Lil gun in the 44 mag

[randyrat]

Have been hearing some good results about Lil gun and heavy cast like 310 -320 grain. Looking for some thumpers besides using H110 and ran into Lil gun..Some say its been good with heavy bullets and getting over 1200 ft/sec.
I like the heavy beastly 310 grain Lee bullet for serious harvesting within 100 yards using Super Red Hawk 44.

Can lil gun out perform H110?

Extreme cold weather sensitive?

Dead is dead with this heavy bullet, but I like scorched earth, bone breaking heavy loads for certain applications and accuracy. Heavy loads that are Hard hitting/stabilized/accurate is my goal. Seems over 1200ft/sec it seems accuracy shines


Kinda like to hear other success stories before I waste money on a test pound of Lil gun. I have enough partial test pounds of powder.

A subject, such as the 44 mag, is never is never beat to death, who doesn't like talking about the 44 mag

[Texas by God]

No heavy bullet e xperience in .44 mag but my .41 mag loved it and my .300 BO dotes on it. Get a pound-it's good stuff. Best, Thomas.

[Mica_Hiebert]

lil gun got a bad rap for burning up forcing cones and top straps because people where using it with to light of bullets. using it with heavy bullets it should be a decent powder. most data I have seen it appears to have a slight velocity advantage over h110 and a little lower presures.

[DougGuy]

LilGun more or less does what H110 will do with less pressure. But... It makes a LOT more heat doing it. I use LilGun under the same Lee 310gr RF boolit to load it in the 75% ~ 90% power band. Something that you can't quite do with H110 without going below published minimum starting weights. Recoil is a bit less as could be expected. Accuracy is excellent. 17.0gr LilGun with WLP, under the Lee C430-310-RF (320gr lubed and checked) goes 1180 - 1200fps out of my 7 1/2" SBH.

44man hates my crimp but I modified a Lee collet crimp die to make the crimp band narrower and put it right down below the case mouth, this crimp IMO provides a bit more resistance to the boolit moving at primer ignition, it lets a little more pressure build before the boolit pulls crimp and the intended purpose of it is to reduce the SD from shot to shot and it seems to work very well to do this, plus this is a soft alloy that the typical roll crimp may not hold as tight as my modded collet crimp. The boolit opens the crimp fully, and doesn't slump any more than a roll crimp and the same soft alloy over 17.0gr LilGun... It works for me.

Left: Modded collet crimp, Right: Standard roll crimp. Fired cases are included to indicate fully opened case mouths.
http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Reloading/DSC03150_zps2fffcc0c.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Reloading/DSC03150_zps2fffcc0c.jpg.html)

[Bookworm]

I read this and a light went on in my head. A heavier crimp to reduce velocity deviation and spreads ? This could be the answer to a problem I've been fighting.
In a light-boolit .357Mag load, I've been getting crazy ( I think ) spreads - 160 to 180 fps, depending on charge weight. Too, the SD has been high 50's, low 80's.

I've tried varying charge weight, OAL, even tried mag primers.

I have been using a light crimp. I bet if I went heavier on the crimp it would even things out.

I'm going to try this....

[DougGuy]

You need case neck tension in addition to crimp. And the case neck tension needs to be even from round to round too!

[Bookworm]

Understood.
However, I can go to the cartridges I have already loaded, and re-crimp them. Without any other step.
One change at a time - that way I know what made it work. Or didn't, whichever.

[dkf]

Be careful with lil gun, it is very temperature sensitive. A load that is good at 40 degrees could very well be way too hot at 80 degrees. And thats besides the issue with barrels and how hot it burns.

[RoyEllis]

Be careful with lil gun, it is very temperature sensitive. A load that is good at 40 degrees could very well be way too hot at 80 degrees. And thats besides the issue with barrels and how hot it burns.
Exact reason I used the last lil gun I had to load .410 shells, it works well at those load levels. JMHO but 300MP is a better choice for "romper stomper" magnum pistol loads, at least it's worked well for me....

[randyrat]

Great! Thanks for more info on Lil gun..

300MP, I'll have to look that one up

Listen to what DougGuy has to say about "neck Tension".
There is a good read on neck tension in here.
http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm

[RoyEllis]

http://ps-2.kev009.com/ohlandl/310/357-44_Bain_Davis/Handloader_274_Oct_2011.pdf
Nice write up on 300MP loads.....I think you'll find just what the Dr. ordered there for you!

[randyrat]

I like that 300MP by the looks of it...

[leftiye]

Seems to do well with standard weight bu/oolits, but then gets even higher velocities with obscenely heavy (360 gr.) boolits in .454. Pushes 300 grain .44s about 200 - 300 fps faster than h110 does. Great discovery for heavy boolit loads.