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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.

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