.44 Rem Mag

[mr surveyor]

anyone load them?

[Bawanna]

Use to load them a lot. Not so much lately but from time to time.

Easy cartridge to load.

[Replay13]

anyone load them?

I've loaded several thousand rounds of 44 mag, but its been along time ago. I had a old flat top ruger blackhawk 7 and 1/2 inch barrel. I also had a S&W model 29 for a while.

My favorite loads was a 240 gr Elmer Keith bullet molded out of Linotype and a full charge of 2400. Also I used 240 gr Hornady XPT with a full load of 2400. I had to back off the model 29 just a bit with the jacketed bullets. It ejects all 6 cases at one time.

They was my favorite pistols to pack in the woods hiking way back then. Now its XDm in a .40 S&W. Its a lot lighter and the 17 rounds is a lot more fire power.

Interesting to note that the XDm .40 with the 4 and 1/2 inch barrel shoots a 155 gr bullet just as fast as my ruger security six in .357 with 158 gr bullets and a 2 and 3/8 in inch barrel. and its still a lot lighter even with 17 rounds instead of 6 rounds.

OK, I'm getting a little off track now, but I love the 44 mag... its a great round and really accurate.

[Dirt doc]

I'll second the 2400 with 240XTP's. That load shoots a very nice group in my SBH hunter. I have taken several deer with that combination

[CJB]

2400 is very consistant with the 44mag..... Dont load down too much or it gers dirty and poor consistancy creeps in.
+1 on hard cast swc 240g.

[wlc]

I used to load .44's. I read everything Elmer Keith wrote about loading and followed it as close as I could. 2400 with a 240 gr. bullet is a great load if you can handle the recoil. I realized a few years ago that I enjoy shooting .38's and 9mm's much more than full charge .44 magnums. I still have a 629 and a 29 but I only shoot .44 specials or better yet, reduced .44 magnum loads.

[Bawanna]

I used to load .44's. I read everything Elmer Keith wrote about loading and followed it as close as I could. 2400 with a 240 gr. bullet is a great load if you can handle the recoil. I realized a few years ago that I enjoy shooting .38's and 9mm's much more than full charge .44 magnums. I still have a 629 and a 29 but I only shoot .44 specials or better yet, reduced .44 magnum loads.

Do you think that's a sign of age. I used to be really into the fire breathing, heavy recoil stuff too. Not so much anymore. I still have 4 44's but they rarely get out anymore. Not quite ready for a 380 yet but the big boom's appeal has dwindled.

[wlc]

Do you think that's a sign of age. I used to be really into the fire breathing, heavy recoil stuff too. Not so much anymore. I still have 4 44's but they rarely get out anymore. Not quite ready for a 380 yet but the big boom's appeal has dwindled.

I've been telling myself that I had become smarter, but OK, it might be age.

[JFootin]

Do you think that's a sign of age. I used to be really into the fire breathing, heavy recoil stuff too. Not so much anymore. I still have 4 44's but they rarely get out anymore. Not quite ready for a 380 yet but the big boom's appeal has dwindled.

Well, the 380 can be a handfull to shoot in a 10 oz pocket gun, almost painful. Though I imagine they would be a pleasure to shoot in a larger, heavier gun such as the Beretta 84 or the Bersa.

[Bawanna]

I've been telling myself that I had become smarter, but OK, it might be age.

Lets go with smarter, has a more appealing sound to it.

[mr surveyor]

to start, I'm planning to order 500 of the 240 gr swc's from bulletsdirect.com and load over 9.2 gr of Unique, or 17.5 gr of 2400, with standard LPP's. I'll see how those shoot in my recently acquired SRH before fooling with jacketed bullets. At some point in time, I'll either have a .44 lever gun, or .357 lever gun added to the mix (or both) and will want to design rounds that work effectively in both revolver and rifle. Delicate balancing act there, I know, but it would be much simpler to have one pocket full of bullets to work adequately in both.

[Bill K]

My brother loads .44 mag for me. Bullets are generally a hard cast 240 grain truncated cone. I can check but I think for target my brother loads them light @ something like 10 grains of varius powders. For hunting and to let folks feel what shooting a real .44 mag feels like he'll give me a hotter load. Here I'm guessing even more, maybe something like 28 grains but I can be all wet with that guess.

When someone new to magnums is shooting my Super Blackhawk I'll start them with .44 specials, then the light mag loads and finally the full house loads.

My brother has been doing reloads for 40+ years; are there some specific questions you have that I can ask and get answers for you?

[Bawanna]

The key thing is if your gonna shoot lead, don't push em too fast. There are some hard lead bullets that you can push right along but go too fast and you'll get leading.

I know Keith liked 24 grains of 2400 which as I recall is about as hot as you'd want to go but better check a reloading manual and approach that in steps.

I like the idea of a lever gun and a revolver with the same loads and that should not be too difficult. Myself I would probably use jacketed bullets to find a good match for both.

[TheTman]

I use to load .44 mag, with 240 gr semi wad cutter cast bullets, but used HS6 powder as it was suitable for .45 too. I developed a very accurate target load, that was fairly mild to shoot, but I lost my notebook. It's been a few years since I reloaded any.

[DKD]

I shyed away from 2400 ball powders because like others here previously stated full charges are the rule, cause lighter loads with ball powder causes inconsistancies and extremes in pressures...go figure? I have sucessfully loaded heavy loads using Blue Dot powder with jacketed bullets with good results. Now for every day loads for the range and plinking I have always used good old (sometimes dirty) Unique powder with eccellent results in reduced loads using 240 grain hard cast Kieth style bullets over 10-10.5 grains of Unique powder. Dirty yes... but accurate, consistant, and easier on the recoil. In fact I use this powder almost all of my calibers with equal results. Hell you can even load shootgun shell with it to good effect in Field loads & heavy field loads in 12 gauge. I would strongly suggest you get the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook for cast lead bullets and any good name brand manual like Speer, Hornady, Nosler or even Lee for current loading table. Many of these can also be found on line free.