Foto Joe
02-16-2015, 12:49 PM
I think I've finally hit the combination for my '94 Marlin 44 Mag (16" BBL). For years I thumped 44 Specials sized to .429 out of this thing with good results other than trying to shoot past 50 yards meant something on the order of an artillery trajectory to come close to a target stand. I was quite happy to plink along at 25-40 yards and the recoil was non-existent. A few weeks ago along comes a couple of hundred pieces of 44 Mag brass and I thinks to myself, "self let's start loading 44 Mag for the Marlin."
To say the least, my learning curve has been steep on this one. I started out sizing to .429 (I had never bothered to slug the barrel) and the results on a target resembled what you might get with a shotgun at that range and a substantial amount of leading. After slugging the barrel and coming up with .4295-.4300 I borrowed a .430 H&I die and the accuracy improved a little but I still was getting way too much leading so I purchased a .431 H&I. From that I got even better accuracy and the leading diminished but was still there. Last week I cast up some boolits (Lee429-200RF's dropping .431-.4325 @ 211 grains) and water dropped them then lubed with Lyman Alox. I haven't run a hardness test on them yet but experience tells me that they should be 18-21 BHN.
Yesterday I took 100 rounds out to the range loaded with three different powders totaling five different charge/powder combinations as well as my chronograph. The powders were AutoComp 10.7 & 11.3 grains, 800X 9.9 grains and Unique 10.1 & 10.7 grains. The AutoComp produced decent results accuracy wise and no leading with speeds ranging from 1,401 to 1,482 fps with reasonable extreme spreads. The 800X yielded 1,318 fps, an extreme spread of only 47 fps, good accuracy and a LOT of leading, that load won't get used again. The one that surprised me was the Unique which ran out at 1,385 and 1,435 fps, extreme spreads were 62 and 75 fps with minimal if any leading and the groups were (at least for me) impressive. Keep in mind the targets below were hit with iron sights at 50 yards from a rest.
The 10.1gr Unique target has a flyer at 7 o'clock which was my fault. The 10.7gr Unique target has two flyers at 9 o'clock also that were caused by my lack of skill on the trigger. The group of 8 on that one really surprised me though, I'm going to have to put some more of those together and see if I can replicate the results.
To say the least, my learning curve has been steep on this one. I started out sizing to .429 (I had never bothered to slug the barrel) and the results on a target resembled what you might get with a shotgun at that range and a substantial amount of leading. After slugging the barrel and coming up with .4295-.4300 I borrowed a .430 H&I die and the accuracy improved a little but I still was getting way too much leading so I purchased a .431 H&I. From that I got even better accuracy and the leading diminished but was still there. Last week I cast up some boolits (Lee429-200RF's dropping .431-.4325 @ 211 grains) and water dropped them then lubed with Lyman Alox. I haven't run a hardness test on them yet but experience tells me that they should be 18-21 BHN.
Yesterday I took 100 rounds out to the range loaded with three different powders totaling five different charge/powder combinations as well as my chronograph. The powders were AutoComp 10.7 & 11.3 grains, 800X 9.9 grains and Unique 10.1 & 10.7 grains. The AutoComp produced decent results accuracy wise and no leading with speeds ranging from 1,401 to 1,482 fps with reasonable extreme spreads. The 800X yielded 1,318 fps, an extreme spread of only 47 fps, good accuracy and a LOT of leading, that load won't get used again. The one that surprised me was the Unique which ran out at 1,385 and 1,435 fps, extreme spreads were 62 and 75 fps with minimal if any leading and the groups were (at least for me) impressive. Keep in mind the targets below were hit with iron sights at 50 yards from a rest.
The 10.1gr Unique target has a flyer at 7 o'clock which was my fault. The 10.7gr Unique target has two flyers at 9 o'clock also that were caused by my lack of skill on the trigger. The group of 8 on that one really surprised me though, I'm going to have to put some more of those together and see if I can replicate the results.