Subsonic 44 Mag Rifle 200gr LRNFP accurate loads needed

[gregw72]

I am getting into lever pistol caliber silhouette and have 1k worth of MBC 200gr LRNFP boolits sized to 0.432" and am wondering what you guys are using for powders. In this game accuracy is important, so I am not looking for a plinking load. Hodgdon is nice because they list cowboy loads and the lower and upper pressure levels. Alliant and others not so much. In the Pacific Northwest, we are pretty much limited to Hodgdon and Alliant powders, so please stick to those. Good candidates look to be TiteGroup, Universal, Clays and HP38/Win231. Again, this is being launched from a 1894 rifle and I want to have a subsonic muzzle velocity. Thanks!

[Outpost75]

You will not get your best accuracy at subsonic velocity in the Marlin's slow twist.

In my .44-40 Model 1894S with the same 38-inch twist of rifling I get best accuracy with 7.2 grains of Bullseye which gives about 1180 fps in the 20-inch barrel. Here is a series of five consecutive TEN-shot groups fired with open sights off sandbags at 50 yards. Also shown is a target fired with the same load using a low-powered hunting scope at 100 yards.

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[rintinglen]

My Marlin Cowboy doesn't like soft stuff. I have to load at least 9.5 Unique or 17.5 2400 to get to where it will group, and I usually run it a bit hotter than that..

[Forrest r]

2005 was the last year alliant put out a quality/informative reloading manual.

http://castpics.net/LoadData/Freebies/RM/Alliant/Alliant_2005.pdf

There's cowboy action data page that 2005 manual. I simply printed the pages that have all the pistol and cowboy action reloading data.

It's been close to 20 years since I owned/loaded for a 1895 marlin with the micro groove bbl. When I wanted softer shooting loads I used either heavy bullets in 44mag cases or light bullets in the 44spl cases. I consider anything lighter than a 245gr bullet a light bullet.

Hope the link gets you more load data to look at ( page 42/43/44 & page 45 for cowboy action).

[gregw72]

Very good info from all. Thanks so much. My initial reason for subsonic was thinking that it would be more accurate like 22lr. That is the super to subsonic transition messes with accuracy in that 40 gr boolit. Guess I need to get some 240s and launch them faster for best accuracy.