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Please post your favorite 44 Special Loads

Tough to beat a 250 gr SWC over 7.5 grains of unique. It will do most anything you need to do with a revolver.

8.5 grains of power pistol under a 250 SWC Kieth is my casual carry loading. Hunting load is 17 grains of H110 under the same bullet. These are e used in a Ruger Bisley Blackhawk. Keep them out of guns not intended for higher pressure loads.

6.5-7.5 grains of Unique under the original Lyman 429421 cast from old time wheel weights and liver with Javalina.

270 Keith and 8 grs. CFE Pistol.

6.5gr of Clays pushing an MBC HITEK coated 240gr "Keith" to 930fps from a 4" barrel.
You can directly substitute TiteGroup instead.

Who makes a mold for that bullet in .44?

7.5 PowerPistol under a 250 Keith.

NOE.

277/280 Keith

Perhaps a bit stout for my 696, considering its relatively thin forcing cone area:


7.0 is the max recommended by writer Brian Pearce for a S&W .44SPL 5-shooter. My fixed RCBS powder measure happened to throw 6.8. So, I used that out of convenience.

I like Trail Boss with 240gr lswc's for lighter type paper punching. 6.5 grs of Unique behind the same bullet for a heavier load.

One of my favorites is actually a factory load. The old aluminum cased Blazer 200gr Speer GD.. I have some stashed. I don't know if they're still made.

15.0 gr. 2400 over a 429421 hard cast with a roll crimp. 2" groups at 1050fps out of a 7 1/2 inch SBH and 950 out of a Taurus 441.

4.5 bullseye under a 250 Keith for a real nice plinking load.

6.0 gr Universal under Lee 430240 make a great plinking and practice round that are as accurate as I can hold. If I want anything hotter, I load .44 magnums.

I don;t have most of the pistol powders mentioned, but 2400 worked for me. But mostly Unique. I have a lot of it, so never bothered with the lastest and greatest. Good old loads still work.

That 15.0 grain/429421 load was a sweet spot in my .44 Special Blackhawk Flattops - good usable velocity and the best accuracy.

At 15 grains recoil crept into the "frisky" range but not too bad, at 16.0 and 17.0 grains the accuracy degraded a bit and recoil in those medium frame Flattops went beyond the reason to shoot a .44 Special in the first place.

If it aint broke, don't fix it. I have enough 2400 to last, and just picked up some Unique to play with if I get bored. I load 16.8 gr. in my NMBH 41Mag and the recoil is sharp with that small grip frame, but certainly manageable. 1350 fps on the chron with 3 inch accuracy, but that's probably just me.

With the cost of components going sky high and my desire to shoot, I’ve got my 1873 clone going. I had some 320 grain bullets w/o gas checks, cast and loaded. I had 10 grains 2400 behind those bullets. The loads shot to the right elevation but the grouping was poor. I have quite a few 240 grain Keith Style cast w/o gas check. I’m loading 7.5 grains unique behind the bullet. It looks like it will be the right elevation also. I’ll take it out for groups later - on a better weather day.
I have a model 25 S&W 44 special also. I hope to get a load that works well (accurate) in both and economical to boot.

Tag

Prescient to excellent, classic .44 special loads, it looks like “Unique” is showing up in the supply line again.

I would like to buy the Starline 44 Russian brass 500-1000. I’d really like to take an elk this coming season with my flattop 44 special.
S.

Surely there is a typo in your post.

For small game and just making oneself look good at the range, 5.2 gr. of Red Dot and one of the 250-ish gr. cast RN's. This load pretty closely duplicates the velocity of the old original load-



For a woods walking load, 6.5 gr. of AL20/28 or Unique and a Keith 255 gr. SWC. This one does ~850 fps-



For hunting I use a 258 gr. SWC cast from an RCBS 44-250 KT mold. 8.2 to 8.5 gr. of Power Pistol provides 950-1000 fps and is very accurate-



I've loaded up to 17.0 gr. of 2400 under a 255-ish gr. Keith bullet for just over 1200 fps, and it's an accurate load, but I just never found the need for that kind of power for hunting deer and swine-

429421 and 7 Unique.

I've been running enough herco to get a 200 grain rcbs cast bullet to a bit over 1,000 fps from my Ruger srh. Definitely +p territory.

200 gr cast and 6.3 gr Trail Boss.

Target load 250 gr. SWC 5.3 W231 760 fps and a heavier load same bullet, 13.0 gr. 2400 at 1,000 fps out of this gun when it belonged to me

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...w-624-no-dash-44-target-6-5-1050-shipped

My Flattop does well enough with a few loads.
9.0 Power Pistol and a 200 grain Speer Gold Dot, and 7.5 Unique with an Oregon Trail 240 LSWC or 429421, last batch coming from Leadheads but with Tommy's passing Rimrock is my new go to.

I've shooting .44 Specials since the mid 1970's, my go to load for almost as long has been 7.5gr. Unique with a 200gr. RNFP bullet. Once in a while I'll kick it up to 9.0gr. Unique, still an enjoyable load to shoot.

It all depends on what you want the load to do. If all you want is a mild and pleasant load to shoot, stay with Unique loads suggested. If you want a more powerful load or better performance from the gun/cartridge, try the 2400 loads. Modern guns will safely withstand pressures about 50% higher than the standard load at 850 FPS. 15-16 grains of 2400 and a velocity near 1,000-1,100 FPS is fun and manageable and a heck of a powerful load for any task the pistol can be asked to perform.

The Skeeter load of 7.5 grs of Unique & a 246 gr cast PC HP has worked on a half dozen deer in my flat top bisley & also my 7.5" bisley. In my 5 shot 696 I tone it down a bit & use it more for a badger plinker, etc. Same bullet but WST gets the call. You can always go up to a heavier load of 2400 if you're mad at something but that's what the 44 magnums are for.

Dick

I prefer 215 grain LSWC over WW231 or Clays.