Hunting With 44 Magnum Casr Bullets With Copper Gascheck

[trapper300RUM]

Can i load up full power loads in my 44 Magnum if the cast bullets are gaschecked or do i have to keep them at normal cast velocites because of leading the bore

[leftiye]

Full house cast boolit loads have always been used. Anything that is shot with jacketed will produce lower pressure with cast and therefore be safe if the parent load was safe. That being said, IDIOCY will get you killed, don't overdo anything. 1500 fps Lyman 429244 loads (gas checked) with 24.0 grains of H110 were the standard back in the 70s. This was true of all magnum pistol loads until the .445 supermag, and the .454 came on the scene. These will drive heavy boolits fast enough to cause probems with cast. Though it may still be possible to drive cast that fast if the reloader does his part.

[trapper300RUM]

I am going to have them @ 1,200 f.p.s. & it's not the max load

[x101airborne]

That is nice and safe. For hunting, you dont have to run the upper limits and especially if you are using a model 29 or a light, short barrel blackhawk, mild loads can be especially beneficial. I have only shot about 4 or 5 hogs with my redhawk and all have been with mild loads. I have yet to recover a boolit.

[429421Cowboy]

^^^^ What he said ^^^ My .44 hunting load is 9.5 gr of Unique pushing a 250 Keith going about 1000fps and it will still shoot through a whitetail at any angle without beating me or the gun up too bad. I could load almost twice as much 2400 or more of H110 to gain a couple hundered fps, but it will likely give the same results.

Boolit fit to your bore will have more to do with preventing leading than anything else, there are plenty of guys on here that can show great results with seemingly too soft plainbase boolits that are sized correctly.
I have shot WFN gaschecked boolits going 1400fps and still had no issues with leading, i think you should be just fine at 1200 with your setup!

[white eagle]

once you get further into cast boolit use you will understand
why cast is prefered to ALLothers

[Blammer]

I shoot plain base boolits in my 44mag at 1300fps no leading.

Fit is KING, that is what will cause most leading issues.

[deep creek]

I slugged my .44 blackhawk and had lbt make me a double cavity mould with w.w. they drop at 320 grns.loaded with 21.5 grns of 296 or h110 the have ruined a few bears day.havent recovered a boolit.same with deer and a few elk. Its an accurate two handed load.

[waksupi]

First thing to do, is forget 90% of what you know about loading jacketed bullets. Second thing to do, is forget you ever heard the word magnum. Cast boolits pretty much eliminate that need. Always remember, jacketed bullets are trying to copy what lead boolits have ALWAYS done well.

[Iowa Fox]

First thing to do, is forget 90% of what you know about loading jacketed bullets. Second thing to do, is forget you ever heard the word magnum. Cast boolits pretty much eliminate that need. Always remember, jacketed bullets are trying to copy what lead boolits have ALWAYS done well.

Truer words never spoken.

[Spokerider]

I slugged my .44 blackhawk and had lbt make me a double cavity mould with w.w. they drop at 320 grns.loaded with 21.5 grns of 296 or h110 the have ruined a few bears day.havent recovered a boolit.same with deer and a few elk. Its an accurate two handed load.

deep creek,
I'd like to hear more on taking the bears and the performance of the 320gr boolits on them.
Big bears? or your average 200-300lb black bears? Were they one shot kills? Close range shots or 100m and further?
What size meplat does the boolit have?

I shoot 330gr air cooled WW GC boolits from my 12" 44 mag barrel encore over a good dose of Lilgun, and the load chrono's at 1459fps. I have loaded this specifically for black bear, but have not shot one to date with it.

It's not too often I hear of guys actually taking bears with the 44 mag, thus my interest.

[deep creek]

Spokerider the boolit is veral smiths 300 grn wfn mould drops at 320 with ww you can see his boolits at LBTtechnology deepcreek

[flipajig]

The 44 mag has taken every north American big game animal.
With eather J word or cast I personly have taken deer and pigs with mine with no hesitation. The Boolit I settled on was a 429244GC it is a WC desine that will cycle through a leaver gun my SBH and TC tender likes it also. All three like 19.5 grn of 2400 the BH is running 1200 rpm,the TC 1400 rpm, and the Winchester 1600 rpm. As for penetration I am yet to recover a Boolit I have also shot through a 10 to 12 inch Aspen tree again no Boolit recovery.

[44man]

deep creek,
I'd like to hear more on taking the bears and the performance of the 320gr boolits on them.
Big bears? or your average 200-300lb black bears? Were they one shot kills? Close range shots or 100m and further?
What size meplat does the boolit have?

I shoot 330gr air cooled WW GC boolits from my 12" 44 mag barrel encore over a good dose of Lilgun, and the load chrono's at 1459fps. I have loaded this specifically for black bear, but have not shot one to date with it.

It's not too often I hear of guys actually taking bears with the 44 mag, thus my interest.

Several things here. Stop using Lil'Gun, it can damage your gun. Too hot.
Slow the boolit to around 1300 fps or where it is accurate ONLY. FASTER CAN BE WORSE for hunting.
You can water drop for the .44 for better accuracy. No expansion needed unless you shoot too fast or slow.
Deep Creek uses my exact same load with a 320 gr boolit but my 330 gr only needs 21 gr of 296. The Lee 310 gr loves 21.5 gr. I use a Fed 150 primer for all loads.
I might have a few tons of deer shot with the .44 and it is still the best so a bear should also hate the caliber.
The most important thing is to not look for the highest velocity, an animal does not have a chronograph on it's side before it decides to die.
Nothing will stop a 320 gr boolit, mine run 1316 fps, slower and faster will open groups. Bottom line is accuracy first.
I suppose the thing that bothers me most is when a guy says he gets 1400 to 1500 fps and thinks it is better. First you need a softer boolit and second you lose accuracy.
A good meplat like a WLN or WFN is best. Don't worry about a WFN, I shoot them to 500 meters with accuracy. A good Keith like the 429421 has a good meplat.
A gas check is not needed but many good boolit designs just have them. They were designed for a softer boolit. A harder PB at the right velocity works fine.
You can shoot a PB to a very high velocity but that is not the answer for hunting, it is boolit work inside the animal, not velocity or muzzle energy.
Velocity changes means an alloy change and even boolit weight with caliber can need an alloy change.
It all changes with the size of the animal so a buf needs different then a deer or black bear.
The .44 with a hard, heavy boolit with accuracy has a wide range. It is much wider then larger and faster calibers. It might be the best.

[Spokerider]

Thanks for your thoughts.

Lil'gun is not going to burn out my encore barrel. It gets no more warm to touch than when I shoot H110.......and if in 20 years you prove to be right, I'll just go buy another one!

1459fps is the most accurate velocity for my gun with my boolits, my powder and my reloading technique, and is why I have chosen that load for hunting.

I don't consider deer and bear to be in the same ballpark when it comes to killing them, especially when a particularly large bear, either annoyed / predatory, or in a frantic frenzy trying to kill one of my dogs is only a few meters from me.

[Paul D. Heppner]

Spokerider, 44Man isn't refering to temperature. He is refering to pressure. Lilgun in my opinion, and 44Man's too, is prone to erratic pressure spikes. I have found this in 45 Colt, 454, and 44 magnum.

[Blammer]

I think 44man is referring to temperature.

I have some lil gun powder and in my pistol after a cylendar full, it is HOT, way to hot to touch. I'm using middle of the road loads too.


maybe 44man could expound on it for us

[Larry Gibson]

The GC'd cast bullet can do things at true magnum handgun velocities that the PB'd hard cast cast bullet can't......i.e. it most often kills quicker. That may not be important to some but to many it is. It can easily be done with no leading. The choice is yours.

Larry Gibson

[x101airborne]

The GC'd cast bullet can do things at true magnum handgun velocities that the PB'd hard cast cast bullet can't......i.e. it most often kills quicker. That may not be important to some but to many it is. It can easily be done with no leading. The choice is yours.

Larry Gibson

Hi Larry.
I would like you to expand on this a little if you would. I know we have all gone over and over this, but for some (myself included) this is still a little fuzzy and confusing. I know terminal ballistics are governed by steadfast rules of physics, but does bullet shape mean more to shock on game and terminal performance, or does speed mitigate this rule somewhat?
I am sorry to hijack a thread, but I only ask because you have a lot of knowledge from actual testing and years of experience. I have very little experience with anything other than a chronograph. And if I can learn something, I would like to.

[Whiterabbit]

OP,

a gas check is easy insurance if you don't want to agonize over lube choice, alloy uniformity, etc etc etc. In other words, as long as you have bullet fit down (this is mandatory), then you can be pretty lazy about alloy (if it melts, cast it), use any popular lube, snap a gas check on and you'll more than likely have zero issue.

I say this without 44m experience, this is my experience with the 460S&W.

In short, in my experience only:
shooting plain base, alloy matters.
shooting plain base, lube matters.
shooting gas checked, these things matter less.