Favorite mild 44mag loads.

2

2damnold4this

New member
I'm starting to load 44 magnum and I'd like to load a 240 grain lead bullet a bit warmer than 44 Special. What are your favorites?
 
K

KEYBEAR

New member
Today I loaded some same load I have shot for years .
240 Lead 10.2 Unique . Shoots well easy of the gun and shooter .

44 Mag is the round I shoot the most and about always 240 lead .
 
D

Dufus

New member
250 gr cast HP ahead of 17 to 18 gr Alliant 2400.

Chrono's at 1275 with ES 14.

I tried Blue Dot and 800X, but the ES was over 100 with those two, so I put them away for some other use.

AA#9 does almost as good as the A2400 using 19 gr. with the same bullet.
 
B

bedlamite

New member
I've shot a 240gr plated over 10gr Universal, but since Hodgdon recently changed manufacturers (no longer made by ADI) this needs to be verified.
 
R

Real Gun

New member
I simply use the published starting load for A2400. My powder measure aperture choices won't give me quite 18.8 gr, so I am using 18.9-19.0.

When I shoot 44 Magnum, I expect magnum performance. For milder shooting I have separate guns in 44 Special.
 
T

TimSr

New member
What powders do you have? Unique is great for your purposes. You can start with about 7gr, and proceed until about 12g, and stop anywhere along the way where you get what you're loking for.
 
M

mavracer

New member
I used to shoot a lot of 8 gr of Unique until I got a couple dedicated 44 specials, then I bumped my 44 Mag load to 10 gr and load 7.5 gr in my specials.

From what I've seen,read,heard anywhere in the 8 to 10 range with unique works, I've had a dozen 44s and friends and family with several more and I've never heard of one that doesn't shoot Unique well.
 
2

2damnold4this

New member
Thanks for all the advise, guys.

I have a small supply of Universal but I'd be willing to buy another powder. I'll probably be buying some powder soon anyway.
 
S

Sevens

New member
I wanted to make a 240gr LSWC load that was under even many of the fine mid-range loads listed here and eventually settled on 5.7gr Titegroup. This load runs a very consistent 870fps from my 7-1/2" barreled Redhawk.

I wanted a load that would not batter the steel plates at my club for which "magnum" is a (lame!) catch-all prohibition for the plate racks.

I have found (mainly on the written advice of Mike Venturino) that Titegroup may be THE most position-insensitive powder on the market. Basically, my experience has shown that small powder charges in LARGE volume cases quite often give varying and even straight-up ERRATIC results but Titegroup is very resistance to this phenomenon. I really enjoy how well my load works in the Redhawk. And at 870fps, it does exceed typical .44 Special speeds.

I've shot a 240gr plated over 10gr Universal, but since Hodgdon recently changed manufacturers (no longer made by ADI) this needs to be verified.
Click to expand...
Interesting information -- I had not heard this yet.
 
U

Unclenick

Staff
Universal is perfect for this and cleaner burning than the other suggestions, to boot. 7.8 grains for about 1000 fps from an 8.25" silhouette barrel. 8.7 grains for about 1100 fps. 9.5 for about 1200 fps. Hodgdon's maximum for 240 grain LSWC is 10.2 grains, so you are below that all the way through the range.
 
S

Sevens

New member
Current clickable MSDS on Hodgdon's website for Universal is a .pdf with a 2011 date on it. I cannot seem to find any CURRENT information that suggests Hodgdon's Universal product is not the same ADI powder from Australia that we have always known and used.

Checking ADI's website has also suggested no change in their relationship with Hodgdon and in fact, it shows that they are happy and confident in that relationship. Yes, it's very (very!) easy to find year-old discussions of a genuine shortage of the Universal product (AP70N) for genuine reasons... but all I can find from ADI is that it's hopefully going to be produced normally in 2016 and beyond.

I found two 4-lb jugs of it on Thursday and it is clearly labeled "produced in Australia." I love the powder and I hope we continue to be able to get it.

Any links to news that says otherwise?
 
C

Clark

New member
I shoot 24 gr H110 240 gr JHP in my 44 mag, but that kicks too hard for my 220 pound little brother.

So we worked up between 44 special and 44 mag published loads with AA#9 until we found what does not kick his witto hand too much.
 
R

rclark

New member
I should mention that while 10.0g Unique | Universal | 20/28 under 240g SWC is my favorite, I have used between 7.0g and 12.0g (don't go here, I was getting sticking cases) of Unique under same. For a long time I shoot around 7.5 to 8.0g (998fps 6 1/2" barrel) , but now that I have my .44Special revolvers, I moved up to 10g. 10g (1136fps) is a nice load that you can shoot all day, yet still has enough kick, to know you aren't shooting a .44 Special. I guess my point is, load 'em where YOU want to ... not what the rest of us say is best :) . Hard kicking, blast, noisy loads is a been-done for me...
 
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