S&w 44 magnum performance center hunter

[747 captain]

Picked up a new S&w 44 magnum performance center hunter. Have Lyman 4294
21 and plan to use unique or tite group. Looking for medium accurate loads 44 magnum for my new pistol.

257837

[smkummer]

Did you mean 429421?

[boatswainsmate]

12 grains of HS6 is my go to 44 magnum plinking load with your Keith bullet. Use at your own risk.

[Hickok]

8, then, 8.5, then 9 grains of Unique under the #429421. See which groups best. Makes a nice load, good power for 90% of handgun shooting, and moderate recoil.

[DHDeal]

I'll use 12 grains of HS6 with 265 - 290 grain LFN bullets and see bullets land real close to each other. Don't know why that happens, but it does...

Did you notice those holes at the front of your barrel? I have one of those without holes, but haven't shot it.

All kidding aside, HS6 with the charge stated, is really clean and really accurate (and not a fire breathing dragon either). I probably shoot twice as much H110 than HS6, but don't really know why as HS6 shoots so good that it takes my FA83 to tell the difference in accuracy.

[Forrest r]

Doesn't matter if it's the 429421 (or copy), 429244,429640 any bullet in the 240gr to 260gr weight range makes pretty good plinking ammo using 11.5gr of unique. This is what I consider blammo ammo/plinking ammo.
https://i.imgur.com/eZrMQsG.jpg

[barnabus]

im using 10.5 grains Unique in my Smith 629 with a 250 Keith bullet.

[Shuz]

8.0g of Titegroup gives me 1009fps with an SD of 12 with a H&G 503 MP clone at OAL of 1.690". 5 shot group was 1.272" at 25 yards with a 4x Leupold EER scope mounted on a Smith 629 Classic DX 5" bbl. This was from a sandbag rest. This same load shot a 1.833" 5 shot group from a Smith 629-4 Mtn Gun also from a rest, but with open Patridge sights.

[curioushooter]

Not 44 Mag (rather 44 special) but I've found that 8 grains of Unique is very accurate pushing the 429421. It gets around 1075 FPS from a 6.5" barreled 624. I placed a 2 inch 5 shot two-hand hold group at 25 yards with this load, which is the best I've ever done.

[Thumbcocker]

6.5 of red dot under a Keith has been a nice load for me in several .44's for paper punching.

[Tatume]

Mine is the one with the removable rails. It had under-sized throats and accumulated lead terribly. After sending it to DougGuy for his magic, the leading problem was much reduced, and it now shoots 2" five shot groups at 100 yards with a 4x Leupold pistol scope.

When you get it working for you, I'm sure you will like yours as well. My load is a maximum charge of 2400 with bullets cast in the Accurate 43-240K mold.

http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=43-240K-D.png

[747 captain]

Mine is the one with the removable rails. It had under-sized throats and accumulated lead terribly. After sending it to DougGuy for his magic, the leading problem was much reduced, and it now shoots 2" five shot groups at 100 yards with a 4x Leupold pistol scope.

When you get it working for you, I'm sure you will like yours as well. My load is a maximum charge of 2400 with bullets cast in the Accurate 43-240K mold.

http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=43-240K-D.png

Can you tell me more about what he did for you and how much

[747 captain]

257928

9.6gr of unique at 25 yards. A little leading The first inch of the barrel after 30 shots

[Tatume]

Can you tell me more about what he did for you and how much

DougGuy runs a highly specialized business. He hones chamber throats to very uniform dimensions. Mine were enlarged to 0.432" and I size my bullets to 0.431"+. Send him a PM on this forum for his pricing. It's worth every cent.

1949 Erco 415-G

[curioushooter]

any bullet in the 240gr to 260gr weight range makes pretty good plinking ammo using 11.5gr of unique

Have you ever Chronoed this load? I would suspect it is very stout and maybe only 100-150 FPS slower than what max charges of 2400 could produce.

I was astounded by the fact that 8 grains of Unique runs just 125 FPS slower than 16.5 grains of 2400 with the 429241. Not only that it was a more pleasant load to shoot.

I would think it would be effective on pretty much anything deer sized or smaller.

[curioushooter]

Regarding this perfomance center revolver. The styling reminds me of the 327 R8 which I call the Cyber-Revolver. It's pretty much what I would imagine police would be carrying today had auto-pistols never been thought up.

If their intention was hunting, I think the would do well with less highly contrasting polished stainless and black.

If I were the one calling out hunting revolver specifications...I would have two:

A light barreled S&W Model 24 (44 special) "hunter" with a 5.5" tapered barrel and a greenish-brown hued parkerized finish, orange insert front sight, and a round butt frame with walnut grips.

A heavy barreled S&W Model 29 (44 Mag) "hunter" with a 6.5" full diameter barrel with half underlug and a greenish-brown hued parkerized finish, orange insert front sight, and a square butt frame with coke bottle type walnut target grips.

[Tatume]

Have you ever Chronoed this load? I would suspect it is very stout and maybe only 100-150 FPS slower than what max charges of 2400 could produce.

I was astounded by the fact that 8 grains of Unique runs just 125 FPS slower than 16.5 grains of 2400 with the 429241. Not only that it was a more pleasant load to shoot.

I would think it would be effective on pretty much anything deer sized or smaller.

I suggest you use published data. Here is the source for my charges of Alliant gunpowders.
https://www.alliantpowder.com/reloaders/index.aspx?page=/reloaders/index.aspx&

[Drm50]

In my m29-2s I shoot 8.0gr Unique/ 242g button nose WC. Have new HBWC mold but have no load yet.

[Chad5005]

8gr-10gr titegroup under a 245gr swc 1018fps-1270fps

[Forrest r]

Have you ever Chronoed this load? I would suspect it is very stout and maybe only 100-150 FPS slower than what max charges of 2400 could produce.

I was astounded by the fact that 8 grains of Unique runs just 125 FPS slower than 16.5 grains of 2400 with the 429241. Not only that it was a more pleasant load to shoot.

I would think it would be effective on pretty much anything deer sized or smaller.

No never chronographed it. It's nothing more than a 50yd/100yd plinking load that doesn't require putting the rear sight up on blocks to hit what I'm aiming at.

[curioushooter]

I suggest you use published data. Here is the source for my charges of Alliant gunpowders.
https://www.alliantpowder.com/reload...rs/index.aspx&

Yes, a good source for SAMMI spec load data. There is published load data for 44 Special that is over SAMMI-spec but pressure tested and safe in appropriate revolvers. See Handloader issue 312.

[murf205]

Captain, the middle of the road load I have had the most success with in all my 44 mags is 16.6 grains of 2400 and a CCI std primer. It is very accurate in my 4" 629 and Super Red Hawk as well. It chrono's just a tad over 1018fps from the 4" gun and a whopping 1225 from the 9 1/2" SRH. 2400 is one of the slow burning powders that you can load to mid level without having the ignition problems of some others. As an additional bonus, it doesn't seem to matter if you use mag primers or not. It does with H110 but that not what you are after anyway. I have nothing against Unique and have shot a ton of it but 2400 just gives the nod to accuracy in my experience. A lot of people will tell you that 2400 and Unique burns dirty and, for sure, you could probably find a cleaner burning powder but it has never been a issue with either for me. If you slug your barrel, I'm pretty sure (but not guaranteed) that it will be .429" as that is S&W's normal groove dia. The throats in my 629-6 were a tight .429 with 2 measuring .4285 and it did lead like yours is doing. Not terribly, but the accuracy with cast was just not there so I opened the throats to .431 and presto-no lead an an accuracy improvement immediately. That is a helluva' revolver you have there and I am sure that yo will get it sorted out. Do you plan to hunt with it?

[curioushooter]

2400 and Unique burns dirty

This is indeed my observation as well. Even the supposedly new, cleaner burning Unique is dirtier than about any other powder there is. I do like it though.

2400 also doesn't burn completely in handguns, or at least I've never found it to. I always find grains of unburnt powder laying about.

[Tatume]

But, why does it matter?

[725]

747 captain,

Added info about the topic Tatume brought up. I sent my cylinder to DougGuy to have him hone my charge holes, attempting eek out the very best I could from the revolver. He sent it back after inspecting it with his high level of skill and tools and told me he couldn't improve on the quality I already had in the piece. Didn't charge me anything. I'd send anything I had to him, with full confidence of a square deal. Not being able to improve my equipment, I had to fall back on the hard job of improving my skills. :)

[AlaskaMike]

I've never used Titegroup, so I won't suggest any loads for that one. But for Unique, 10 grains with #429421 is a classic load and does well in everything I've tried it with. I'll also echo what a couple others have said--anywhere from 8 to 10 grains of Unique works great.

If you're open to other powders, my favorite midrange load with any 250 gr SWC is 10 grains of Alliant Power Pistol. It gives up a slight amount of velocity to the 10 gr. Unique load because Power Pistol is a little slower burning. However, my extreme spreads shown by my chronograph are much less than the Unique load. And yes, it is a little cleaner burning. I recognize the manly guys here who love their hands and forearms coated in powder residue after a range session will question why anyone would want a cleaner burning powder. When you get equal or better accuracy with the cleaner burning powder vs. the dirty powder, the question becomes "why wouldn't you use the cleaner powder?" :grin: