44spl in 44mag

[Totin'a10]

Hey Y'all

Just wondering, would a 44 spl cartridge be less accurate out of a 44 mag than a 44 spl? Question would apply to revolvers as well as rifles. Many thanks, be safe!

[Questor]

Not necessarily, but I prefer to use 44 magnum cases in 44 magnum chambers.

[unspellable]

I also prefer to use 44 magnum cases in the 44 magnum revolver, even for light loads.

All else being equal, I would expect a 44 Special cartridge to be a tad more accurate out of a 44 Special revolver, but then all else is never equal.

[jhm]

toten a 10 :  You might find that a 44 spcl. is more accurate out of a 44 mag than the 44 mag is it will depend on the loads used and you wont know until you try it, but comparing a 44 spcl to a 44 mag 2 different revolvers that is I am like some of the others I would rather use the longer brass in the mag. to elimanate the lead ring or powder ring.   JIM

[Rmouleart]

I tend to disagree,  A 44sp in a 44 mag revolver would be less accurate, due to the bullet is too far away from the forcingcone to get any accuracy, don't get me wrong if felt recoil of the mag is causing you to flinch,well of course the 44sp in the mag will shoot better for you,less recoil, but being a seasoned shooter I can tell you I don't shoot 44SP 's in my mag at all, I tried it out a few times and found just a waist of time to me. I'm always looking for the utmost accuracy. I find that to be true using my SRH 454 Casull, when I have used 45lc's I must say it is like night and day with this cart, the 45lc felt like shooting a capgun I also noticed accuracy was diminished compared to the 454 casull loads. Aim small hit small. RAMbo.

[44 Man]

Theorys are nice but in practical use I haven't noticed any real difference.  My favorite .44 spl load (7.3 gr Unique/245 cast SWC) shoots into 1 1/2" at 25 yards from my Ruger SBH.  Actually that is a little better than it will shoot from my .44 spl Colt 4 3/4" SAA.  Also have an AWA Peacekeeper in .44 spl and that will shoot 2" groups.  The Colt likes 250 gr LBT's over 5 gr of Bullseye best.  With that it will shoot about 2".  Your results may vary.  44 Man

[oso45-70]

44 Man
At last, some one i can agree with. I shoot a lot of 44sp loads in my 44 mags and get great results. I have been loading 8.5 grs. unique and the groups are as good if not better than the mag,,,, and no i'm not recoil
prone cause i shoot all cal.s I do have a lot of friends both male and female who like to shoot with me and i see no reason to heap a big load on them with full blown 44mag or 454s or 475s. shooting is supposed to be fun and it has for me the last 56 years. Take care mister 44 man maybe our pathes will cross again some day.........Joe..........

[SLAVAGE]

i have shot both in my sbh the mags hold tighter but thats a given faster an such but if you are going to reload i would just work down a load in a 44 mag case essayer an theirs a big discusion about using a shorter causing in your chamber over time will leave a buildup, so thats what i do most of the time unless its dead of winter an i have the bug to shoot real bad were i have to go indoors an can only shoot there shells, then i buy the 44sp there a few $$ cheaper

[44 Man]

I'm sorry to disagree again, but I have found no difference in cleaning my .44 mag after shooting .44 spl or .44 mag.  Same with the .357.  It's no harder to clean after shooting 38s all day than .357's.  Cleaning is cleaning, you should do it every time after a shooting session.  I do have to admit that some new guns lead the barrel a little more until they get broken in, but that is a rough barrel issue, not a short case issue.  Again, theories are wonderful, everyone should have one, but I can see no difference in actual shooting experience.  I think some gun writer somewhere had a rough gun and decided it shot poorly and was hard to clean because he was shooting 38s instead of 357s and put that in print.  Then it got repeated until everyone thought it was gospel.  We all know that most guns prefer certain loads over others.  I always thought my one Charter was not particulary accurate, until I tried 200 gr jacketed bullets in it.  Wow, what a difference.  Worry less and just shoot more.  44 Man

[Rmouleart]

I believe that shooting shorter cases in a revolver with longer cylinders will cause a buildup lower on the cylinder wall,then to shoot longer cases same dia after will cause stuck cases soon enough, in tern if you where shooting the longer cases that conform to the cylinder length you would not develop this problem as soon, shooting 45LC's does cause a problem in my SRH 454 Casull, after shooting the LC's then shooting the 454's they will stick so bad you will have to use a dowel to tap them out , and under normal conditions it would take over 100 rounds of the 454's to start fouling with powder residue. All you have to do is clean the gun before changing over to the longer cases, if not you will notice extraction will get harder to a point of just stuck cases. I never shot 44sp out of my Mag, I shoot them out of a Taurus 5 shot SP revolver, so I never came across this problem with the 44sp in a 44 magnum. Allot of things play in, how many round are you shooting, what type of powder your using, if its dirty you will most likely foul sooner. if the round is hot, the case will expand more than moderate loads. I recondmentd cleaning the gun inbetween changing to the larger case, its simple and easy to do. Aim small hit small. RAMbo.

[tony212]

To be honest I don't know why anyone would want to shoot .44 specials in their .44 mag.  If you reload there are dozens of .44 mag reduced loads which duplicate .44 Special performance from a .44 mag case.  I personally shoot 8 grains of SR 4756 under a 240 grain cast  bullet at 725 fps.  It is very mild and accuracy is excellent.  If you don't reload many companies load reduced .44 mag loads. Look for loads like CCI blazers 240 grain swc.  They are about 800 fps and are also a very mild load.
    Also, there is no cost savings to buying .44 special loads. They cost just about as much as .44 mag.  So you actually are paying the same for less.
     having both .44 special and .44 mag cases on hand could potentially lead to a dangerous situation. If you ever accidently load a full house .44 mag load in a special case it would not be good to say the least.  
     As far as I can see there are no advantages to shooting .44 special loads in a .44 mag.
jmho
Tony212

[oso45-70]

Rmouleart,
I hate to keep beating a dead horse but this one is about to get away from us. I just sold a ruger flat top for 1000 dollars, That i bought in 1956
new. the gun has had hundreds of thousands of rounds through it and a lot of them was short loads in other words 44 special, i'm sure the man that bought it, after taking it out and shooting with it would not have paid the price he did if there was any thing wrong with it. If you don't clean one no matter what load you fire through it will foul up to some degree. I shoot a lot, there is very few days that i don't go out and bust at least
a hundred rounds. I do not know where people get some of their idea's
but they do. I guess i can't change any one's mind, Don't intend to i just can't sit by without jumping in. Rmouleart Have a good day, Enjoy your shooting as long as you can and i hope you have as much fun as i do and can do it as long as i have. Best wishes........Joe........................

[papajohn428]

Every gun is an individual.  Some shoot specials better than magnums, some the other way around.  The jump to the forcing cone CAN be blamed for a lack of accuracy in a magnum, but it ain't always so!

Any gun, when fired, will gum up eventually.  There will be a fouling ring from shooting specials in a magnum cylinder, just as there will be a fouling ring from shooting magnums.  Shooting magnums after specials may be harder, but the same amount of cleaning will put the gun right, no matter what was shot that day.  And while I have heard of chamber erosion, I've never seen any, except with blackpowder guns that weren't quickly/properly cleaned.  At the low pressures involved, I'd guess it would take many many thousands of rounds to cause erosion in a cylinder.

Papajohn

[Bullseye]

I can weigh in on this subject now since I shot some 44 Specials out of my SRH for the first time today.  They were at least as accurate as the 44 mags and maybe just a tad more accurate.  I only shot 20 rnds and they were jacketed bullets, so I have not learned much about the cleaning and ring in the chamber issues yet.  I will tell you one thing, that gun is a pussycat with the 44 specials.

[1911crazy]

Didn't Dirty harry say he was shooting "special" loads out of his 44mag in the movie!                                                

Doesn't having more "free bore" speed up the velocity it was done in rifles years ago i remember reading about it a by having a little extra space with no rifling in front of the bullet.  It would work in handguns too but you will get soot infront of the shorter case so cleaning would have to be done before shooting the longer 44mag cases.               BigBill

Does the 44spec use the same powder charge as the 44mag in a SWC lead bullet and is the speed different with the shorter case like faster?

You got me thinking now I like shooting the lesser 240gr SWC lead in the 44mag cases and I'll have to try the spec cases too now thank's.

[Jim n Iowa]

Bill please pass on any info on your  spc loads. I have rh 5.5"  thats a tad  hot for my advanced age in recoil. I was thinking of a mag port job as I load only hunting loads in 240 hc. The idea came to about a 44sp load which may have some reduction in recoil. I carry this gun in the field and enjoy shooting at the range with it, at 50 rds a session I may not feel like shaking hands.
jim

[1911crazy]

Bill please pass on any info on your  spc loads. I have rh 5.5"  thats a tad  hot for my advanced age in recoil. I was thinking of a mag port job as I load only hunting loads in 240 hc. The idea came to about a 44sp load which may have some reduction in recoil. I carry this gun in the field and enjoy shooting at the range with it, at 50 rds a session I may not feel like shaking hands.
jim

In my younger days the hotter the better and I didn't care about accuracy as long as I hit the center of the target somewhere who cares.  But my last trip to the range while teaching my oldest son to shoot handguns I brought both 44mag 240 JHP's and 44Mag 240gr SWC LEAD and i have to say I became very accurate with the swc lead and even got better with the JHP's after shooting the lesser power swc rounds. But I just looked in the Speer reloading manual and I noticed the 44 special round with the 240gr SWC Lead is very close to the 44mag with the 240gr SWC Lead so that means in the longer 44mag case i'll stay with the JHP's loaded to where the magnum should be and I can load the 44 special cases with the 240gr SWC Lead rounds for targets and plinkin with.

-----44 SPECIAL LOAD-------------------------44 MAGNUM LOAD--------------
44cal.  240gr SWC LEAD bullet ----------- 44cal  240gr SWC bullet
6.5grs.  Unique   809fps/348ft lbs.-------- 7.0grs Unique  769fps/315ft lbs.
CCI 300 large pistol primer---------------- CCI 300 large pistol primer

I'm using the 44mag load right now and its easy to shoot and the 44special should be the same too.                          BigBill

I don't know why it took me so long to realize this I do the same thing with my 38special and 357 mag too I shoot only lead with my 38specials and jacketed rounds in my 357mag which makes sense to do it with the 44mag too it frees up the larger cases that take more powder with the magnum charges.

I buy my 44cal. 240gr swc lead bullets from Northwest Loading its 500rds for $30.50.