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I had actually forgotten about Blue Dot... hadn't heard that one mentioned in a long time. I never fiddled with it myself, but I know my old man used to run it in 44 plinkers quite a bit back in the day for his Redhawk.


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Originally Posted by BKS
231 is rapidly becoming my GO TO powder. I can load everything I load from 9mm to 500JRH with it. It may not be the best at everything but I feel that it will fit in somewhere in about every handgun cartridge.


BKS:

In 2019, I sat next to Clint Smith at dinner during a Thunder Ranch class, and we talked guns and reloading for 90 minutes. He told me for simplicity's sake he uses 231 for most of his handguns, and he is a big fan of .44 Magnum, .45 Colt, and .45 ACP. Made me feel good about my choice of 231 for the bulk of my handgun reloading.

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Originally Posted by Odessa
Blue Dot seems to have fallen out of favor, but 15.0 grains, a WLP, and a 200 grain XTP has been a good load in my S&W 629 for many years. Blue Dot may be an available powder when you go looking. HP38 is nearly identical to WIN231, I would buy either for light loads with lead bullets. Most of my data is for 300 grain bullets (lead and jacketed), but I do have two loads using a 240 XTP; 23.0 H110/WIN WLP and 18.5 grains 2400/CCI300 (both loads shot in a NM SBH). Powder availability really drives load choice nowadays.


Use it with 240 Nosler Sport. IIRC 14gr ??? Have to check that. Works well with 158 jacketed in .357 as well.


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Yep, 14.0 and some at max 15.0. A little smut, not bad. .357 load is 10.0. Easy shooting.


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10.0grs of 231/HP38 and a 180gr XTP will get you about 1050-1100 fps out of a 3” 629-6. Clean, easy shooting, and low flash. Since that bullet starts to expand at 750fps I think it could be. Good combination

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I believe the real load Skeeter promoted was a 240-250 429421 and 7.5 Unique in the 44 Special.

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You could pick up an 8 pd keg of H110 from Powder Valley while they have it in stock


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Originally Posted by Papag
I believe the real load Skeeter promoted was a 240-250 429421 and 7.5 Unique in the 44 Special.



That IS the true Skeeter load. .44 Special, not the Magnum.


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Originally Posted by johnw
When i began loading for my recently acquired 629 earlier this year I had about a pound and a half of Unique on the shelf. I'm shooting a couple of times a month and loading 9gr of unique with a 240 keith style from MBC

I've now opened my last bottle of Unique and am looking at finding more.

I dug deep and found a partial bottle of Bullseye. Also picked up some 700X that I intend to use for .38s

At the best supplied LGS today they had multiple bottles of HP38 and 800X

Anybody used these other powders in the .44 with cast bullets?

I've also figured that 9gr of Unique is the sweet spot, but 8gr does almost as well and will produce another hundred rounds from a pound of powder. Never did I believe it would be a concern but there it is...


If you can find any Accurate #5, it is a tick slower than Unique and meters a lot smoother. I get really good accuracy with a Lyman 429421 in my 629 with no powder fouling whatsoever. I have seen this powder recently at my LGS. Accutate #7 (Blue Dot neighborhood) works for stiffer loads and is a bit faster than 2400, but there is no 2400 in the western hemisphere!

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Universal

Titegroup

HS-6

Trailboss

H110

All on the bench for 44's.....357's & 45 Colt's


T R U M P W O N !

U L T R A M A G A !

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Oh

Bluedot also


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U L T R A M A G A !

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Originally Posted by Burleyboy
800x works great in a 44 mag. You get very good speed with much fewer grains than say h110, or pp300mp, enforcer or other slow burners. The problem is that 800x meters terribly. You have to weigh each charge individually to get any consistency. It's got large round flakes that are like trying to meter corn flakes.

It's too bad they can't reformulated 800x into a smaller flake size or something that meters better. It's a great burn rate for many handgun rounds especially 10mm. I personally won't buy it again because I won't weigh each charge. I get close to it with powders that meter like Longshot or BE-86.

Bb



I’d agree with this - also somewhat dirty but it’ll give you the speed you need. Old school but it’ll work. I think my load was 12gr with a 240 in my 629 - but check for yourself to make certain.

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The fastest burning powder I have used in my S&W 629-3 (4" bbl), with a 260 grain plain base home cast bullet (wheel weight alloy) is Green Dot.

I don't have a standard load yet, as I picked up a bunch of powder from a known (trusted) reloader, and he had several open bottles of powders to play with (before settling on "one load). All the following worked fine for me. I normally stay below 1100 fps, and more typically load for 900-1000 fps ( "moderate" loads).

Powders tried in my S&W 629-3 (4" bbl ) include:

Green Dot
Unique
Herco
Power Pistol
Blue Dot
800x

Green Dot was a nice surprise. There wasn't a lot of info on Green Dot and the 44 mag online, but I did find one reference that it was a secret accuracy powder of Hercules' technicians for light-moderate 44 mag loads. Don't have the load handy, but it was supposed to be around 875-900 fps (no chrono), with 260 grain cast bullets.

I'm glad Green Dot worked well in my pistol, as there was one partial 1 lb can, and two unopened 8 lb jugs of it.

Hp38 is essentially the same as W231. My take is that they are faster burning than Green Dot. You may want to give HP38 a whirl, since you can find it locally.


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