Short 44 mag brass and heavy bullets

[Scrumbag]

Hi folks,

I have recently been playing around with some heavier bullets in my .44 mag lever action and getting some good results accuracy wise:



This load was developed from 25,000 psi data for 44 SPC + P listed in American Hand Loader (https://www.handloadermagazine.com/44-s-w-special-p)

However, the issue is that with these longer bullets I am having to load them in .44 Special brass as they are too long to go through the action cleanly in .44 Magnum cases.

I was wondering, would it be worth trimming down some .44 mag brass shorter than usual "Trim to" length in order to get the case mouth in the crimping groove. This is what Hornady recommends with their FTX bullets in .44 mag (FTX bullets are rather long).

The issue of course is load data with the shorter case and reduced case capacity.

My thoughts would be to pick a powder that would be forgiving in terms of having a wide min - max charge and 2 powders come to mind: 2400 and Vihtavouri N110
(Certainly wouldn't use Hodgdon H110 / W296 for this).

So, starting with 25,000psi 2400 (from Hand Loader) and Viht N110 tested load data from https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showth ... nd-VV-N110 and here: https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showth ... ht=Special).

I would then work up a load checking against Gordon's Reloading Tool predictions to determine a max load (Making sure to come up in small increments)

Any thoughts folks? Am I crazy?

Best wishes,

Scrummy

[samsi]

That VV load is impressive, if I ever see that powder around these parts I may have to pick some up.

Some quick figuring shows that you could use a max case length about .060" longer than the Special (or that much shorter than a magnum) with that bullet and likely still have a round that cycles through the action. But, if you're sticking with the 25k psi limit that additional boiler room is only going to get you another 30-60 fps (interpolating Larry's data). Conversely, I guess you could do some math on the volume reduction from the magnum and use reduced magnum loads.

In the end it's up to you whether or not to fuss with it.

[Scrumbag]

That VV load is impressive, if I ever see that powder around these parts I may have to pick some up.

Some quick figuring shows that you could use a max case length about .060" longer than the Special (or that much shorter than a magnum) with that bullet and likely still have a round that cycles through the action. But, if you're sticking with the 25k psi limit that additional boiler room is only going to get you another 30-60 fps (interpolating Larry's data). Conversely, I guess you could do some math on the volume reduction from the magnum and use reduced magnum loads.

In the end it's up to you whether or not to fuss with it.

VV is pretty good powder. VV for N110 don't specify a magnum primer but I reckon it will benefit from one. I shall try a test with my 240gr Nosler JSP load to confirm as I now have some Federal 155Ms and CCI 350s.

I wasn't planning on keeping to 25K PSI (though very likely to work with well with the 255gr SWCGC bullets I have). I was more thinking for 265gr Hornady XTP, Speer 270gr and maybe the big Sierra 300gr (OR, if I get excited and UK dealers cooperate, 280gr Swift A-Frames... no no, that would be far too much like progress )

As I interpolate down from 44 mag and up from 44 special I reckon I get about an extra 5% case capacity which could be helpful for some of the bulkier options.

Scrummy

[Grizz]

what is standard bullet weight for 44 spcl? what's the twist rate of your barrel?

it sounds like you are careful with your development so it will be interesting to see what you come up with . . . grizz

†

[Scrumbag]

what is standard bullet weight for 44 spcl? what's the twist rate of your barrel?

it sounds like you are careful with your development so it will be interesting to see what you come up with . . . grizz

†

So my barrel is 20" length, 1:20" twist.

Classically bullets were 267 or a 246 gr round nose (from my reading, happy to be corrected).

So with a 1:20 I could shoot some quite heavy bullets at decent speeds.

Scrummy