300 grain .44 mag. 2f or 3f?

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I really need a BP cartridge loading reference, but in it's absence, I'll ask you guys. I thought BP might be particularly suited to the heavier boolits.

[Castaway]

I wouldn’t loose any sleep using either. 3f should give slightly more velocity, but in practical terms, it would be negligible

[indian joe]

I would guess 2f for a carbine, but really its just a guess. I dont have a chrono (yet), so in your shoes id probably load like 20 or so rounds of each and put them on paper to see which produced tighter groups. I agree with Castaway though, i expect differences to be negligible. But a slower burning powder may actually give greater velocity when used with a longer barrell.

The heavier boolit will tend (I believe) to close the gap in perfomance ------ however the tradeoff with more lead is less powder room - loaded to cycle length for a rifle you are gonna lose a good chunk of the extra wallop of the heavier slug - youll get several grains more powder under a lighter boolit, 220 - 240 grain.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

My .44 carbine is a single shot that I seat the heavier boolits out farther in. We are in the midst of a strong winter storm so my trials will have to wait a couple days.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I have noticed that the heavier boolits give me better accuracy in my revolvers. I bought this 300 grain mold specifically for the single shot rifle. I will try it in my Super Blackhawk no doubt, probably with about 15 grains of 2400.

[Castaway]

There’s another issue to work around and that’s twist rate. Cosmic Charlie, don’t know what rifle you’re going to launch the 300 grainers with, but you may find a lighter bullet may work better. You can overcome a slow twist to a point with velocity, but with black powder, the velocity you reach with a 44 Mag case will be limited. SlipperyRider, your M92 is 1:30. Why Rossi does this is anyone’s guess. Possibly to cater to the Cowboy action crowd that shoot light bullets to give less recoil. I had an M92 in 45 Colt that would not shoot a heavy bullet with any kind of accuracy

[Castaway]

Longer (heavier) bullets perform better with a faster twist than lighter (shorter) bullets

[longbow]

I'd go with FFFg. I always had cleaner burning, less fouling and better performance in .45-70 and muzzleloaders from .45 cal. to 12 ga. using FFFg rather than FFg powder. I'm certainly not an accomplished long range target shooter so not trying to contradict what works for them but for me and my guns FFFg seemed like the best choice.

I did try BP in my 1894 Marlin .44 mag but wasn't overly impressed. Not a lot of capacity in a .44 mag. case. They shot and there was fire and smoke so successful that way!

Longbow

[Gray Fox]

I would suggest you try a boolit in 200-210 grain range with the twist rate of the '92. About the best you can shoot for is to equal the original BP .44-40, and with 3f you might come close. When SASS shooting got popular here in the SE about 20 years ago I used to load .44 mag for my lever guns with that weight boolit and a moderate smokeless charge to about 1,100 fps and I called it my ".44-Mag-40" load. GF

[Cosmic_Charlie]

My Henry single shots are both 1 in 20. The 45-70 has no trouble stabilizing a long 405 grain boolit so a 300 grain in the .44 should be fine. We got about a foot of snow and now the temps have plunged into the single digits. What I would give to have a wood burner in a shack on 80 acres with a shooting port.....