44 mag rifle, how low can you go??

[Jeffery8mm]

I am in the process of teaching my seven year old daughter to shoot a rifle. She is doing GREAT with a 22lr and a 22mag. I want to move her to a larger caliber and she says she is ready. I have a NEF 44 mag that I fitted with a youth stock for her. I loaded up some Lee 240gr SWC tumble lube boolits with 8gr of Unique. Not at all bad for me in that rifle, but she said it "sorta" kicked and did not want to shoot it any more that day. We had GOOD ear protection for her also. She is a small frame child but not a girlie girl at all!!! We went back to the 22lr and she commenced to terrorize the bullseye of the target:-D.
My question is..... Can I load this rifle up using the Lee boolit and 44 SPL pistol data?? Say around 6 gr unique? Being a single shot, checking for a stuck boolit would be easy, even though I dont think that would be a problem.
Thoughts??? Ideas??

Jeff

[felix]

Jeff, yes you can with no problems. Got any faster powder? ... felix

[dubber123]

+1 on the faster powder. With something like Bullseye, a 500 fps. range load would be easy.

[richbug]

5 grains of Bullseye or Solo 1000 work well for me with a 200 grain cast. Any similar speed powder should be fine with any 240 grain or lighter boolit.

[NHlever]

Lighter bullet, faster powder is the answer as others suggested. 7.5 grains of Unique with a 240 cast is a good load, accurate in my guns however.

[lathesmith]

I have used 3-4 grains of Bullseye and a 250 grain slug from one of these handi's, and it was very quiet and accurate. The key here is using SOFT lead and SOFT lube. At this level, you will stick a hard cast slug in the bore.
I'm kinda surprised a 7 year old girl can handle that handi. My 10 year old daughter couldn't hold one of those up, they are way too heavy for her. Maybe off the bench, I guess. I got my girl a Cricket, that little thing is perfect for her and she can now terrorize the tin can population without the shooting bench.
Good Shooting,
lathesmith

[Jeffery8mm]

Lathesmaith, She is only shooting from a sandbag rest as of now!! I looked at the cricket at our local shop and really liked that!!!!
As of now, Unique is the fastest powder I have for pistols. I am going to go with 6gr and see how it performs.
Thanks guys
Jeff

[missionary5155]

Good afternoon
Recoil can easily be reduced by cutting your bolit weight down. Take that 240 grain boolit and wack the lower base band off or the nose (but then you may need to load single shot). Gonna weigh 180 grains or so. Or make a simple jig and hollow point the nose off.
Drop your Unique load to 5 grains. This is the start load in 44 Special which is Real mild shooting in my 44-40 Colt New Service and my 1892 Winny.
Real easy to do unless you need 100... Accuracy out to 25 yards is still tin can in my old lead slingers.
God Bless You ... keep the family shooting !

[Jeffery8mm]

Thanks 5155!! Good info. Lighter boolit may be the way to go to begin with!!
Thanks
Jeff

[longbow]

Another option is to load round balls.

I have a .440" mould which is quite oversize but I have loaded as cast balls into .44 mag cases over up to 10 grs. of Unique or 452AA and they shot quite well with low recoil. A little lead sheared as I seated them in the cases but no problem.

Lately I have been running them through a sizer so they have a flat around the equator. Makes them a little easier to load but otherwise about the same performance.

There are ball moulds in several sizes that would be suitable as cast and tumble lubed. Balls are quick and easy to cast, easy to load, easy on the lead pot and low recoil.

Longbow

[Ricochet]

With light .44 Special loads in a rifle, you may run into bullet instability problems past very short ranges. That silly 38" twist they put in most .44 Magnum carbines takes some velocity to stabilize the bullets fairly well.