Magnum primers with Longshot in light .44 Magnum?

[BuckRimfire]

My goal here is to work up a mild .44 Magnum round for plinking (maybe literally in IHMSA Field Pistol) at up to 100 yards. Plan is to use a .44 Mag case and 240 grain RNFP bullet seated to .44 Special OAL, crimped lightly over the shoulder of the ogive. Nearly a .44 Special load in .44 Magnum brass. At a COAL of 1.455", I should have exactly 0.455" of the bullet shank in the case. My goal is to keep it subsonic and aim for decently low SDs.

Looking at this https://www.handloadermagazine.com/44-s-w-special-p Longshot, of which I have plenty, should be capable of the modest velocities I'm looking for at very reasonable pressures. Whether it will give good accuracy is the question. I'm thinking to start with 0.5 grain steps from 7.0 to 8.5 grains. Since these look like pretty modest charges for that powder, and I've seen rather large powder-forward vs. powder back velocity deltas in light revolver loads before, I'm tempted to try magnum primers to light them off regardless of where the charge is laying. Crazy idea?

I'd try both standard and magnum primers immediately and look at the SDs, but I don't have enough empty .44 brass at the moment to build two large-enough sets of ammo across the charge range. I need to shoot more and reload less, apparently!

Over all, this may be a fool's errand, since Longshot meters at best +/- 0.1 grain in my measure, and I'm not willing to hand weigh every charge.

[nhyrum]

I think Magnum primers could maybe help. I had similar issues with some light 45 Colt loads, which I know is a larger case than the 44. I had to do the whole, point the gun up then slowly lower it to the target, or else I'd get squibs. I think my load was 8 ish grains of 800x.

Magnum primers might help, but what I think what might help more, which I maybe could have tried, is borrowing shotshell reloading tricks, with either an over powder card, or maybe some filler on top of the powder

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[Mal Paso]

Could work, there will be about .12", depending on gun, of unsupported space between the case and throat but it's not as bad as 44 Special in 44 Mag chambers and you're using RNFPs.

[megasupermagnum]

If velocity spreads are your concern, then all I suggest is that you try both. Sometimes magnums are more consistent, sometimes standards are. There doesn't seem to be a lot of rhyme or reason to it.

That said, my advice is to forget about ES. I don't see even the slightest correlation between velocity ES and accuracy. It's kind of fun to play with after the fact, but accuracy is the difficult thing to get. Longshot is a decent powder for this, you shouldn't have too much trouble.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I went at this a slightly different way. 6.0 gr of W231 in a .44 Special Case with 240 gr SWC for my S&W 696 shoots to the sights and is good to as far as you can shoot.

For my SBH I run Magnum cases with 8.0 gr of W231 and the same 240 gr SWC's more of the same as above. Both loads use Large Pistol Primers, no need for others.

These loads perform very well in my two .44 handguns and the Magnum ones even work for plinking in my 1894 CB24" Nothing special for either one and this data came from an article by Brian Pearce on Mid Range .44 Mags, and another on loading .44 Specials. Handloader Mags #236 and 237. Well worth the money to acquire these issues. a wealth of info in each article by someone who actually knows what he is talking about! And will save you a bunch of Trial and Error!!!

Randy

[fredj338]

Generally fast burning powders burn, well fast. So adding a mag primer does little, regardless of the powder volume, in my exp. Going to slower powders a mag primer can give a more uniform ignition but not always. LS is a slower powder but not like H110 slow. Give it a try. Regardless of the chrono numbers, the target doesn't lie. Unique can give some pretty ES but I have always gotten great accuracy with lead bullets & Unique.