44 Magnum: How do you arrive to your best load?

[Camba]

Hello everyone!

I had been  reloading for various cartridges for several years and in my experience, more times than not, your best loads for a given gun, comes as a result of careful selection, measurement, and documenting of your test loads.  There are however, some guns that are a little more susceptible to what you load them with and take a lot of patience to get there.  Because of work and not enough time to do my reloading as meticulously as I used to do before, I tend to grab some "good" loads that I have already developed for a gun and try to use them with another gun (that does not always work that way). 

I bought a S&W 629 with a 4" bbl (USED) (99% of my guns were bought new) that looks like the mountain gun version but it's not.  When I saw this gun I fell in love with it and more so with the price ($425).  The gun was looking like it was not used a lot or at least was kept in excellent looks.  I did the cylinder check and noticed that it was not as tight as my S&W 629, 5" bbl gun and in addition to that it has a barely noticeable move of the cylinder when moved back and forth towards the bbl.  I have read in many places that taht is not a good sign.  My emotions were stronger than my left brain and I just went ahead and brought it home with me.  So, I used my favorite 44 magnum loads that already work great in two other guns I have.  The results:  6" group at 25 yards.  It did not matter who shot it.  I said a few things to my self (not body hear that) and I thought that was because of the cylinder play that I mentioned before.  One day that I was reloading for my RSBHH-7.5" bbl for hunting, trying a low velocity load (13.2gr Blue Dot with 240gr Speer GDSP), I got the worst group ever with that revolver.  For just curiosity, I fired some rounds with my S&W 629-4" and I was impressed!  I can get groups of 1" to 2" consistantly.  Now that made this gun to be in the front page and I started looking for other loads to see "how small cand it go...linbo rock?" Today I found an even better load:  18.9gr 2400 with the 240gr Speed GDSP.  The average of 5 5-shot groups was 1.25" at 25 yds and one of the groupd had 4 shots in a one hole measuring less than half inch.  That bits all my other 44 mag and 45 colt revolvers combined.  I have to admit, these loads I am talking about were just coincidental.  One thing for sure is that this gun is spending a lot more time with me now and I may consider to bring it along for deer hunt instead of my RSBHH 7.5" bbl that is quite heavy.  My S&W 629-5" bbl stays home too because I don't have a holster for it yet (5") but that gun is also accurate with its own loads.

Question for you all:  Do you have more than one "pet" load for each of your guns?  What are your favorite components?

Thank you.
 

[Broom Rider]

I have several loads although they each shoot to a diffent point of impact vertically.
I have a light lead bullet load using Unique, a fast 210 Sierra load using WW296,
240 lead using WW296, 240 Hornady using WW296.
There's others I occasionally use but these are my most used loads.
My best load will be of course the most accurate one.

[MS Hitman]

Each and every firearm is a law unto itself.  Some prefer cast over jacketed bullets and vice versa; as you found out ny trial and error.  In the .44 Magnums, I usually shoot WW296 with 240 grain jacketed bullets; and 2400 or Unique with the cast bullets.  Powder charges are standard, so I won't bother posting them here.

[Graybeard]

Yup I do the same MS Hitman. I generally don't even bother with any other powder than W296/H110 with jacketed bullets and nearly always use H2400 with cast but will on rare occasions load some Unique as well. I've found darn few guns that won't shoot my standard loads as well as my eyes let me see to shoot these days.

[Lloyd Smale]

I shoot cast about exclusively and do have a few loads at different velocitys with certain bullets that seem to shoot good in about anything. When working up a load i take the velocity i need and see what has done the best for me in powders in the past at that velocity and load a dozen of every bullet i have in that weight with a fed primer and shoot them. The bullet itself is the biggest variable and ill throw out anything that doest go under 2 inch. Then i will take maybe 3 different powders and load a dozzen of the bullets that made the cut at the velocity i want and when i do that i load a dozen at the level i want and a half a grain up and down from that level. That shooting will usually give me a couple exceptional loads. Ill then take say the best 3 and try cci, win and whatever other primers i have in them and get it down to the best two loads like that. Then if im real bored ill try varying alloys to see what that does. I have to admitt theres been a few times (not many) that ive lucked into a one hole grouping load somewhere in the middle of this. If that happens i stop.  Then its time to start all over with a heavier or lighter bullet and a different velocity or power level. As you can see it isnt a small task to do it right and if your like me and have a safe full of handguns its a never ending task. One good thing is your getting about the best training you can find for proper trigger control and it beats the hell out of playing golf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Castaway]

It takes me two range trips to find my "magic" load for a pistol or rifle.  For pistol. I have to decide if I want a plinking or hunting load.  Having said that, the next decision is not hard to make.  Since it's pistol, it's going to be a cast bullet.  Plinking/target loads means Unique, hunting loads either 4227 or H110.  I start at the bottom of the book loads and go to the top, loading a series of 6 rounds, each 0.5 grains apart.  At the range, use a sandbag and fire each lot.  Somewhere in that initial bunch of loads, there will be evidence of the group tightening, then opening up again.  Determine the sweetest loadings and it's back to the bench to go 0.2 grains increments between the original best loads. 

[Graybeard]

I used to do as you are doing Castaway but gave it up years ago on handguns for the most part. I still do very similar to that on new rifles. But for handguns especially .44 magnum handguns the loads I've worked up do well enough I seldom experiement for that last fractional inch of improvement. If I don't have the gun scoped these days I can't shoot well enough for it to matter really.

[Castaway]

Graybeard, have to disagree with you.  Yes, many times the loads from one pistol to the other are close enough to not worry about changing them to shoot out of another, but....  My biggest exception is my last trade.  I've got a Norinco 1911 I've tuned that drills the 10 ring at 7 yards with its magic load.  The same load in my new Kimber 1911 is all over the place.  As soon as I get a chance to do some casting, I'll do the procedure outlined above to find what the Kimber likes.

[Graybeard]

I gave up those type hanguns many long years ago. My shooting is done with revolvers. My eye sight just isn't good enough to see those front sights on short barrel guns anymore so if the barrel is 4" or less on a revolver I can't tell the difference on the target between a good and bad load anyway as my groups with those "snubbies" are all over regardless. Only if I scope such a gun can I be sure why the groups are wide. 

[Camba]

I think I had been doing the same thing as Lloyd S.  I have gotten better results when using finer bullets but when I try to develop a load with a not so finer type bullets (to save some money for more shooting) seems that everything goes back to square one.  I like the idea of casting my own bullets.  I have bought the RCBS 250gr Keith mold and I hope I can cast some good bullets.  I also bought an 8 lb jug of H110 and I started with 20gr with a 240gr GDSP Speer bullet and WLP (for standard and magnum load primers).  THe accuracy results was 2" groups.  The sound was totally different than what the other powders make.  It also show a lot of flash.  I dropped down to 19gr but the sound is as bad as the 20gr.  Is that loud sound normal for that type of powder?

Camba.

Please, keep on sharing your wisdom.  Thank you.

[MS Hitman]

Sounds like you are going the wrong direction regarding H110 and .44 Mags.  This powder works best at or near max loading.

[Graybeard]

You are also probably flirting with if you've not already reached the dangerous level with that powder. The manufacturer specifically says DO NOT REDUCE CHARGES with Ball powders like H110/W296. I'd not chance 19 or 20 grains of it. I've NEVER loaded less than 22.5 grains with a 240 in the .44 mag and that definitely didn't work as well as 24 grains in any respect.

[Redhawk1]

Graybeard is right, don't go low on the H110 or W296. It is designed to work with little or no air gap between the powder and the bullet. I always load in the upper limits of the load data with it.

[Camba]

I had tried the 22.0 gr (H110) with the 240gr GDSP and that have cought the attention of the range officer.
It registered 1300 FPS in my RSBHH, 7.5" BBL and 1150 FPS in my 4" S&W629. 

The powder jug label has a 44 mag load of 20.5gr H110 with a 280gr bullet to a 1250 FPS.

I believe your advice with respect to this powder.  The 22.0gr have not shown any signs of high pressure; except for the different sound and muzzle flash.  I will work towards 24gr but I will go slowly.  Thank you for the heads up.

Camba

[MS Hitman]

Depending on bullets, there can be a significant difference in case capacity between a 240 and 280 grain bullet in the .44 Mag.  The "standard" load is 24.0 of WW296/H110 behind a 240 grain jacketed bullet.  Based on the velociteis you posted, your 22.0 grain load is running about 100 fps slower than what I usually get from a 7.5" barrel Ruger. 

[jro45]

I always go to 24 grs for H110 and 24.5 for W296 with my Redhawk 5.5" barrel