445 Super Mag in the Encore

[PJ]

I like my 10" Bullberry .44Mag in the Contender but, was thinking of a 445SM in the Encore with a 12" barrel.

[JOE MACK]

Oh heck PJ, why not go all the way in a .44 and get the .444Marlin? I don't think the .44mag to .445SM is enough of a step the warrant the expense of a separate barrel. After all, you can shoot .44mag out of the .445SM barrel. Saves getting another diameter of bullet I guess. :wink: Go all out and get a 12 inch .454Casull barrel for the Encore if you want a pistol round. Good shooting. RKBA!

[KN]

I have to agree with Joe, I shoot an 11" 444 marlin in my Encore with great results. I also have one scoped in a 15" that shoots 1 to 1-1/2" 100 meter groups all day long. Don't see where you'll gain anything with a 445 in an Encore. But thats just my opinion. KN

[PJ]

I.m not sure that the 444 would be the best in a short barrel the 445 would be better than the 444 or 44
Just my 2 about that

[Mikey]

Hay Fellas: a long number of years ago I was shooting silhouette with a Super Blackhawk in 44 magnum and a friend had taken his and lengthened the chambers to handle a case halfway in length between the 444 and the 44 magnum.  Is the 445 somewhere around that midway length.

I remember that I would have to raise my sights 3 clicks for every 50 yard with the 44 but this fella didn't raise his until he shot out beyond 100 yds.  It was definately flatter shooting  than my 44 but there was more recoil associated with it thatn with mine.  Does that sound like the 445 to you???  Mikey here.

[KING]

MIKEY.  The case length for the .44 is 1.285 inches,the .444 is 2.162 and the .445 is 1.610.  So it is pretty close to being between the two rounds.  He could very well have done what you thought that he had.  I have loaded a lot of these rounds and found them to be faster and the holdover that you were talking about would be about correct depending on what projo he was using out of it.  As a point of interest it can be handloaded to very close to  .454 ballistics.  It is a good round to play with,and many years ago,about 15 I used it in shooting the steel critters.  My brother uses it for deer hunting with outstanding results with the200 xtp.  The .445 supemag is about 200fps faster that the .44 mag pretty much across the board.  King

[Mikey]

King:  thanks very much.  I had always wondered about that especially when folks would start talking about the 445.  His Ruger Super Blackhawk handled the loads just fine and he didn't have any problems with the handgun for as long as I knew the gent.  

I think most of us, including that fella, were shooting the 245 or 250 grain cast keith style semiwadcutters over charges of either 296 or H110 - which may be why he didn't have the trajectory the 44 mag shooters had to contend with.

By the way, have you shot silhouette much lately?  It's a bit of a bear when it's cold and frigid out there but it is fun.  Mikey.

[KING]

MIKEY!     Nope,not in a long time,probably about five years.  I used to really enjoy shooting it,but in this area it lasted for about 10 years.  By that I mean that it went hot and heavy about the late 80's to early 90s.  By the mid 90's the interest had died off a lot on that game.  Most of the guys that were shooting it found that they just lost interest in it,and im not sure why.  Its kinda like any other  type of contest out there i guess.  The .44 mag did a good job on the chickens out to the rams.  We generally shot the rams at 100 yrds,,chickens at 25,turkeys at 75 and the pigs at 50.  Most heavy calibers were loaded down for the 25 to 50 yd shooting.  I used the .445 of my brothers in a match south of here where the furthest was 200 yrds for the rams.  It was a blast when that slug smacked it,  KLANG.......and over it went.  The best i did was four otta five with that range,no scope,just iron sights.  Never could do that again.  Funny,that day I could not hit the chickens,but I could hit the rams,...go figure....King

[Burnsome]

Just curious - is there any factory commercial source for 445 SuperMag ammo yet?

Have a Dan Wesson coming in soon and want to run more than 44 mag out of it......

TIA !

[Mikey]

Hay King:  dem chickuns can be tough to hit, if they're at 50 yds.  The turkeys are the toughest I think.  I always had problems hitting them at the 150 yd mark.

When we shot silhouette here we shot the 200 yard course and yes, it was a blast in more ways than one.  We abbreviated that course with a 100 yard course for non-magnum calibers and had everybody and their grandmother show up with just about everything you could imagine.  One fella held up his end quite respectably with a 38 snubbie, of all things.  Had another with one of those 22 magnum autoloading pistols from the Florida firm that closed down who was just knocking em over at all ranges.  Also had a fella with a long barrelled Luger with Artillery sights who was incredibly accurate with that old knuckle action.

When I played that game I used two calibers - a 44 maginum fro a Ruger SB and my home brewed 40 from a Goldcup.  Both would take the ram at 200 and it was an incredible gas to see that ram topple over after the bullet went 'whang'.  Whooooeeee.  The toughest though was the turkey - tough to hit.  But then there are those guys who can knock'em down from a one handed standing target stance.  Guess I need more practice.  Mikey.

[KING]

Mikey.   YUp the turkeys were a problem lots of times also. I finally had one of the older guys explain to me that you shoot for the junction of the neck and body,that way you would generally hit the body and over it would go.  I used a couple of differant guns also.  From  a .22 LIGHTNING WITH A 101/2 INCH BULL BARREL,with a 4 power scope,to the .445 SM.  I probably did the best with the .44 at the longer ranges because of the recoil.  But,a lot of the time it was kinda a toss up .  I blew the scope off of the .44 one day on a tournement,and decided to finish with the iron sights on it.  I did not do to bad.  My total was 31 out of the possible 40.  I also used a .45 semiauto,to my Glockin 9mm  Most of the time it was just to see how much fun I could have while I was doing it.  I sure liked that .445 for hunting tho,it has outstanding potential for big game and when shooting it it would kinda.....hang..just right when the trigger got pulled.  I always thought it was kinda funny to watch some of the guys shoot.  It seemed that they had all of the loads to the max,and then some.  Most could not handle the recoil from those loads,cause they would not take the time to practice.  I remember that there was a fmj that was produced for the .44,and when it was loaded hot,it would literally fold a chicken with a center hit.  Kinda rough on the targets.    :grin:

[Mikey]

King - I know what you mean about watching some of the others try and shoot.  I watched one fella have a terrible time with a 41 Automag one day - he must have thought that all he needed to do was point and shoot.  I think he overloaded his cases too.  He was having serious extraction problems and you could see that his loads were so hot that his primers flowed flat.  That's too much for me.

I always used a six o'clock hold on my targets when shooting silhouette and considered myself lucky to go up nine clicks on my Ruger and be able to hit that turkey.  That was a tough one.  I couldn't see well enough to plant the front sight at the juncture of the neck and body, so the six o'clock hold was my best bet.  Most often I would hit them square but at that range being high or low just a bit was enough to either send the slug sailing right overhead or to kick up some dirt at the feet.  Once in a great while I would kick the feet out from under one of them and then have to listen to the range experts decide if it was considered a knock-down or if it had to fall over backwards to get the point.

What was almost more fun afterwards was to use handguns that couldn't knock over those targets and see who could rack up the most points on the 'whang' scale.  A couple of fellas with 9mms had a lot of fun doing that.

This is where it all becomes fun for me.  Thanks again.  Mikey.

[KING]

  MIKEY.   I use a 6 o'clock hold on vertually everything that does not have a scope on it.  It makes no differance if it is a handgun,or a rifle,all the same.  It kinda keeps the confusion principle down to a minimum.  That  "wang" scale its lotsa fun.  We were doing it with the 9mm and the .22 a lot.  I always thought that that was just as much fun as knocking the critters over with the bigger calibers.  Ya really understand a handgun when you can take a 2 inch or a 4 inch and consistantly hit the steel and make that ohhh soooo great sound when they get smacked.  On another vein.  Tuesday night I missed a big doe at 75 yards with my old tryon.  So,Wednesday morning I went ut again to the farm to hunt from daylight for an hour or so,just to make sure that I did not hit the doe.  At 0900 a huge buck walked out into the field at the same distance.  I took the same hold,just under the shoulder blade,and got the same result.  I looked for over 1 1/2hours and could not find any blood or any hair.  I just could not figure it out.  Both close range,and that is a high hit probability fer me.  Sooooo. I lazered a tree at 75 yards,and put a small scratch on the bark with my hawk,and shot at  that.  The results that I had perfect windage,but,I was 16 inches high.  That old timey scope just kinda craped out on me.  Oh well,worked on it tonight and I am going out again tomorrow...Thats what I get fer not checking the scope  each time I go out :oops:  :oops:

[Mikey]

King:  two misses in a row is a major ouch.  I had a scope go bad on me once and kept missing a nice 4 point at less that 40 yards.  Simply could not figure it out until I got back to camp and finally saw what the problem wqs.  Both the scope and the mounts tricked me that day but I got back at them and replaced em both.  Then she shot well.  But it was too late for that season.  Hope your 'fixes' turn out better than mine did.  Hope that buck forgets what happened yesterday and comes back into your field of fire.  Mikey here.

[KING]

Mikey   Went out this afternoon and it was really snowing hard.  Lotsa wind,but I gots two more days fer him,doubt that I will see him again,but I already gots a small buck earlier,but hewas realy old,and tuff.   I just like to kinda set anyway.  Gets me otta the house.

[Mikey]

King:  Good luck - I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.  Mikey.