Charge range for Pietta '58 Rem .44?

[maillemaker]

I agree with others who have said that regardless of how you measure, by weight or by volume, the key is consistency.

Once you find the accurate load for your arm (which will probably be significantly less than the maximum load), the key to consistent accuracy is consistent measurement.

I like measuring by weight because the scale does not care whether the powder settles or gets packed in tighter as can happen with a volumetric measurement.

However, it is a pain in the butt to measure every charge when I'm making up 300 cartridges for all my guns for a competition.

I'm going to get a Lyman 55 powder measure and use that for making up my cartridges. It dispenses based on volume. But as it is a machine, if you operate it consistently you should get consistent drops out of it.

Steve

 

[Hawg]

But as it is a machine, if you operate it consistently you should get consistent drops out of it.

Some powders do not meter well. Black should but I dunno about all of the subs. Pyrodex doesn't.

 

[maillemaker]

There are subs?

Steve

 

[Bill Akins]

The manual stating a load for the .44 Remy of 15 to 20 grains is what is usually recommended for a .36 caliber. So that's a VERY minimum load for the solid frame .44 Remy. As another poster previously stated, the rammer won't even seat the ball on a 15 grain charge of bp in the .44 Remy. But if you DID want to try a 15 grain charge just to see how it did for you on the minimum end of the loading scale, you could seat the ball on the 15 grain bp charge if you put cream of wheat or cornmeal on top of the powder charge to take up more space so the rammer would seat the ball fully. I use 22 grains of bp and fill it the rest of the way with cornmeal in my 1860's .44's. The theory being the closer the ball is to the forcing cone the more accurate it will be. That theory is debatable, but it doesn't hurt to put the ball as close to the top of the cylinder as you can so it will not have to jump as much before entering the forcing cone. Also that would allow you to dispense with felt wads because the cream of wheat or cornmeal then becomes your fire break/chain fire break, (at least from the front of the cylinder). If you want to explore maximum bp load in your .44 Remy, you can go as high as 40 grains and still have enough room for a felt wonder wad and still seat the ball, but that's about max and to still be able to seat the ball. 40 grains of bp is safe to use for the .44 Remy handgun, but probably more than you need. 40 grains works very well however and is very accurate in the 1866 Remington carbine with 18 inch barrel as evidenced by the below video link.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yroLHtjFowI



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