Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 44magnum

I'm in the process of remodelling my reloading room so I can't get to my load manuals to give you my .44 mag loads but I'm anxious to compare notes.
Good to hear from you Sagebrush.
W. Bill

Marlins and Rugers are generally cohesive with .431 cast bullets.

My fav is the NOE replica of the H&G 503 265 Keith and 8.5 grs CFE Pistol.

For more serious work, the LBT 300 WLN GC and 18 grs. Lil'Gun ups the speed a bit and runs accurately out enough to 300 yards with irons on 8 inch plates with the Marlin.

I realize most don't have the cast bullet options; I too would lean towards the 270 Speer if one had to purchase a universal heavy for a rifle and handgun.

I hadn't even considered 300 yards for my Marlin let alone 8" but like I mentioned earlier I plan on spending some range time this summer working on it.

i have sort of a soft spot for 44, as that is what got me into casting.
i had a super redhawk in 44, paid new a little over 300bucks for it so that tells how old it is.
ammo was out of sight price wise.
so i picked up casting to avoid the cost of ammunition.
I have since acquired other 44's, but most have seen little or any jacketed ammo.
I made a mistake on that box of 22grains of 2400 with 240gr jacketed bullets. I have all the specifics on the box, but forgot to write down the date i loaded it. I just know it was a long time ago, given it was buried in a ammo box i hadn't looked at for years.
i normally cast my own, but i did buy some real high brn count .431 bullets from i think it was montana gold to play with.
Trying to get around the larger diameter of the marlin rifle barrel.

Do any of you have ANY confirmed loading data from the mid 1960's from any lab for the 44 Magnum cartridge or is it dreamed, imagined, congerated, word of moutherated and drug or drunken hallucinated?
Do you have any ACTUAL pressure tested data of factory loads of the mid 1960's period?
It would be so great to have this informational information to give us insightness to the minds of the ballistic genius of the ballisticians of the Golden Era of 44 Magnum load greatness.

Ronin, I've been using coated 240gr MIssouri Bullet LSWCs as my .44 Mag companion round. At 18 Brinell, they're on the harder side and since they're coated, they tend to act a little like a jacketed bullet, which (in my humble opinion) allows me to get a way with using them in the bigger SAAMI bore spec of the rifle. In my case, I found that the rifle shot a 1.25" ragged hole at 21yds (unbenched/unbraced) with anything that the revolver grouped at 1" or better at 7 yds. I experimented with HS-6, H110, 4227, Blue Dot, Universal and 2400. 20.3gr of 2400 gave me the best accuracy for a true magnum load. I haven't chrono'd the revolver yet, but the 20.3gr of 2400 load averaged 1751fps.through the 20" barrel of the rifle.

I had a chance to mess with my brother's .44 Mag companion guns, as well and while his rifle isn't shooting as tight (brand new gun), I'm starting to believe, when trying to get a single companion load, it's better to identify 4 or 5 "best of" loads for the revolver and apply those to the rifle to find what works best. Just my 2 cents. Good luck!