10",12" or 14" barrel for the 44mag?

[jeff223]

i was thinking about getting a 45-70 barrel for some time but and i have a line on a couple of barrels for a good price.when i think about the price of brass for the 45-70 and the amount of powder it takes for that round and the limited number of boolits for the 45s and the heavy recoil ,im kind of swaying my thoughts to the 44mag.i could rechamber that to 445 supermag if i ever wanted to and i would have a heavy hitter then.

my question to all you 44 mag shooters  

how much FPS do you loose shooting the 10in barrel compaired to the 12in and then to the 14inch barrel?

i know with my 357max im not loosing much at all by shooting a 12inch barrel over the 14.is the the 44mag kind of that way too?

thanks,
jeff

[bigbore442001]

I have both  10" and  16" 44 magnum Contender barrels. I have not chronographed either one. Sounds like a good summer experiment  to conduct.
I will say that I prefer to carry the 10" barrel. I hunted southern New Hampshire in a shotgun/MZ/handgun town. Where I hunted there would be no problem taking a deer since most shots would be close to 50 yards at best.

[jason280]

I hunted with a 14" Hunter barrel for a while, which is the barrel with the brake. Effectively, it was a 12" barrel, with the last 2" being the brake.  I chronographed it with factory 240gr Remington JSP's, and it averaged better than 1600fps.  I've yet to chrono my 10" barrel, but I would imagine it would average around 1500fps with factory loads.  

Personally, I prefer the 10" barrel for hunting.  It gives the best compromise of velocity and compactness, especially with the .44 cartridge.  Now, if it were a bottlenecked cartridge, I would suggest the longer barrel.

[Gregory]

Over the years I have owned 3 44Mag barrels, a 10", 14", and 16".  
Here's a load I have chronographed in all three a 250 gr Lyman 429421 SWC over 21.0 gr of 2400.  Different lots of powder were probably used so it's not a perfect comparison.
 
10"   1480 fps
14"   1537 fps
16"   1680 fps
 
 
Of the three, only the 14" Armour Alloy barrel remains with me.

[MnMike]

I have a .45 Mag (very similar to the .44) and I like a 10" barrel. I use it for drives in thick cover where shots will be less than 50 yds. I use iron sights with fibre inserts to get on the target quickly. It cronos 1600 fps with 230gr bullets. For longer ranges, I use a 14" barrel in 7-30 Waters with a scope.

good luck

mike