44 Special

[shdwlkr]

for years I liked the 240 grain bullet in the 44 special and now I am moving towards a 255 grain bullet, why because I can and it is close to the weight of the 45 colt round and I am just old enough and cranky enough to want to know what happens when you go this heavy.
One thing to keep in mind is that the lightest bullet I have seen in the 44 special is 185 grain and that makes me think that going lighter isn't a good thing.
As to using a really small weight bullet in the 44 special I have to wonder at what point the length of the bullet is more important than the weight of the bullet.
So Like I said being an old crank I like heavy slow moving bullets it just plain interests me.
In my 45 auto I shoot 230 grain, in my 375 winchester I am looking at 300 and even 350 grain bullets, in my 45-70 330-425 grain.
I have found in my years of shooting the speed of the bullet isn't as important as is where it lands when it gets to what you are shooting at. The second thing is does it have enough energy with it to do what you want it to do and can you put in some more powder and get what you want?
Just some thoughts from an old guy that is just getting back into shooting and reloading and casting after a nasty divorce so what do I know.

[lonnydk]

Thanks guys, I suspected they might not shoot too well. I better change my order.

[redneckdan]

With my 4 5/8 bisley 429421s shoot about a foot high at 50ft with the rear sight all the way down. A 200gr boolit shoots to point of aim.

[Dale53]

If I had that condition, I would call Ruger and ask them to send me a shipping label and send it back for a higher front sight. They have done that for several of the people on the Forum.

Dale53

[Crash_Corrigan]

I had a 1924 vintage Mauser 98/22 made by BRNO in CZ that shot a foot high at 50 yds.

I made a mold out of aluminum foil that I fashioned around the existing front sight and used some red epoxy to make a higher front sight.

After 24 hours the expoxy was as hard as it would ever get and I got out my files and sandpaper and I shaped that baby to continue of the existing sight.

I took it out to the range and with surplus Turkish Ammo I shot and adjusted that sight to my liking and worked like a charm. I could have put a tiny piece of brass rod on top of it for a bead but I never got around to it.

Cheap fix and it worked. There are some epoxies today that are dark gray in color and you could had a mite of foot coloring to darken it up some and hang that on the end of your six shoot and file it down to the perfect to get the aim where you want it.

[NHlever]

If I had that condition, I would call Ruger and ask them to send me a shipping label and send it back for a higher front sight. They have done that for several of the people on the Forum.

Dale53

Ya know Dale, you would think that Ruger would eventually just put a sight on these single actions that is the right height before they blue the gun. I've sent 3 back this past year for higher front sights. I've gone so far as to buy stainless guns on purpose since I figure I'll have to change that sight. I did notice that they are putting the right sight on the 5 1/2" 45 Colt, and convertable now. Maybe the idea will catch on when none of those come back? I really like the guns though, and so we do what we have to. I'm shooting 200 gr RNFP, and the Lyman 429215 in my 44 special for now, and those do print OK with a bit of sight adjustment available. ( I can also use those two boolits in my 77/44, and they feed fine from the magazine loaded in mag cases)

[gandydancer]

I have the rightish bros in my hands 25 years of banging away with FA 454 I still have it and I know I can down load it. but why? have a cheese danish with a diet soda? so I got a ruger bisley flattop 4.5/8ths bbl in 44 special and I use a 200 grain lyman with 4.5 to 5 grains of bulleye(the new bulleye is not as dirty as it used to be) some times just 4.0 grains for some fun plinking and still feel my hands after. its a great round and a great revolver(with a little tune up) Gandy.

[canyon-ghost]

I recently knocked down a couple of little round targets, maybe 2&1/2" in diameter at 50 meters with my 44 Flattop. I found out the 3/16" steel didn't fare too well, kinda wrecked them.
200 grain RNFP, 7.4 grains of Unique.

Say what you want but, if it shoots high, you're aiming too close in.

[Dale53]

NHLever;
>>>Ya know Dale, you would think that Ruger would eventually just put a sight on these single actions that is the right height before they blue the gun. I've sent 3 back this past year for higher front sights. I've gone so far as to buy stainless guns on purpose since I figure I'll have to change that sight.<<<

You have a legitimate beef with Ruger.

In the last year or so, I have bought three new Rugers. One was a SS Bisley .45 Colt/.45 ACP Convertible. I had to ream both cylinders but the gun shoots to the sights with both 200 gr and 285 gr bullets (after sight adjustment). The .44 Lipsey Special shoots both 200 gr wadcutters and 250 gr Keith's to the point of aim after sight adjusment also. All three of these were kind of "late" in the line up. Maybe they have gotten the idea.

Or-r-r, maybe, I have just been plain lucky with these three.

Dale53

[Rocky Raab]

Handgun POI is so dependent on the individual shooter's grip and trigger follow-through that there's no way a company can mount sights that suit everybody. If you consistently need a different front sight for revolvers, it's probably your shooting style, not the guns.

[Leadlum]

Those bullets look very close to my 200 RNFP`s from my RCBS mold. I use 5.5 grs of Red dot; and they shoot just fine in normal pistol distances. I do have to admit though my favorite bullet is my RCBS 250-K out of my 4 5/8" Ruger Vaquero from Lipseys. I use 6.5 grs of Unique for that bullet @ 850 fps. My manuels say 6.9 is Max. I see alot of people go higher than that. Both loads shoot just a little high to point of aim[1-2"] at 15yds ; but I adj easily to that.

[Chief RID]

I have been fighting this unburned powder thing for a while now in my 44 Special loads. I am also seeing position sensitivity in my loadings and this just should not be. I really am going to just stop thinking about it. If I don't run them over the chrony and I ignore the flakes of unburned powder I will be fine. The S&W 21-4 is shooting great. I have used 240 gr SWC and 240 XTPs with titegroup, W-231, Green Dot, Blue Dot, Universal. All the same problems with unburned powder and velocity spread and all accurate as anything.

[jodum]

Chief, unburnt powder is kind of like dandruff. Just brush it off and keep going. Some of my best loads leave flakes and soot the gun up but they are accurate and shoot good. I just ignore it and go on.

[hhranch]

When I was cowboy action shooting several years ago, I used 4.0 gr of Clays with a 246 gr round nose cast boolit with good results. It burned clean, did not dirty the guns, and most of all, I used it to load 12 ga shotgun rounds too - only had to keep one powder on hand for revolver, rifle and shotgun. I have always found Clays to be very clean burning in a shotgun, much more so than the old Red Dot. This is a powder for plinking, not heavy loads, though.

[Ghugly]

Warning! Don't try this at home! The most accurate load in my Bulldog (and this is after years of testing loads to try to make it shoot at point of aim accuratlly) is 17gr of 2400 under a 250gr 429421. I've tried everything from 162gr to 250gr and Trail Boss to 2400 and this is, by far, the most accurate load. It is also no fun to shoot. I do not recomend this load. I don't know what the pressure is, but I am sure it is way out of .44 special specs, and wandering close to .44 mag pressures. I worked up to this load a half a grain at a time and this is where it all came togeather.

[Ghugly]

I thought I should point out the fact that this combination is useless. The recovery time makes it useless as a carry load, it is no fun at all for plinking, and hunting with a Bulldog is just stupid.

[Rocky Raab]

Put your mind at ease. I can promise you hand on my heart that I will not be shooting that combo in my own Bulldog, Ghugly.

I still like 6.0 AmSel with ANY bullet from 185 to 240 grains in either of my 44 Specials. I don't need anything over about 900 fps and the Bulldog prefers 700-750 to hit to the sights. I don't think I'll ever hunt with the Ruger Flattop, but if I did, I'd cobble up a few loads with my Ranch Dog reject 265-gr mould at 1000 fps.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Ben: I found this one kind of late in the game, and don't know if your still looking for load info on this subject but I do 5.0 gr of W231 for bullets in this size range. It should yeild 650-750fps. I have a bunch of Cowboy boolits I bought along time ago to use up, and in addition I have a Magma .44-190SWB PB mould that makes perfect boolits very time.

I don't like Bullseye in revolvers as it tends to gum up the works pretty fast, but 4-5 gr of it would push this size boolit just fine and you can throw in 5+ gr of UNique as well. I like W231 the best for this.

I have both a Ruger SBH Bisley .44 Mag. with 5" bbl and a Lipsey BH Bisley in .44 Spec that I shoot both of these Boolits in,,, with 5.0 gr of W231. I size to .431 for these guns as that's what size the throats are.

It's clean, its cheap, and the accuracy is adequate for diddling around at the range.

hope this helps.Also for a wealth of info on loading the .44Spec all the way from mild to wild see Handloader #236 Aug 2005, and there is a similar article on loading .44 Mag mid range loads in HL #237. If you don't already have these issues they are available as back issues from Wolfe Pub.

Randy

[Ben]

Thanks Randy,

Ben

[Larry in MT]

Ben: One other option.

In my 4 5/8" New Model Flattop I load 200 grain Hornady XTP JHPs

9.0 Power Pistol = 1035 fps

9.6 Power Pistol = 1128 fps

with WW LP primers and Starline brass. Some of the most accurate loads I've used in this gun.

The only lead bullets I load in 44 Special are 250 and 255 grainers so can't give you exact data.