Ruger Flattop Blackhawks .44 Magnum--50th Anniversary Edition

[Southern Shooter]

My two sons have these Flattop Blackhawks in 6 1/2" barrels. They are asking about handloading some heavy bullets for backcounty protection in upper Montana and Idaho areas. I have been thinking about using the Lee C430-310-RF to cast some bullets.


My question is this:

How hot can/should I take these bullets with these guns? I don't want to damage these flattops with loads that are too rough. But, I don't want to under load this cast boolit, either. What loads would ya'll charge these bullets up with these guns?

Thanks

[jasent]

My advice would be to work up a load in there guns and see what the guns like. My superbh likes 250gn frn with 11gn of longshot. Not sure what a start load would be for that size boolit

[Trey45]

As long as you stay within normal loading perimeters you're not going to have problems with the strength of those guns. Those guns are built plenty tough for 44 mag, full charge 44 mag. 21gr H110 with a mag primer and you're golden. That's a full charge 44 mag load. Maybe 1250-1300fps.

[runfiverun]

any load data from a book will be fine.
they sell nice Hogue grips for the blackhawks they seem to make recoil a little easier to tolerate from those miniature handles.

[Kull]

With the Flattop's I wouldn't go full Ruger only loads.

Edit: Forget what I said. At first I thought the 44 Flattops were like the 45's where they're built on a smaller frame. I guess that's not the case.

[MtGun44]

I think these are built on the regular BH frame, not the SuperBH, so I think that the
"Ruger only" .44 mag loads might be a bit much for these guns.

Bill

[dmize]

They are not SBH's. They are built on the new Flattop frames.
Load normal 44 mag book loads but do not play with "Ruger Only" loads.
And as others have said,I am not sure about that heavy of a boolit.

[Tatume]

I have all of the major reloading manuals, and not one of them as any "Ruger only" 44 Rem Mag loads. What are you guys talking about?

[Rodfac]

I'm not a fan of the super heavy .44 caliber bullets, cast or otherwise. My Flat Top 50th likes Keith's old 245 gr LSWC just fine, will shoot it into nice tight 1-1/4" clusters at 25 yds, and at 1250 fps, it's no slouch for most critters in the lower 48.

But if it's big bears your son's are worried about, any handgun is underpowered in my opinion, and especially so a single action. But for packing out elk quarters at dusk in the timber line, you've got few choices. I've had the willies up there myself and I was wearing a 6" S&W .44 magnum. I'd much have preferred my .35 Whelen, but the weight too much and the handiness with a big packboard on was unmanageable. A double action Smith, might give them a 2nd shot that a single action would deny.....that said, here are some numbers from Hodgen's loading data site.

A quick check gave the following for a "325 gr BtB LFN GC, seated to 1.730 COAL:

Winchester 296: 20.0 gr gave 1264 fps for 30,800 Cup
Winchester 296: 22.0 gr gave 1368 fps for 38,100 Cup

Pretty good velocity for a heavy wt. slug...though recoil in any gun is going to be heroic to say the least and especially so if your boys are still using the "cheese grater" grips standard on the .44 50th Flat top.

Good luck in your quest. Rod

[Von Dingo]

The 50 Anniversary flattop .44 mags have the same size frame and cylinder as the Super Blackhawk. The difference is the fact that the rear sight "ears" aren't there, and the size of the gripframe (XR-3, not the XR-3RED).

Other than the Super Redhawk, never heard of any Ruger Only .44 Mag loads, and these weren't from any component companies.

[MtGun44]

Lots of data out there that is marked "Ruger only" for .44 mag and .45 LC especially. The new
Vaqueros and .44 flat top anniv. specials are not for these loads, they use "normal loads"

Bill

[45 2.1]

Lots of data out there that is marked "Ruger only" for .44 mag and .45 LC especially. The new
Vaqueros and .44 flat top anniv. specials are not for these loads, they use "normal loads"

Bill

Bill, whats the deal on the 44 flat top anniversary specials? They look to be built on the standard blackhawk frame. Both Mag and Special.

[Tatume]

Lots of data out there that is marked "Ruger only" for .44 mag and .45 LC especially. The new
Vaqueros and .44 flat top anniv. specials are not for these loads, they use "normal loads"

Bill

Bill,

Would you cite some please?

Thanks, Tom

[jonp]

I"ve got a couple of manuals that have a section for "Ruger and T/C Contender Data Only" in them. Not sure why this is a mystery. The flattop is not as strong as a regular Blackhawk and I would not push it that hard. Saying that, full 44Mag loads are fairly stout in these and a set of Hogue grips if you are going to shoot them on a regular basis would be something you will appreciate

[44 mag nut]

I have the Lee 310 mold, my SRH like it better then my Black hawks and SBH. I find for me, that in the shorter cylinder I have to seat it in the upper crimp groove. It shoots okay, I have had better luck with the the Ranch Dog 432-265 in the Black hawks and SBH. I have seen one of the custom mold makers have them in TL and regular lube. I have had friends take deer with it out to 100 yards. I have taken deer within 50 to 75 yards in Northern Idaho.

[Jared]

As is said by a few members above, there is NO difference in strength between a 50th anniversary flattop .44 Magnum and a New Model Super Blackhawk. The Frame and Cylinder are the same size between the two models. The only difference is the 50th anniversary has the top strap is cut for the Micro sight used in the original Flattops, and a steel XR3 gripframe.

ALL factory Ruger .44 Magnums are built on the large frame both Old and New model. Any load listed in a manual is suitable for your revolver, assuming you work up to it as you should always do.

[Dennis Eugene]

I have yet to see any manual citeing "Ruger Only" loads for the .44 magnum, can any body out there show me one? Dennis

[David LaPell]

I had one of these a couple years back or so and it really liked the old standby, Lyman's #429421 and a decent dose of Unique but nothing super hot. It shot very well and accurately. I remember the first thing I did though was take off the checkered plastic grips as those things were like sandpaper in my hand. I eventually put on a nice set of spalted maple grips and recoil was not an issue.

[MtGun44]

Far from home and loading manuals now, cannot point to specifics but the
books with "Ruger only" loads ARE there. PM me in a week when I will be home
and I will do some searching if you really want this info.

I have not measured the frames but here is what I BELIVE to be the case. I can
get out a SBH and the .44 flat top and measure next week when I get home. Here is
what I think is correct. I always allow for the possibility of being wrong, esp when
going on memory and cannot directly check - like now.

The 50th Anniversary .44 has the basic BH frame size, but no ears on rear sight and the
older (smaller) grip frame, which is close to the Colt SAA. Keith called the SBH the "Dragoon grip", and
I suspect that this is probably correct or nearly correct that the grip was more like the Dragoon
or the 1860 Army grip frame. Personally, I like the 1860 Army grip MUCH more than the
SAA grip, which is almost too small for my hands. I bought a .44 flat top 50th Ann model
and have shot it a bit, but not much and don't really think the small grip is an improvement.

I have a .45 conv BH and can compare. It is possible that the BH and SBH frames are the
same and only the grip frame makes it seem larger. Have never sat down and actually
measured them.

Definitely the New Vaquero is NOT the same size as the BH, smaller gun to make it match
up with the SAA for SASS matches is the way I understand it.

Bill

[RayinNH]

I just checked through seven manuals and found only two instances with different .44 mag. loading data. None of them where listed as Ruger only data. The Lyman 48th has a section for "TC Contender and Encore" only. The Hodgdon 26th has a .44 Mag. data section for "rifle only loads".

The .45 Colt on the other hand, most manuals had a regular load section and then data listed as for "Ruger and TC only.

I hope this clears things up a bit...Ray