Sirs,

I just purchased a new Ruger SRH .44 Magnum and need to buy a can of powder to reload for it. What is your preferred powder for firing 250 grn cast and jacketed softpoint bullets. Although I keep seeing references made to WW296, H110, and Lil Gun, I would like some feedback on which powder you prefer for your .44 mag and why.

Thanks in advance,

H110 & W296 have long been THE powders for top performance in the 44mag. Lilgun is getting good reviews, although I haven't tried it or AA#9. H110 & W296 have worked well for me in the past so for full power loads, I see no reason to change. For midrange loads, you'll need another powder as most of the slow ones require full loads for safety & performance reasons.
I like Unique or Universal for midrange stuff.

Unless I'm downloading to 44 Spl levels, I have always used H110 in the 44 Mag. It just plain works. If you want to have a powder on hand for light loads, Unique will work in just about anything.

H110 and 296 are the same powders with one exception. Each is taken from a different burn rate for each company. 296 is MUCH more accurate in the Ruger then H110. The standard Redhawk prefers H110. Don't ask why because I can't explain it. Be sure to try Fed 150 primers too. Unless it is very cold where you shoot, mag primers have always tripled my group size.
The most important thing is case tension on the boolit/bullet for accuracy. Hornady dies are the only ones I have found to make the most accurate loads.
The most accurate bullets made are the Hornady XTP's. Use 24 gr's of 296 with the 240 gr and 20.5 gr's with the 300 gr. Use the Fed 150 primer and you should get 1", or less, groups at 50 yd's.
If you are going to hunt, don't mess around, use the 300 gr.
For hunting, an even better boolit is the 320 gr LBT WLNGC with 21.5 gr's of 296, Fed 150.

I use H-110 for hot loads, HS-6 or HS-7 for mid-range practice loads and have even used Bullseye and Unique for light loads but I got away from the light stuff lately.

As you've probably read, the right amount of crimp is important for a uniform powder burning rate. The hotter the load the more important it is to have a good crimp ring built into the slug.

I've been using W296 since 1982 or so for my SBH, I like it because it meters so easily and performs so consistently lot to lot.

I'm liking the H110 for the high end loads.

Bigdog, I have experimented with every crimp you can think of and it will not help a lot. Much more important is case tension and crimp will not replace it. I found only enough crimp to hold boolits under recoil is enough and makes brass last longer. Over crimping can also scrape cast boolits too much reducing the vital size.
If you have loose boolits in cases and crimp the devil out of them, you gain zero.
You must use a slightly oversize boolit for the throat, or exactly throat size, use a hard enough boolit so it is not sized when seating and crimp enough to hold it under recoil. Dies can make or break accuracy. RCBS has only changed the .45 Colt dies. All their other revolver dies are still made for soft boolits that bump up to fit. It just doesn't work. Over expanding cases and depending on a crimp just doesn't work either.
I have shot fantastic groups with no crimp at all by loading one at a time. Kind of silly for a revolver, but it works with the proper case tension.
I had a set of special bench rest dies made for the .44 and they work great but are a lot of work. The hornady dies make loads almost as accurate.

been shootin 7 gr ww231 with a 200 gr cast and 24 gr h110 with 240/250 gr cast or jacketed since 82.they shoot to the same spot at 25 yds and dont require any changes in the sights for all my huntin for big and small game.on a moose or elk hunt i would go to a 300 or bigger in a cast.2400,296,110,4227,lg,or whatever slow hg powder will work.will shoot higher so the sights will need adjusted.sighted in with heavy 300,s a light load with a 240 may shoot to the same spot.i just dont like to crank the sights up and down for different loads.

I started off shooting 18 grains of AA #9 behind the Lyman 250-grain 429421. Accurate powders typically are a little less expensive than some of the others, they meter like a dream, and they don't require magnum primers. A few years later, the late Finn Aagaard stated in an article about Accurate Arms powders that his favorite was 240-250-grain cast bullets in front of 11 grains of AA #5. I tried it with the 429421 (and later with the H&G 503), and have never found a reason to shoot anything else, or to go back to the AA #9. Comfortable enough to shoot all afternoon, and at ~1100fps, nothing is going to walk away from it. Either bullet at that velocity will shoot stem to stern through anything reasonable. If it takes more than that, I will go to a rifle...

I have been shooting a Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 mag for over 30 years. I now have two of them. I mainly shoot cast bullets that I cast from wheelweights. Either the Lyman 429421 plain base or the 429244 with a Hornady gas check. When I first started loading the .44 mag, I tried several powders: 630, 110, 2400, and 296. I got the best accuracy with 296 and CCI 350 primers.

I've had some teriffic results with A2400. I'm using a 250gr LFNGC and 18.0gr of A2400 with CCI 350 and 1.71 AOL. I'm getting 1200fps +/- out of a 6.5" S&W Mod 629DX.

I shoot iron sights and get 2" at 25 yards. For me personally, that's exceptional. Any higher powder charge and they open up to shotgun patterns and any lower the SD gets too high and the loads are inconsistant in POI and MV.

I appreciate the info on the H110 and the non-mag primers. I'll try that next.

I've burned quite a few pounds of Blue Dot in the 44 Mag with good results. It's not the absolute best powder for the 44, but is versatile if you load different calibers. It works well in 9mm, 40 S&W, .38 SPL, .357 Mag, and is okay in .45 ACP too.

quote:

I'm liking the H110 for the high end loads.

Me too... I've have a drawer full of metals and other junk i won useing 23.0 of H-110 and a 250 KT "style" bullet and mag. primer at long range pistol matches. I see quite a few others around the net useing the same load with the same results...

I started useing that load in the 70's and that's what's loaded in my 44 mags today yet, as it's also an "excelent" load for hunting. I've harvested moose, deer ect.. with this same load with good results.

Below you can see my 44's and the above load...

DM

quote:

Originally posted by DM:

quote:

I'm liking the H110 for the high end loads.

Me too... I've have a drawer full of metals and other junk i won useing 23.0 of H-110 and a 250 KT "style" bullet and mag. primer at long range pistol matches. I see quite a few others around the net useing the same load with the same results...

I started useing that load in the 70's and that's what's loaded in my 44 mags today yet, as it's also an "excelent" load for hunting. I've harvested moose, deer ect.. with this same load with good results.

Below you can see my 44's and the above load...

DM

DM I would be interested in hearing about your success with this load on big game that you aluded to in your post. Particularly interested in distances shot. I did take a small mule deer a couple of years ago with a Sig 40 S&W at about 40 yards and have an interest in doing more.

quote:

DM I would be interested in hearing about your success with this load on big game that you aluded to in your post. Particularly interested in distances shot. I did take a small mule deer a couple of years ago with a Sig 40 S&W at about 40 yards and have an interest in doing more.

For big game, i hunt with the 6" open sighted S&W M-29 in the picture, and the biggest animial i've harvested is Moose. The longest shot i've taken is about 55 yards and it was on a bull moose.. I hit it in the shoulder as it was standing broadside and it ran, my second shot hit it as it was running and was about 2" from the first shot as the bull ran out of sight into a heavily wooded area. When i walked into the woods, i found the moose down about 50 or 60 yards from where the first bullet hit him. I finished him off when i walked up to him.

Both bullets went through the shoulder blade but did not exit. I cast my bullets (RCBS mould 44-250KT) so i can "just scratch them" with my thumb nail, useing any scrap lead i can find includeing wheelweights. I then add pure tin to harden the lead to get it alloyed to where i want it.

I personally do NOT consider revolvers to be good long range hunting weapons for big game. I will NOT take longer shots, even though i hit very good out to 200 yards or so... To me 100 yards is a very long shot with a 44 mag. on big game..

DM

I own a S & W 29, 6 1/2" bbl, blue. If I need a full power load, I buy factory, or will use 2400, H 110, 296, N 110.

For "defense", "plinking ( with a 44! HA! let´s call it "training" ) I use a 245 KT bullet with either Unique, or N 340:

~ 10.5 grains N 340 are hefty enough! N 340 is cleaner burning than Unique and meters better. Will beat or equal any classic 45 Colt load and should dispatch any two legged Varmint. Slightly hotter and is tops for self defense, IMO, because of good combination of power and recoil. Accuracy is EXCELLENT.

Slightly lighter is better for longer shooting strings.

H

quote:

Originally posted by DM:

quote:

DM I would be interested in hearing about your success with this load on big game that you aluded to in your post. Particularly interested in distances shot. I did take a small mule deer a couple of years ago with a Sig 40 S&W at about 40 yards and have an interest in doing more.

For big game, i hunt with the 6" open sighted S&W M-29 in the picture, and the biggest animial i've harvested is Moose. The longest shot i've taken is about 55 yards and it was on a bull moose.. I hit it in the shoulder as it was standing broadside and it ran, my second shot hit it as it was running and was about 2" from the first shot as the bull ran out of sight into a heavily wooded area. When i walked into the woods, i found the moose down about 50 or 60 yards from where the first bullet hit him. I finished him off when i walked up to him.

Both bullets went through the shoulder blade but did not exit. I cast my bullets (RCBS mould 44-250KT) so i can "just scratch them" with my thumb nail, useing any scrap lead i can find includeing wheelweights. I then add pure tin to harden the lead to get it alloyed to where i want it.

I personally do NOT consider revolvers to be good long range hunting weapons for big game. I will NOT take longer shots, even though i hit very good out to 200 yards or so... To me 100 yards is a very long shot with a 44 mag. on big game..

DM

Thanks for sharing your experience. I've also done a fair amount of long range pistol practicing at long ranges 150-200 yards and found it helpful in monitoring trigger control. If you screw up a squeeze on a 44 mag at 200 yards you will miss the target by yards. In hunting situations I just plain don't think that I could hit something out there beyond 50 yards.

I've been using the H110 with the 240 GRN HP in my 44 Mag. I also use it for my 50 AE.

I have been shooting 240 gr JHP 24 gr H110 for 10 years in my S&W 29-4.

It kicks just right.

Why do I use WW296? Cause Graf's had it on special and I got a rebate coupon from Olin's Big Red W club to boot!! It works great in both my S&W 357 mag and 44 mag.

quote:

Originally posted by bfrshooter:
Hornady dies are the only ones I have found to make the most accurate loads.

Can you tell me a little more about this?


Okie John

I like the Hornady titanium size ring (Of course a good carbide die would also work.) because I can neck size so the back of the case fits the chamber closer. I size just below where the base of a seated boolit goes and only full length when a case gets hard to chamber.
The Hornady expander is just the right diameter and only goes in the case about .200" which leaves the rest of the sized portion as is to provide good case tension.
The seating die is super too, keeping the boolit in line, plus it is easy to adjust.
I have just never found better revolver dies and even have switched most of my rifle dies over. Their 45-70 dies are great.
I scrapped most of my RCBS revolver dies and grit my teeth when I have to use any I didn't swap out yet. I used to have to measure seating pressure and sort all loads to get any accuracy. I would have ten or more separate piles on my bench, all with different case tension.
I won't accept any load from my revolvers that doesn't average 1" or much less at 50 yd's. All of my revolvers have shot many groups as small as 9/16" at 50 yd's. A few S&W 29's have held 1/2" (Those were shot open sights, Creedmore, when I could still see good.) but they are too grip sensitive for IHMSA silhouette. They were a pain when I could hit the first five dead center with a group you could cover with a quarter, then miss the next five because I could not hold the gun exactly the same. For being super accurate guns, the S&W's need a grip change big time.

I have used w-296 and find what I group in the warm weather is NOT what I group at hunting time. It appears to me to be very temperature sensitive and not as reliable as 110 or 2400 or AA9.

quote:

Originally posted by bfrshooter:
For being super accurate guns, the S&W's need a grip change big time.

Thanks for the information on the dies. How would you change S&W's N-frame grips?


Okie John

Not sure but it has something to do with the angle and maybe in the relation to the bore line too. I found the Super Redhawk needs just a firm grip but is not sensitive how it is held so maybe if it was matched real close, it would make the S&W better.
Bishopgrandpa, H110 and 296 are the same powders, just a shade difference in burn rate. I shoot 296 all year with no changes in groups. These are some of the least heat sensitive powders. I never changed point of impact or grouping when shooting IHMSA even when the gun was too hot to touch. I target shoot when it is bitter cold and the boolits also hit deer where aimed.

quote:

Originally posted by okie john:

quote:

Originally posted by bfrshooter:
For being super accurate guns, the S&W's need a grip change big time.

Thanks for the information on the dies. How would you change S&W's N-frame grips?


Okie John

I took the factory wood grips off my S&W 29-4 and put on soft rubber Gripper grips that really fit my hand and gave me control. Unfortunately, it also gave me recoil pain. It seems those slippery wooden grips allow the pistol to spin up in the hand and spread the recoil over time and area.

We used to put cardboard in the center of old tires and roll them down a hill. Blasting at them double action with the 29 left nice checkering on the hand. Sure was fun though and we managed to hit quite a few too.