44 Mag with 250gr RCBS Keith

[Camba]

Question for all of you 44 Mag gunners:

What would be a good all around hunting load using the 44 mag, 250gr RCBS Keith bullet? 

To take into account

1.  Keep it to deer, black bear(rare chance for this), and any thing else smaller than that.
2.  Bullet does not have gas check.
3.  Guns to be used with this load: 
a)  S&W629 Classic 4" bbl.
b)  S&W629 Classic, 5" bbl.
c)  RSBH-Hunter, 7.5" bbl.
4.  Shooter handles medium to lower recoil loads better (arthritis??)
5.  Powder to accomplish the task.
6.  Range for hunting:  50 yards or less.

Now I will sit back and read all your suggestions and opinions.  Thank you.

Camba

[MS Hitman]

I have shot 10.0 grains of Unique over the years with good accuracy.  You may want to try 12.0 grains of HS-6 which is the starting load for the 240 Nosler bullet according to Hodgdon's website. 

[Graybeard]

I'd likely use 17.5 grains of 2400. That's close to the load my shooting partner and best friend (now deceased) used to use many years ago when we shot silhouette competition and we also used it for hunting. Fairly mild on recoil but with plenty of punch for the rams and for hunting. We used the Lyman 429244 rather than the Keith bullet but it's close enough.

[Larry Gibson]

I use 9 gr Unique with that bullet.  Velocity is 1050 from the 6 1/2" barreled RFT 50th and 960 from a 4" barreled Anaconda. Accuracy is excellent with either.  I cast the bullets out of WWs with maybe 2-5% tin added for better fill out and air cool them.  They drop right at .430 from the mould and I use that diameter of sizer to lube them.  I use WLP primers and W-W brass.

Larry Gibson

[woodchukhntr]

21.0 grains of 2400.  It has less recoil than factory ammo and is as accurate as I can shoot from my 6" Mod. 29.  I believe that this is Elmer Keith's favorite load.  I am not a fan of heavy loads in the .44, but I find this manageable.  I just sighted my .44 with this load for this year's deer season.  You could back off a couple of grains and still be alright while cutting the recoil down.

[S.B.]

woodchukhntr, your load clocks at 1350 fps out of my 6&1/2" 629-4 Classic and 20 grains of 2400 clocked at 1180.1 average for 5 shots, in the same gun.  Also, 9 grains of Unique clocks at 1025.7 fps in this gun. So any of these powders would be fine for whitetail deer, in my opinion?
By the way: Good luck to everyone this deer season!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[44 Man]

Just remember that most any big bore pistol shooting a 250 gr swc or lfn bullet at about 1000 fps will do anything you would like to do with your gun.  You can bump it up to 1200/1300 fps but why?  You will just have more recoil and roar and what you shoot will be just as dead with the milder load.  I think Graybeard's load of 17.5 of 2400 would be excellent, and probably run 1100 to 1200 fps.  The 10 gr of Unique will run about 1000 fps.  Enjoy shooting those guns!  44 Man

[Graybeard]

I don't recall ever running my load of 17.5 grains 2400 over the chrono. Back when we first began using it there were no chronos for folks like us but it was a load that was very accurate in all our .44 Magnum guns and did what we needed done. Since then I've just kept on using it and it just keeps on performing for me. What velocity it's running has never even been a concern to me.

Were I guessing I'd say less than 1200 but perhaps 1100. Recoil is mild for a magnum and performance is great.

[Camba]

Any loads with Bullseye and Blue Dot?  I've just happen to have those at hand right now but I am going shopping for Unique and 2400.

Other question I have is:

How do you lube your SWC bullet?  I use the Lee lube and follow the Lee lube alox instructions by shaking the bullets in a container with some of the lube.  I've seen the cast bullet with the lube in the band only but I don't know how to do that or just don't know what tools I need to get that done.  Is using the LEE lubing technique OK?

I tried a 9.0gr of Bullseye with this bullet and read 1130 FPS and they seem to shoot OK some times and not so OK other times.  I will definitely try the loads shared.  Thanks.

Camba

[moxgrove]

Bullseye can be position sensitive in the big cases. It's the cat's meow in a 38 special though for plinker/target loads. You can get a lubrisizer to size and lube in one step. Blu dot should work okay. I use it my 10 mm and it is great . I also used to use it in my 41 mag and it did well. If you are not getting any leading then your lubing is fine. Liquid alox really does work well for a lot.

[S.B.]

Were I guessing I'd say less than 1200 but perhaps 1100. Recoil is mild for a magnum and performance is great.

I think Bill hit the nail on the head. This is the bottom line. Accurate. dependable and gets the job done. Recoil is a personal thing and only you can determine your tolerance to this, through a lot of range time.

[Cayoot]

I shoot .44 mag in my big, Dan Wesson 8 inch and my little S&W 29-8 Mountain Gun.  My favorite (actually, ONLY) load that I use every time is 10 grains of Unique under the RCBS 250KT.  It is scary accurate in my Dan Wesson especially.  It has enough killin' to do anything needing doin' up here in the Frozen Northwoods.  Best of all, recoil is very manageable in my Mountain Gun.  I read where Ol' Elmer recommended this load himself.  Said that they had a bear charge through some cattle and one of the guys riding with him carried this 10 grains of Unique under the 429421, shot went clean through the bears skull.

Also, at only 10 grains of Unique, I get about twice as many shots out of a pound as I did when I was using 2400. (Ok, so I'm a cheap skate!)

[woodchukhntr]

Good point, 44 man.  You're right, dead is dead.  I don't plan on making multi-100 yd. shots, so maybe I ought to tone it down a bit.

Cayoot, I like your thinking!!!  I think I'll try your load.

I haven't tried one of the bigger magnums, and don't plan on it.  If I want more power than the .44, I'll use my .30-30 Contender.  I don't see the sense on going bigger than that either.  And since I, like Cayoot, am somewhat cheap, I don't see the point on spending the big bucks for the big guns.

[millwright]

My sbh with 7 1/2 in barrel shoots a 250 hard cast bullet on top of 10 gr of unique fantastic, but I have to use a 2x burris scope.

[irold]

I agree with some of the others, either 2400 or unique will be a good choice....personally I've been using 11 grains of unique behind a 240 XTP with a 4" barreled Redhawk, seems to work good.  However , soon as I get a chance I'm gonna try Bills load of 2400....The Bullseye, as suggested before it is position sensitive....AND one can easily double charge a case, not a good idea....good luck 

[GradyL41]

you might try AA#9 --it uses lesser powder charges also gives good accuracy-- there is also a surplus powder that uses the same load data-- I like AA#9 a lot

[Lloyd Smale]

10 grains of unique. herco. power pistol. or universal clays would be a good starting point.

[GradyL41]

Hi Lloyd -- nice to Herco mentioned-- I use to a lot of that but have gotten away from but it is a very good cast bullet powder

[Drilling Man]

  I've shot thousands and thousands of that bullet in my M-29's, and i use it over 23.0 of H110 and a mag. primer...

  It's a good solid hunting load, that's very accurate in many different guns...

  DM