For those of you using 296 ............

[Jack Stanley]

How much smoking of the cases to you get with a twenty-five grain charge and a two hundred fifty grain gas checked bullet ? Using a CCI magnum primer and seating LBT bullets at 1.595" over all length . Cases aren't horrible but I'm used to powders that don't leave smoke and grease trails on the side of a case .

Just using up the last of a can of powder from some load testing for .357 years ago , come to think of it I didn't much care for it in that case either .

Thanks , Jack

[Four Fingers of Death]

I assume you are talking about the 44Mag. If so, I have used a fair bit. I checked the load in the little Winchester giveaway manual and the load was 24Gns with a Jacketed bullet and 25 with a Lead Boolit. I always loaded 24Gns as that was what the largest cavity on the Lee auto disk threw and I loaded on the RCBS Rockchucker and this saved a step in the reloading, so if it didn't go int the Auto Disk, it dodn't go. Worked fine, but left a little soot down one side of the case. I think old Emler's loads using 2400 were cleaner, but I haven't shot any of those for awhile. I hope to remedy that in the near future, I have been concentrating on my cowboy stuff for awhile. I have generally found that Winchester Powders were a tad dirtier than others, but gave excellent preformance.

[S.R.Custom]

Both my .44 and .357 loads using a full shot of 296 leave a lot of smut & stains on the cases. On the flip side-- of my full power loads, 4227 leaves the cleanest cases. Wipe the lube off, and they look like new.

I have no idea why they're different that way.

[6pt-sika]

I had case smoking with H-110 and 2400 in my 44 MAG rifles and revolvers .

296 always smoked up my 410 skeet hulls !

[chaos]

I use 296 extensively with a couple of slugs that weigh just a tad over 250. I have never seen the need to load that damn HOT!!!
It does smoke up the cases a little, but nothin the corn cob won't take off.
Water drop those slugs and they will penetrate anything in
the lower 48. WLP primers


Chaos

[Four Fingers of Death]

Yepppppppppppppp! shooting the 44 Mag with a case fulla 296 on a cold morning is like getting the cane in high school!

[Jack Stanley]

It's the forty-four alright , I've got thirty-six rounds left to fire in this old three three six Marlin with a straight grip and I'm going to try a lighter load of either twenty-four hundred or Blue Dot .

I really haven't worked with Blue Dot before . Has anyone got good results with two hundred fifty grain bullets in the forty-four mag case ? I'm thinking starting load of fifteen grains , that ten percent less than the loads in the Hercules give away book .

Thanks , Jack

[felix]

15.0 BD is very good; drop a half grain for Smith pistols. ... felix

[fecmech]

It's the forty-four alright , I've got thirty-six rounds left to fire in this old three three six Marlin with a straight grip and I'm going to try a lighter load of either twenty-four hundred or Blue Dot .

I really haven't worked with Blue Dot before . Has anyone got good results with two hundred fifty grain bullets in the forty-four mag case ? I'm thinking starting load of fifteen grains , that ten percent less than the loads in the Hercules give away book .

Thanks , Jack

I had excellent accuracy with 18 of BD and 429421 out of my Super BH. The Lyman Cast bullet handbook lists 18.4 as max. The 18 gr load was 1393 fps out of my Ruger, more than enough fun for me!

[Jack Stanley]

Thanks guys that's a great help !:)And Felix , I'll try that because I'd like to be able to use the ammo in my twenty-nine also .

Jack

[missionary5155]

Grettings
I did find that 296 produced the finest accuracy I have ever got with my Dan Wesson... 21.4 grains with a 220 grainer. But alas this is a 41 mag. I could care less about a little smug on a case when a powder boolit combo will smack rams at 200 meters with athority and do so with 3.5 " groups from the Creedmore iron sights at that same 200 meters. That won the Illinios State IHMSA AAA Revolver in 1982 the last year I shot steel..

[Four Fingers of Death]

I forgot to mention, my 5 1/2" NMSBH was scary accurate with 296. I've got an old 10 1/4" coming, I can't wait to wring that out. It will no doubt end up as a 7 1/2"

[Jack Stanley]

Congrats on your shooting and wins in compitition fellas !! That speaks volumes about the load and user . I got decent groups with the carbine , since it was trying to unlock the lever I didn't use it in the Smith .

I went out with two loads of Blue Dot and everything else the same . I used fourteen and fourteen point five grains . The fourteen point five grain load gave me groups better than the 296 did and was two third better than the lighter charge of fourteen grains .

The cases were not as smudged as the 296 but it did have bullet lube blown down the side . That is much easier to clean up after for sure . What was odd was when opening the action the smoke just oozed like a horror film into the action . Might have been the humidity that day It was kinda funny :p

I called Dillon today about my powder measure that I've been using since the eighties and while I was on the phone I ordered a Dillon sizer die . The lyman I've been using didn't match the rest of the dies on the loader anyway . So , when I've got all Dillon dies I'll try that again , in the mean time I'll set up the old Co-Ax press and try some load development .

Jack