new and getting back into reloading...41 mag

[Pighunter]

Hello,
I'm getting back into reloading after about a 6 year break do to injuries and surgeries. I'm probably not posting in the correct spot, but maybe someone can point me in the correct direction.
I've only loaded 41 magnum but i'm going to start loading 300 win. mag. and 7mm mag. I load on a old Dillion RL 550B, and I started with a single stage. I loaded up about 100 41 mag loads last night. I used 210 Gr. jacketed SP with Unique powder. But I have some 225 Gr. RNFP and a few other sizes. My problem is finding DATA?? for these loads. I've googled my different powder brands that I have but still having a hard time finding the information for different loads and bullet sizes. Can someone point me in the right direction.
Thank you.

[lefty o]

if you cant find published data, give sierra bullets a call. they have a line where all they do is help reloaders. they will help you out no matter who's bullets you use.

[Pighunter]

Thanks, I have quiet a few different unknown brand of bullets with different weights 225gr. 215, 212, 210 and 200, I'm having a tough time finding data anything other than 200, 210 and 220 grains. And that's only using unique powder.

[foesgth]

I also have the .41mag affliction. I have found some great info in this thread...

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?276144-41-Magnum-41-Special-Load-Data-Center

But, as you know everyone on the internet is crazy except for you and me (and I wonder about you sometimes).:kidding:

[Wheelguns 1961]

Lyman cast bullet handbook #4 has loads for 185,195,210,220gn bullets and unique. Personally I use 8gns of unique with bullets up to 230gns for mild plinking loads. For hunting loads, I really like 2400.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Welcome to the forum.
I moved your thread.

Lots of data here
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?276144-41-Magnum-41-Special-Load-Data-Center

opps, I see foesgth already posted that.

[Pighunter]

Thanks lots of good reading.
I have a model 57 6" and a Ruger Bisley 7.5" Haven't done much shooting the last 5 or so years, but am getting back to it now.

[osteodoc08]

7gr 231 is my plinking load for anything 200-230gr

[megasupermagnum]

210 grain jacketed, and 230 grain SWC (sometimes listed 215 grain if cast of linotype) are the two most common bullets for 41 magnum. You could use either one for your 225 grain load data if you are careful. Out of an old Alliant pamphlet, a 220 grain bullet max of 9.3 grain Unique at 1.575" OAL.

[9.3X62AL]

I sold off all of my 41 Magnum revolvers about 7-8 years ago. I retained the tools and loading components/moulds. I do have a hankering for a Ruger BH x 4-5/8" something fierce of late--41 or 45 caliber. All of my previous 41s were hunting guns--a couple 6.5" BHs and a 6" S&W 657. I am rolling the idea around at this point.

Maybe next month--I already used this month's CA Ration Card for a S&W 642. I feel the need for pocket felon repellent. Sometimes pepper gel and LCD lights come up a mite short, and the 1911 is too heavy to haul around under summer-weight clothing. YES, I had a CA snowflake melt over my pistol "printing" under my shirt in the Home Depot. She threw a fit, and in these days of mass shooting hysteria the gendarmerie are a mite tense upon arrival. The two that showed up were cool, I had sat down in a chair near the checkstands with my hands up. It turns out that the reporting party was a Regular Customer of both the police department AND the pshrink shack at the County Hospital. Still, it was embarrassing as hell--and THANK GOD for how things shook out. Swap in a soccer mom and LAPD, and.......well, time for a light pocket rocket and baggier clothing. Very instructive sequence.

I went on my way after a couple minutes, all good. Her route differed--she went for another ride to see the nice pshrink techs in the white scrubs at Ward "B". Just another day in The Worker's Paradise.

[shooting on a shoestring]

I’ve only fired one 41 Magnum and that was a couple of decades ago. A guy and his son showed up at an outdoor range where I was shooting over my Oehler 35P. He decided I looked like an expert and asked me to check out this gun he had inherited and wanted to shoot. He opened the mahogany box and handed me an un-fired S&W Model 57 with 8 & 3/8” barrel. He wasn’t sure if the ammo that came with the gun was good as it was looking pretty dated. I discussed the possibility of keeping the M57 un-fired but he was adamant they came to shoot it. After I admired it, checked the bore for obstructions, checked the timing, looked at the old ammo, all seemed in order. He asked if I would shoot it so he could watch. So I did. I was surprised at the mild recoil. Shots all fell on target. He and his son then moved to a table and proceeded to empty out the cases. I suggested they keep the empties with the gun. He offered to sell it to me, but I was not in a position to make a reasonable offer. After that odd encounter I’ve entertained the possibility of owning and exploring .41 Remington Magnum. However calibers 44 and 45 seemed more rational to me at times when I had the appropriate purchasing power. Still I wonder if I’d enjoy plowing that field.

The short barrel Blackhawk seems like a good fit of cartridge to gun size. I’m not a fan of big calibers in small guns nor small calibers in big guns. Either is wasteful. I’ve also noticed my long barreled revolvers stay home, but the 4 inch and shorter get to go places.

9.3x6.2AL, that’s a thread swerve. But thanks for the story. Nice touch sitting. Sounds like you took the initiative to de-escalate. Yep I’ve gone to mostly pocket carry myself. Usually Sig 365, J-Frame or LCP depending on my pockets that day. I do occasionally feel the need for more gun and then add a large gun in a vertical shoulder holster. My thinking being the pocket gun for fast presentation close encounters, the big gun for the rest. Thinking of the recent trend in mass shootings, I can see the possibility of having to engage a crazy wannabe mass shooter at big box store ranges of 50 yards or greater. Definitely out of range with a pocket gun, but doable with a big gun.

[Groo]

Groo here
The 41mag is one of my most loved but least shot guns.
The load we like the best is ::: 210 [about ] hard cast , mag or hot primers, heavy crimp , AND 7gr Trailboss...
This will give about equal to the "Police" load and is accurate in every 41 we tried so far...

[rbuck351]

I have shot only one load in my 41 Blackhawk with the 225gr cast in the 30 years I have had it. It's no longer recommended to use Blue Dot but that is all I used before the notice came out. So, I still use 16grs of Blue Dot for 1480 fps. A few years back I learned how to make a 270gr jacketed bullet from 40 S&W cases without buying expensive swaging dies. For this I use a case full of Lil gun for 1200 fps. For plinking I use a 38spl. I would not use these in a M57 without careful load work up and even then I wouldn't use a lot of them.

[megasupermagnum]

I still use bluedot in 41 mag. It is easily my favorite powder. OAL is a factor, but 16 grains BD with a 230 grain SWC is SMOKING HOT! My personal favorite is the #258 and 13 grains. I consider 13.5 max. With the shorter nose of some 220 grain rnfp I'm finding 12.5 is about max. Best accuracy is 10.5 gr so far.

I never believed the hype about pressure spikes. The truth is Bluedot is one of the most mild mannered and consistent powders ever made. Likely what happened is an unusually slow batch was tested and ran right to the limit. Now with a faster lot, and different testing equipment, Alliant found old data to be above limits.

Be careful with that 16 gr load if you use a different Lot.

[GLynn41]

www.accuratepowder.com/load-data/
www.hodgdonreloading.com/
Beartooth has a large load data section.
with Unique powder, 7 for plinking and popping. 9-10 for serious loads.. work up
In the 70's
Bob Millik? said his Blue Dot loads became overloads in below zero temps. So he moved away from BD. At the time he wrote that I was using his .41 mag loads. There are tooo many other good powders around. I finished what I had and moved on. IF Alliant says do not use it they have good reason to say do not buy this powder to use in a .41 mag

[sixshot]

Alliant isn't the only one saying not use Blue Dot in the 41 magnum, Freedom Arms says the same thing.

Dick

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

www.accuratepowder.com/load-data/
www.hodgdonreloading.com/
Beartooth has a large load data section.
with Unique powder, 7 for plinking and popping. 9-10 for serious loads.. work up
In the 70's
Bob Millik? said his Blue Dot loads became overloads in below zero temps. So he moved away from BD. At the time he wrote that I was using his .41 mag loads. There are tooo many other good powders around. I finished what I had and moved on. IF Alliant says do not use it they have good reason to say do not buy this powder to use in a .41 mag

I've experienced random pressure spikes in hot BD loads while shooting at cold MN temperatures. I won't use it again.

[Texas by God]

Unique and H110 check the .41 magnum boxes here.
rbuck 351- don’t leave us hanging, how do you make .410” bullets from .40S&W brass?

[CLAYPOOL]

BLUE DOT in a 10 GA. ITHACA MAG 10.. Oh the old days of LEAD and no fake poisoned ducks. I have NEVER found any because of lead. ONLY LEADS POISONED FROM BEING SHOT AND CRIPPED...!

[LUCKYDAWG13]

7gr of unique is about all i run in my 41 under a 210gr RCBS boolit

[Texas by God]

BLUE DOT in a 10 GA. ITHACA MAG 10.. Oh the old days of LEAD and no fake poisoned ducks. I have NEVER found any because of lead. ONLY LEADS POISONED FROM BEING SHOT AND CRIPPED...!
I believe many more waterfowl are wounded and lost due to steel shot’s inferiority than died from ingesting lead. It’s the “climate change” equivalent of the hunting world IMO.
Thread drift over, sorry.

[sixshot]

Just killed a depredation muley doe with a OM 41 shorty using 8 grs of Unique & a 213 gr HP at 88 yds.

Dick

[rbuck351]

Making the 270gr j bullets is fairly simple. I fully anneal 40 S&W cases by putting them in a casting pot in the wood stove for a 1/2 hr or so. Then run them through a 410 sizer. Next Push them into a bottle neck sizer die, I use 308 win, till you get the mouth pushed over to what you want. Drive them out with a punch. I had to make a couple of simple tools. First a punch that fits the top of your ram that is long enough to push the case in your bottleneck die as far as you need. It is also used for pushing the case through the sizer die. You need a small piece of flat steel plate to set on top of your ram ( 3/4" square, thickness doesn't matter much). And last a piece of 7/8 14 thread rod flat on one end. You could use a pistol seating die installed upside down if it is flat on the end of the adjuster bolt.

Once you have the cases annealed and the necks turned in (leave a 3/8" hole or bigger in the case mouth) heat a batch of lead and put a bunch of prepped cases on the rim of your lead pot to heat.
Install the flat plate on top of your press ram and put the thread rod in the press flat side down.
Now your ready. With pliers, grab a hot case and fill it with lead a bit over full and quickly set it on the flat plate and raise it to flatten the nose against the thread rod. You could adjust the weight by making the nose hole larger or smaller or by trimming the cases before forming the nose.
You can make 35cal bullets using 223 cases and a 22jet sizer die for the neck as well. With a bit of thinking, I'm sure other possibilities exist.
I'm too frugal to buy real swaging dies as I don't shoot enough for them to pay for there cost.
This wasn't my idea. I got it from another forum member here several years back.
I got my blue dot load data from Cartridges of the world which showed 17gr as max but cases were sticky so I backed down to 16.5 and still a bit tight removing fired cases. At 16gr they push out easily. Still wouldn't use these in a S&W as they are HOT. The original 210 police loads compared to these are about like comparing 38spl to 357mag.

[Texas by God]

Thanks, I’ll have to try that. .40 S&W brass is almost free. I did something similar once with 9mm cases in .40S&W but it wasn’t a sucess.

[GLynn41]

hot diggity dog / you are my hero, git em/ good on you

[Pighunter]

Just killed a depredation muley doe with a OM 41 shorty using 8 grs of Unique & a 213 gr HP at 88 yds.

Dick

Very nice!!!

[RJM52]

...welcome to The Cult....

You probably missed this thread...it has lots of good posts and links to everything .41....you can gladly post all your .41 stuff over there..

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?276144-41-Magnum-41-Special-Load-Data-Center

As to Unique, it and H110 for full loads is about all one needs. From a 4" barrel Unique will run 200-230 grain bullets:

8.0 950+-
9.0 1100+-
10.0 1180+-

Use a heavy crimp to get good burning of all the powder.

[RJM52]

Very nice!!!

...here is Dick's deer story...

http://singleactions.proboards.com/thread/25858/88-yds-41-shorty

[41wyom]

The .41 is my favorite Revolver, (followed closely by .45 AR). I have. S&W Model 57 and 58. The 8 3/8” Model 57 iron sights has taken quite a few Wyoming Mule Deer. The bullet is an older SSK 275-295 grains using either H-4227 or WW 680. For general fun I have an original H&G KT 220-grain 4-cavity mood that likes 4227. The same bullet is used in the Model 58 with 231 or 4756 (now discontinued). Since WST is working good in the Model 25 (.45 AR), I plan to try it in the Model 58.

At one time the Model 57 was used with the H&G and 7.0-grains of Bullseye. But over the years I’ve used quite a range of powders over the years and various bullets (sold off most the molds).
Keep coming back to the H&G and 4227.

Tom

[Pighunter]

Went to the range yesterday, I brought my Ruger "Bisley" 7.5" barrel and my old SS model 57 6" I have a 2x scope on the Ruger but yesterday I shot it with open sites. I shot quite a few different loads, I think I'm going to make up some lighter loads that are more pleasant to shoot. The 57 feels so much better in my hand than the ruger, I'm actually thinking about selling the Ruger. I had about 75 rounds of once fired Starline brass, everyone of them were very tight fitting. I'm not sure why but the other brands of brass went in and out of the cylinders with ease.

[Three44s]

Rather than take a chance with Blue Dot I use HS6. I like Unique for medium plinkers. HS6 for upper medium field loads. 2400 next up the ladder and H110 for the very top.

Three44s