44 magnum help please

[Jeffery8mm]

I reload for my 44 mag Virginian Dragoon single action revolver and now have a NEF 44 mag rifle with a 22" barrel.
I have loaded 7 grains of unique under a Hornady 240gr Lead SWC for the Dragoon and had good results. How will load preform like in the new NEF and can I use it on Whitetails out to about 75 or 80 yards??
Can I increase the powder to 8.5 grains with that bullet and not get leading??
Thanks

Jeff

[Dusty Miller]

What you need to have your loads chronographed.  Also, if you are using a gas check and a hard alloy its pretty difficult to lead a barrel unless you just flat set out to do it.  A soft bullet with a PB will need to be kept under 1400 fps (at a maximum) and preferably to 1200 fps or less.  Another consideration is the condition or your barrel.  A really smoothe barrel (one that's been lapped, for example) is going to lead up much less than a rough one.

[Tn Jim]

I load a plain base bullet cast out of plain air cooled wheel weights over 9 grains of Unique. Gun is a 4 5/8" Ruger SBH. I get ZERO leading and very good accuracy. Leading in your gun will depend alot on bullet fit. If you aren't getting leading with the Hornady bullet now, you shouldn't get any at 8.5.

[Jeffery8mm]

THANKS so much guys.
Jeff

[Catfish]

My Serria manual list 12.4 gn. of Unique as max. load for a jacketed bullet and you can use alittle more with cast bullets. For deer in the .44 mag. I prefer the 240 gn. JHC by Serria. I get the best accuracy and terminal preformance from this bullets of any I have tried and in 35 years plus of shooting the .44 mag. I`ve tried about everything. I load it over the max. load of Win. 296 or H-110. These powders give you the most velosity for chamber presure.

[Darrell Davis]

Morning 44 shooters,

Well I seldom use Unique, however I do use 19gr of AA#9 under a 310 LBT gas check bullet out of a 5 1/2" Redhawk.

This is my regular load and leading is so light as to be a non-issue.

The Velocity is over 1200fps.

The bullet is cast of WW, dropped into cold water directly from the mold.

Keep em coming!

[Questor]

You can get severe leading if you increase the velocity to the 900-1000fps range with typical hard cast commercial non-gaschecked bullets. I recommend that you either keep your low power loads, or go to a load of at least 1100fps.

[Darrell Davis]

Leading really depends on a number of issues, only one of which is velocity.

In years past, my son and I both had Ruger Blackhawks. In his, we need to shoot a gas checked bullet to prevent excess leading, while mine was very happy with plane base bullets.

These bullets made from WW and were not quenched or heat treated.

We never measured barrels or throats etc. to find the reasons, as with the preferd bullet leading was a non-issue.

My BH has long since been replaced by a number of different 44s, but the son still owns/shoots his and we still cast the prefered bullet for that BH, no problem.

Keep em coming!

[Lloyd Smale]

a properly built 44 will shoot bullets as hard as lynotype down to 700 fps without leading and will push ww bullets to 15000 fps without leading. An inproperly built gun will lead with just about anything. Bore size chamber size bore quality and cylinder alignment are the biggest causes of leading not the alloy. To some extent Alloy can be ajusted to compensate for a mismatched gun but its not a cure.

[Questor]

I dunno Lloyd. I had a horrible leading problem with my 10" contender barrel when I tried using loads between 900 and 1000fps with commercial hard cast bullets. It took me hours to scour it out. It was so bad I couldn't see the rifling half way up the barrel from the chamber. It's a very accurate barrel with good loads, like with 250 grain gas check RCBS cast bullets lubed with moly lube. I've shot 1" groups at 100 yards with those. Hornady 240 grain XTPs are really accurate too, but not quite that accurate. I've found the gun to be very good for silhouette shooting and any other long-distance application that I apply a 44 to.

I had the problem explained to me as a failure in bullet obturation. Instead of expanding to fit the bore, the hot gasses bypass the bullet melt the bullet surface. The same bullets that caused the bad leading problem were fine at velocities lower than 900fps and higher than about 1100fps. My understanding is that the problem has bitten some other guys with decent barrels.

Under about 900fps the bullet is moving slow enough that pressures are low and the gas bypass doesn't occur. Above 1100fps the bullet base obturates and the gasses are blocked from bypassing the bullet. And then there's that little sour spot between 900 and 1100fps.

I guess my point is that we really can't know if the bore is "proper" unless we find out the hard way, so I err on the side of caution.

[jhm]

Loyd how are you getting 15,000 FPS?  Thats extreamly good!!    JIM