help with .44 rem mag loads please.

[mozeppa]

hi,

going to load for smith & wesson model 629 in .44 remington magnum.

i have new starline brass and lots of projectiles that are HALF JACKET semi wad cutter that weigh 240 grains.

i have several powders but neither the lee book or the hornady book show any loads for HALF JACKETS ....
do i load as if they are XTP's ? jacketed? plain lead? what?

anyone know of listings for half jackets?

thanks. mo

[megasupermagnum]

It doesn't really matter. What does matter is the OAL, and bullet weight. Being SWC's, I'm going to guess the OAL is going to be closer to what you would find for a 240gr cast bullet.

[ShooterAZ]

The Speer reloading manual #10 has loads for their 240 grain half jacket SWC, and it's the same data for the rest of their 240 grain jacketed bullets. What powders do you intend to use?

[mozeppa]

o.a.l. i got ................where do i find load data...i.e. HOW much of WHAT powder to use.

these are 2/3 jacketed swc ....where the jacket would be just inside the case edge.

i've read stories on these throwing cores and leaving the jacket in the barrel. so "guessing" on any part of it is not what i'm looking for.

[mozeppa]

i have 2400 , win 296 , h-s 6 , red dot,

[ShooterAZ]

From the Speer #10 manual:

The 2400 load is 20.2 start and 22.2 max/ LYMAN 49TH shows 17.5 to 19.5
The 296 load is 22.7 start and 24.7 max/ LYMAN 49TH shows 22.5 to 23.5
the HS6 load is 15 start and 16 max
No data for red dot.

Keep in mind that the Speer data is from 1979, use at your own risk! The Lyman 49th data is from 2008.

[NSB]

I shot thousands of those bullets years ago. I NEVER had a jacket come off. They do/did recommend you not use reduced loads with them to prevent that from happening. My go to powder was ww296, and they shot quite well. I killed quite a few deer with that load. That bullet worked equally well in the .357mag.

[mozeppa]

From the Speer #10 manual:

The 2400 load is 20.2 start and 22.2 max/ LYMAN 49TH shows 17.5 to 19.5
The 296 load is 22.7 start and 24.7 max/ LYMAN 49TH shows 22.5 to 23.5
the HS6 load is 15 start and 16 max
No data for red dot.

Keep in mind that the Speer data is from 1979, use at your own risk! The Lyman 49th data is from 2008.

okay....first off ....the lyman 49th has NO data for a HALF jacketed swc......it lists for a 225 grain hollow point in the picture provided by lyman which resembles the 240 grain that i have but is NOT it....the bullet i have is 240 grain SEMI WAD CUTTER WITH A FLAT NOSE AND NO HOLLOW POINT.

[megasupermagnum]

I've never heard of any issues with half jackets. I've shot plenty myself in 44 magnum, even ones I swaged myself. The only bullets I've ever heard of blowing the core were light duty hollow points made for standard 45 colt, then shot at hot rod pressures in 454 Casull.

[mozeppa]

I shot thousands of those bullets years ago. I NEVER had a jacket come off. They do/did recommend you not use reduced loads with them to prevent that from happening. My go to powder was ww296, and they shot quite well. I killed quite a few deer with that load. That bullet worked equally well in the .357mag.

okay....win 296 eh?.....do you have a source for load data?

[ShooterAZ]

okay....first off ....the lyman 49th has NO data for a HALF jacketed swc......it lists for a 225 grain hollow point in the picture provided by lyman which resembles the 240 grain that i have but is NOT it....the bullet i have is 240 grain SEMI WAD CUTTER WITH A FLAT NOSE AND NO HOLLOW POINT.

Understood. The Lyman data is for a 240 grain regular jacketed bullet. I should have clarified that...sorry. As I said in post #3, the Speer data is the same across the board for ALL of their 240 grain jacketed bullets. Soft point, hollow point and the 2/3 jacketed SWC all the same data.

[44MAG#1]

FEAR NOT. The Speer #14 manual has at the bottom of the data for the 240 gr jacketed bullets saying NOTE These loads may be used with the 240 gr. JSP-SWC (#4447) BY REDUCING MAXIMUM CHARGES BUT ONE GRAIN.
That is what the Speer #14 manual says.
It is up to you to determine what you want to do.

[Texas by God]

They are still jacketed bullets. I used regular jacketed data in .41 Mag and .44 Mag when I used the Speer half jacket bullets. Upper range Unique and H110/296 worked for me. I never had a problem with core separation. I’ve also shot a bunch of Speer .30 cal Plinkers and Hornady .30 cal half jacket bullets through rifle length barrels with no drama, either.

[SierraHunter]

I have loaded half jackets in the 44 mag. I would have to go to the bench and see if I wrote down my load, but i would guess I used H110 and as much of it as I could get away with because thats how I normally load. Ill generally mark a cylinder and fire a known load in that chamber thats factory equivalent and mic it straight ahead of the web. Then I'll start working up my load measuring the cases after each shot until I start to see more expansion then what i saw on the medium loads. once I get more expansion, K back off to just before that and call it good.

Book starting loads, especially from the Lyman books are usually pretty light, even lighter than factory loads many times. I would not hesitate to use starting data from standard equivalent weight jacketed bullets.

[mozeppa]

for references....

[.429&H110]

Chronograph the experiment.
If they all go mostly the same speed,
they will all mostly go to the same place.
Your 629 might not like j-words.
Too hot is no fun to shoot.
But downloading is dangerous.
Chrony will show the load that works.
I am amazed by the accuracy of Keith boolits.
A 44 does not have to go [KER-ouch-BLAMMO]
unless it's dark out and you want fireball pictures...
All I know about 44 mag, I learned here.

[onelight]

I shot quite a few of those in the old days , I worked up to 24 grains of 296 using Speer cases and cci 350 primers.
The max load in my no.11 Speer manual is 24.7 starting 22.7

[RonIa]

I shoot Unique it maybe a light load but it does the trick 240 gr jhp with 9.5 grs. and 7.5 grs. in my 250gr Keith GC cast bullets I shot my first deer with a handgun 44 magnum S&W 629 the deer was shot at 85 yds. using a 240gr jhp
Ron277819

[RonIa]

What ever powder you use just be very careful check and recheck your powder charge the 44 magnum is a powerful round it doesn't take much of a over charge to blow one up I made one mistake and I have reloaded for many many years and it cost me a mint 629 a windshield in my truck I was lucky it didn't hurt or kill me 277820

[NSB]

277826[]277827Here’s the data and source.

[Conditor22]

https://i.imgur.com/qGakBJx.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/T4jMRXS.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/5aYpjnN.jpg

[Jniedbalski]

Where did you get the bullets at? I have never seen them for sale . I bet they shoot good

[Conditor22]

Where did you get the bullets at? I have never seen them for sale . I bet they shoot good

I've seen them in 200 grains

[.429&H110]

I want a copy of that book!
24gr H110 240gr j-word?
That's the one that lights up the night!
Been there done that! (BANGO+!)
You might want a Ruger.
Just saying....

Not to hijack a thread,
just cleaned the SuperRedhawk
200 240gr Keith boolits
no gas check, just alox
a little lead wiped out with Hoppes
bore shines clean now.

[1hole]

Put 12/2400 under your 240 gr bullets - of any type - and you're good to go.

[Bazoo]

I too recommend the loadbooksusa manual. Very helpful in developing loads.

[DougGuy]

2400 will do all of your 75% - 100% powerband, you can download it somewhat in that the starting charges are (I think) less % of case fill than the starting charges of 296 which you should NOT download. I would not try to make magnum velocity with HS-6 but you can get some 1000fps loads with it successfully.

You won't see Red Dot recommend under a 240gr boolit because it is just too fast to be safe.

You also would be hard pressed to over charge a case with 296 without noticing (IF you are eyeballing each case like you SHOULD do), it would be impossible to double charge with 296.

I would load those half j and 2/3 j bullets the same as I would for a JHP I would use that load data but I would make SURE the base of the boolit is the same depth in the case for each boolit so you don't assume that a 240gr boolit would be universally interchangeable and then create an excessive pressure event because you used data for one boolit that sits higher in the case even though the COA is the same. You have to ascertain where the base of each boolit sits and then adjust load data to compensate any difference.

I sorta have a 2fer rule with the 44 magnum, there are 2 things I would not load fer it, that's light boolits and fast powders. I have used 2400 and H110 almost exclusively for as long as I have been loading the 44 mag. I used some AA#9 many years ago, and I think I tried some LilGun under the Lee C429-310 RF boolits which are all I load for this SBH now and it worked pretty well.

[GaryN]

There's also the Skeeter load 8.5 grains of unique under a 250 grain lead bullet. 8.5 grains of unique would be easily safe with your bullet. It is probably pretty accurate too.

[Glenn R. Latham]

MO,
I shot a bunch of those bullets back in the '80s and the were VERY accurate in my Ruger Super Blackhawk. I had the Speer #9 manual and used 22.0 of WW296 (1/2 gr. under max.)
Glenn

[Texas by God]

And they cut the cleanest holes in paper targets of any jacketed bullet IIRC.

[rintinglen]

Those appear to be Speer 240 grain half-jacket soft points. My Speer Number 10 lists 20.2 start to 22.2 top with 2400. With 296, the range is 22.7 - 24.7. Blue dot runs from 16.2 - 17.2 grains. I used hundreds of the 225 grain HP version of this bullet in my old Redhawk with complete satisfaction.

[ddixie884]

for references....

Those are great bullets. I wish Speer still made them..........

[.429&H110]

DougGuy, would you exclude Green Dot along with Red?
Neither are on the list.
Unique is on the list, that's a fast powder...
I know of people shooting Clay's in .44 mag
but that didn't seem to me a good idea either.

[black mamba]

I've found 12.0 gr of HS6 to be a very accurate and excellent midrange load under a 240 gr bullet, for about 1100 fps.

[roysha]

What ever powder you use just be very careful check and recheck your powder charge the 44 magnum is a powerful round it doesn't take much of a over charge to blow one up I made one mistake and I have reloaded for many many years and it cost me a mint 629 a windshield in my truck I was lucky it didn't hurt or kill me 277820

Checking the powder measure every so often is very good advice. Indeed you were fortunate.

However, I believe there is more to this incident than a simple matter of a couple of grains overload. EVERY catastrophic failure such as this, that I have ever seen, was the result of a plugged barrel. I suppose if one were to triple or quadruple a charge of, say, Bullseye or some such powder, it may produce the same result, but that would not qualify as a slight shift in the metering of the measure.

Many years ago I had an acquaintance that kept himself "honest" (a way to keep himself from flinching so he claimed) by only loading 5 rounds in his Super Blackhawk and then spinning the cylinder so he did not know where the empty charge hole was. He was shooting a 305 grain cast bullet with AA#9 powder. Occasionally he would miss a case when charging with powder and the resulting primer only round would push the bullet out of the case far enough to tie up the cylinder but never all the way into the barrel, until it finally did. When the gun went "click" he assumed it was the empty charge hole and proceeded to fire the next round. The result was EXACTLY what your photo shows except it was a SBH. The stuck bullet was there in the barrel and the top strap, portions of the cylinder, brass and bullet were never found. Fortunately there was no injury. He blamed it on an over charge of powder and would never admit otherwise. I don't know if it is even possible to get enough of AA #9 into a case with that long bullet to cause such a failure.

[Norske]

Don't use old data for Alliant 2400. They made it burn cleaner and dropped their 44Mag/240gr bullet max powder charge from 22gr to 20gr, with the same velocity. I'm acquainted with a man who was working at Alliant's factory when they were modifying 2400. He says it was troublesome. It ended up at a slightly faster burn rate. They were earlier able to modify Bullseye and Unique without changes to the published powder charges, but not 2400.

[Art in Colorado]

I shoot Unique it maybe a light load but it does the trick 240 gr jhp with 9.5 grs. and 7.5 grs. in my 250gr Keith GC cast bullets I shot my first deer with a handgun 44 magnum S&W 629 the deer was shot at 85 yds. using a 240gr jhp
Ron277819

I second the advice to use Unique. I have loaded 240 gr cast and jacketed with 10 Gr of Unique in both S&W and Ruger 44 Mag revolvers with never a problem. Power full load but very manageable. I for one do not care for full tilt 44 Magnum loads.