading too light."
In 38 Special when I went from hollow based wad cutters to solid WC's I had to increase to charge to get decent accuracy. Case blackening is an indication that the brass isn't sealing against the chamber walls at firing, usually that's a sign of insufficient pressure. Try a little hotter load and see if your groups get smaller and your cases come out cleaner.

[MT Gianni]

My best load is 2400 and a NOE or Lyman Keith sized .433. I don't get crazy though. I'm not using Keith's old load. Start at 12g and work up.

I really like the Keith load in mine. I cannot spank the bullet hard enough with AA9 to get good combustion so I save it for magnums.

[BeMan]

Thanks for the suggestions. I may need to try a lighter bullet, or go to .431 or .432. I have gone as high as 7.7 gr Unique and 16.5 gr AA#9. I have tried about every amount of crimp I can think of. Anyone have any .431 or .432 sized boolits in 210-220 gr weight?

[True.grit]

you could beagle your mold. add some aluminum foil to one side and cast to see how many layers it will take. I have a lee 200 gr that takes 2 layers to get .431. good luck

[Balduran]

How do you shoot That pistol with Jwords?
I am a pretty good pistol shot with autoloaders and S&W revolvers, but in all my years of shooting i just couldnt manage to get single action revolvers to shoot for me. I wanted them to shoot real bad but some cosmic crainial vortex caused shotgun style patterns.
One day I shot a buddys new bisley and with low expectations I was surprised at it shooting very well for me.
All my single actions gathering moss were hocked and a .44 special bisley flatop moved in.
We lived happily ever after.
The end

[35 Whelen]

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h6/308Scout/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/P1010061-mod_zps18892e62.jpg (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/308Scout/media/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/P1010061-mod_zps18892e62.jpg.html)

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h6/308Scout/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/Blackhawk100_zps5c81b27d.jpg (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/308Scout/media/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/Blackhawk100_zps5c81b27d.jpg.html)

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h6/308Scout/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/100ydgroup-ed_zpsd265754d.jpg (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/308Scout/media/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/100ydgroup-ed_zpsd265754d.jpg.html)

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h6/308Scout/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/50ydgroup-2-ed_zpsccf94f33.jpg (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/308Scout/media/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/50ydgroup-2-ed_zpsccf94f33.jpg.html)

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h6/308Scout/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/50ydgroup-1-ed_zpse29ecae1.jpg (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/308Scout/media/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/50ydgroup-1-ed_zpse29ecae1.jpg.html)

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h6/308Scout/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/100ydgroup-ed-1a_zpsac57c5d7.jpg (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/308Scout/media/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/100ydgroup-ed-1a_zpsac57c5d7.jpg.html)

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h6/308Scout/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/429421100yds-ed_zps11ec5c24.jpg (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/308Scout/media/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/429421100yds-ed_zps11ec5c24.jpg.html)

^^^^ There's you a few loads to try.

A couple of suggestions- As others have said, you're loads are on the light side. try heavier. Don't mess with the crimp. Set it fairly heavy and leave it that way. I don't mean so heavy you have to stand on the arm of the press to apply the crimp, but heavy. I've never once found a heavy crimp to be a detriment. I own and shoot four .44 Specials and I've never had any luck with bullets less than 250 or so grs. and in SWC form.

6.5 grs. of Unique or AL 20/28 shoots in every .44 I own. Period. Velocity runs around 850, maybe a little less and I've fired hundreds if not thousands (my last case of Lg. Pistol Primers last only about 1 1/2 yrs. with most of them being used in the .44 Specials) of this load. It's a fantastic practice load.

One last thought: I did fire-lap my Ruger and I have no doubt it helped. I very recently finished work on a NM Vaquero that included fire-lapping. Even after 60 rounds of lapping I was just about ready to use that revolver for a trotline weight. Fired 12 more and everything came together. If you do decide to try this, I'd suggest this method. (http://www.gunblast.com/FerminGarza-Firelapping.htm)

One other thing I feel obliged to mention, and please don't take offense; Do you shoot revolvers much? I really got serious with them less than a couple of years ago I there's definitely a learning curve to shooting large caliber revolvers with heavy bullets do to recoil and its effect on where the bullet hits the target.

35W

Good luck and please keep us posted.

[WALLNUTT]

Whelen,those ARE all good loads but that 17g of 2400 is stiff! I shoot all of those but I had to back off from 17g not that it didn't shoot good.

[35 Whelen]

Yep, the 17.0 gr. load is a handful for sure. I very rarely shoot it as I find little use for it except to irritate .44 Magnum lovers. A few months ago I did load some to hurl at my 200 yd. gong. Considering I was using Kentucky elevation and shooting from a sitting position, I guess I didn't do too bad:

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h6/308Scout/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/200yds-edit_zpsb34b9a35.jpg (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/308Scout/media/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/200yds-edit_zpsb34b9a35.jpg.html)

35W

[WALLNUTT]

Good shooting, I have the same gun and bullet. I haven't stretched the distance yet. The 13.5g 2400 also shoots good but a little more comfortable.

[Deep Six]

My favorite for my flattop is a 250 keith over 15.0 gr of the old Herc 2400 (still have plenty) and a wlp primer. Ive also had good results with 7.5 unique and a 240 round nose.

[dougader]

For my Ruger 44 Special flat top, I loaded some basic 240 grain bevel base swc's with 6.5 grains WW231 and shot a few 1 to 1-1/2" 6-shot groups. Also, 10 grains of Blue Dot with the same bullet did well.

But I realized my barrel was canted to the right. The front sight was not perpendicular and I had to send to back to Ruger to straighten it up. Now I can get those groups to center in the middle of the target.