Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns How to turn a 44 Mag into a 45 ACP!

Yeah the next time I go out on Jack Rabbit Safari, I will have to try these out. I have not tried any six round drills on paper yet, but I am betting these will track pretty easy. Going to load up some SWCs here pretty soon.

About those full wadcutters....


I ran out and popped a few rounds this afternoon.



This target was shot at 20 yards instead of 25 just because that was where the sagebrush, my hood and everything lined up. I got a few minutes to run out and pop a few rounds out of my lever action as well as my 5" 29 Classic, and the results made me grin to say the least.

I was shooting over a bag, over the top of my hood, and apparently that was good enough! The target was slightly tilted, so the holes are a bit angled, but the little 180 wadcutters in the Russian cartridge cases are a real winner!



I then fired the last three I had with me into the big diamond target:




I only have a few hundred of these specific 180 wadcutters, as well as a few hundred of another brand, but know of another outfit that makes 200 grain full wadcutters, so I may look into purchasing some of theirs and see how they do. For now I will definitely be loading up the rest of what I have on hand.

I also fired 6 of the little cone head looking loads. It seems that The Russian really likes the Titegroup powder and the little bullets.



Those wadcutters though! OOF!

Nice! ^^^

Or you can down load the 44 mag with 44 mag cases, cast bullets, and a few grains of bullseye or traiboss. Same difference.

Doofus,


You have made it your mission to crap in each persons thread and do nothing but annoy people with your total horsecrap. Literally hundreds of posts crapping in what were otherwise pleasant threads. You have acted like a total azzhole trying to annoy the hell out of anyone just to seek attention. Your behavior is that of an attention seeking butthurt troll.

Now you throw what is essentially a temper tantrum in large letters because nobody is paying any attention to you. Do you expect anybody to give you any sort of response after you behave the way you do? There are consequences for your actions. People are not responding because you have acted like a total douchenozzle for so long and people are just simply sick of your stupidity.

Here is a little clue. You are free to continue to do as you wish, but you are not free from the consequences of those actions.

Mackay:

Thank you for NOT quoting the Doofus -- it would spoil the "ignore" feature which makes the 'Fire more enjoyable for me.

John

Today, Saturday 19 February 2021, at 9:00 AM CDT, the starlinebrass dot com website shows .44 Russian brass available, .44 Special brass on backorder, and .44 Magnum out of stock / no backorders. My guess is that loading .45 ACP hardball equivalent rounds for use in a .44 Special or .44 Magnum revolver will use 1.5 to 4 less grains of powder if those rounds are loaded into .44 Russian brass rather than into .44 Special or .44 Magnum brass. In the current moment, in a batch of 500 or more rounds, that savings translates into not only lower monetary cost, but also into more shooting, assuming that one has an adequate supply of presently scarce and very expensive powder, primers, bullets, and brass. Some reloaders just want to explore (safely, please!) the possibilities of our hobby. So a big "Thank You!" to to Mackay Sagebrush for not only exploring some reloading possibilities, but also for clearly illustrating and precisely explaining what he has done and and how he did it.

I’ve got the original version of the pointy bullet mold. It’s a fun one, lots of stumps with holes all the way through. Shot most of them out of a 44 special.

.
Yep, I just ordered 1,000 44 Russian brass from Starline @ .20 cents each. Also got some of them pointy bullets at 190 grains, and 200 grain wadcutters (like Mckay above) on their way from Western Bullet. The Lee dies get here tomorrow. I been shooting .45 Cowboy loads for years and this should make my 44s fun to shoot also.

Man, that is just great stuff all the way around! I love it when a guy does something a bit unconventional and it not only works well, but opens up a new dimension of shooting for a particular platform! Thanks for posting, Mackay.

Thank you for the kind words 22!

A couple people hit me up to stock up their shelves for "grouse loads" as one guy called them and such, so I went ahead and ordered another 1,000 rds of Starline brass! I bet the ladies in the office are wondering why in the world .44 Russian is all of the sudden becoming such a good seller, lol. Dang Campfire shooters.

Good Times!

Makes me want a .44!

Life is too short, GET ONE!

Then take it someplace Wild!

Okay, but don't complain when I take your advice and come out for a visit! LOL


Frog---OUT!

Good thread. Reminds me of an old article I read probably in the late 70’s. Maybe early 80’s. It seems like Shooting Times, Skeeter Skelton. All about loads with older non-mag rounds with cast bullets. I distinctly recall the Russian and 44-40 being included.

Once I had a M29 4” in college. The fireball from the muzzle and cylinder gap using full Keith loads at dusk was quite the experience 🙄

Later I enjoyed shooting 10.5 Unique under a 240 SWC. Even took a deer with it.

Part two of this thread might be the .41 Special 😁

I can imagine those wrists - probably seen thousands upon thousands of full throttle loads.

Enjoyed the posts.

No Worries!

the 41 special is kind of special. the shorter casing allows better usage in some of those short cylinder guns.
and you can still run about 1000fps with a lead pill.

Yep,


While I have put untold thousands of rounds of .44 mag through my various .44s, my wrists, between being broken numerous times from riding broncs for my college on the college rodeo circuit and then again during my initial LE days before it became a no-no to pound people into submission, just don't like the full power loads. My surgeon about a year and a half ago when he worked on my wrist for carpal tunnel said both were a mess.

The Russians, with their short case are very efficient with their use of powder. You get excellent accuracy and use very little powder. Kind of analogous to using a 6.5 BR to shoot little tiny groups at 100 yards instead of a .264 Win Mag. The Russian cases are very easy to distinguish from the Magnum cases in terms of length. While I have played with all three case lengths, as is obvious by the first post, when I pictured a Russian, a Special and a Mag, all next to each other, I find the Russian tailor made for the target loads I initially described.



The fact is that I do significantly more target shooting and small game hunting, than I do large animal hunting, so the Russian loads like the round nose lead for practicing fast reloads, bouncing tin cans, and general shooting are great. The wadcutters make outstanding little small game loads. Either would be a fine to leave with the wife unit if she needed a gun and one of her .38s was not readily available. The fact is that Wadcutters fly straight and go deep, with excellent penetration, even when they start out at modest velocities. I would not hesitate to carry a .44 full of wadcutters. The low recoil also makes it very advantageous in terms of manipulation.

The funny part is that WAAAAY back in the day, in early 1900s the .44 Russian was actually a very popular cartridge when chambered in the Smith & Wesson #3 revolver. Many (not all) were using the Himmelwright wadcutter shown here:




Some used standard round nose lead, but the Himmelwright design from 1900 essentially led the way to what we use today in terms of the modern wadcutter. There is a bullet caster and very knowledgeable gentleman by the name of Glenn Frxxell who has a lot of great articles on cast bullets, marlin rifles, etc that are online. That Himmelwright WC pic is from one of his articles BTW.

Anyways, just more food for thought this fine morning!

And a pic from the porch of the cabin from a couple of guys who think 5" N Frame .44s are the Goldilocks of Big Bore handguns!