Home Forums Reloading Handgun Reloading 44 mag

Was on my way to load up some 44 mag rounds using 44 special data. Specifically 8-9 grains of hs-6 with 240 gr xtps. Part of me thinks it should be perfectly fine but the other part of me is thinking this would kind of be uncharted territory for me so thought I would get yall’s opinion. It’s mostly for kids although I’m gonna enjoy the hell out of shooting them as well shouldn’t be much different than some of my 45 colt loads. So good idea or no?

I'd prefer plain lead bullets for mild loads in mag or special cases. Jacketed bullets offer greater friction through the bore.

Amen. Better , at least at first, use the cast bullets. For fun loads go with a 200gr cast , at about 800fps. Very mild recoil that the youngsters will enjoy & want to shoot more of them. Make it fun, fun, fun, & they will be begging for more. As they get more acuainyed with the revolver , you can up the load. For now remember, fun, fun, fun.

Personally I'd go with a lead or coated bullet and 10 grains. Less expensive and less likely to stick in the barrel.

But yes they will be lots of fun.

I shoot the Skeeter Skelton .44 Special load of 7.5gr. of Unique loaded in .44 Magnum cases with 200gr. RNFP bullet. Great load, accurate and easy on both gun and shooter. For a load with little more power I increase the charge to 9.0gr. of Unique. I've been shooting these loads for the last 40 yrs., seldom shoot anything different.

Just load the 44 mag cases with a published load of W231. Why risk problems?

To be clear for those who don't know, that's the powder charge from Skeeter's pet 44 Special load. The rest of Skeeter's recipe was a 250 Keith type bullet and 44 Special brass.

Good advice. I load 9.5 gr of 231 under a hard cast 265 gr bullet from Montana Bullet Co. Very accurate, about 1050 fps in my 4” 29-2.

My everyday fun and practice load is my cast bullets from my Lee 430240 6 cavity mold in front of 6.0 gr of Universal in .44 Spl cases with Federal Large Pistol primers. They're accurate and easy to shoot from my 4" S&W 629 or my 7 1/2" Ruger Super Blackhawks.

One S&W M629 six incher I have basically makes one hole at 25 yards with 240 - 260 grain cast bullets using 6.5 grains W231 in magnum cases. Works about as well in the other .44's, too. Very pleasant to shoot as they are obviously just light target loads.

Hodgdon shows a minimum of 11.4 grains of HS-6 with a jacketed bullet in the 44 Magnum. A few other sources are about at that charge with jacketed bullets. A couple go as low as the charge you describe but only with lead bullets.

I'd switch to something like Unique or 231 if you can.


Okie John

I’ve been shooting (though not recently) a cast, 219 grain (my cast) bullet, over 9.0 grains of Unique in my 629 since around 1983. Very accurate, very pleasant to shoot…..just darn good and practical load!

In fact…..my 629 has “never” been “victimized” by a jacketed bullet! 😉 memtb

Lead bullets are free velocity…

I would just order 44 special cases from Starline…

Use of 44 Spl cases yields the same issues as using 38 Spl in 357 Mag. The shorter cases leave a burn ring in the chambers. You just need to keep after it and remove the carbon and lead build-up.

Thanks for all the replies guys. I was just thinking since I have published loads for 44 special and 45 colt with 8-9 grains with jacketed bullets and hs-6 that it would be similar loading it in the 44mag. I realize the differences in case volumes but I figured they were all small enough to make little difference. But perhaps I will look at different powders though I have a lot of hs-6 on hand. I also found a chuck hawks article showing loads down to 10gr in 44 magnum and that looked like the velocities in between 10 and 11 gr that I’m shooting for anyways even though that’s still below starting loads for hs-6

I you do load the XTP's. I have used those bullets for target loads below the velocity that the HP's give reliable expansion. They're very good bullets, and give outstanding accuracy at slow or fast speeds. I prefer lead for light loads, but occasionally an excess of odd components has lead me to experiment.

^^^^^^^ This ^^^^^^

Avoid the potential issues…..just use 44 Mag. brass and download. It only simplifies life! 😉 memtb

This is not an issue. I'm 72 and I have shot hem interchangeably for decades and found it be a nonexistent problem

Good ol' Bob Baker...