Hello,

I am looking for loads that would produce A LOT of muzzle flash from my .44mag revolver(7.5" barrel). I take some of my non-gun-owning friends shooting sometimes, this is meant to impress them

Thanks

My old favorite Winchester-recommended load of 25 grains 296 under a 240 grain lead bullet always produced a tremendous flash out of my 7 1/2 inch Super Blackhawk, along with a good satisfying boom and hefty recoil.

I've gone to using surplus WC820 .30 Carbine powder now, and it has to be loaded down a bit from those 296 loads. It's faster burning. Still makes a good flash and bang and gives about the same ballistics.

2400 is a good flasher, too. Haven't used any since the days when the old Elmer Keith load of 22 grains 2400 under a 240-250 grain bullet was standard. I've seen some manuals with lower max loads lately; they may have changed the powder.

I second the vote for W-296 or it's twin H-110. These powders can make a pretty big fire ball! I have burned up quite a bit in 357 Magnum and the flash is frequently visible in bright daylight. With these powders, do not reduce maximum loads by more than about 5%, otherwise you may see some wild velocity swings. Use a hard roll or profile crimp, otherwise you will get inconsistant velocity and accuracy. I would use either Winchester Large Pistol or CCI large pistol Magnum primers with these powders (WLP primers are hot enough that they do not need to make a separate Magnum primer).

If you want a better show, shoot a max. load of W296 under a 200gr bullet from a 4" bbl. rev. Pretty amazing how much flash it will produce.

I agree on 2400 and 296. I have a max load for my .357 with 125 HP's, and the muzzle flash is spectacular.

Max charge of WW296 with Hornady XTP bullets. In my gun this is 29.7g.

I USUALLY GET A PRETTY GOOD MUZZLE FIREBALL FROM 16 GR. OF 2400 IN THE MODEL 27.

Looks like we got it narrowed down to those several powders. Thanks again!

Gents,
I believe the chap is looking for big report and blecking flames....
I too burn large amounts of 296, in a 45 lc... and while it's LOUD it's NOT a flamenweffer

take something STUPID to use in a 44, like h414, and like 25 grains starting... and barely get the bullet out of the gun... 850 fps?? but 70+% of the powder will burn OUTSIDE the barrel... according to quickload

jeffe

Hi Pyrotek

I'll e-mail you some pictures we took using H-110.I don't know how to put then on this web site but I think these are the loads you are looking for.

Good luck and good shooting, The Big Dog

If you used something like H414, you wouldn't get a big fireball. You'd get lots of unburned powder. The big flash isn't from powder grains burning outside the barrel, it's from combustible gases produced by the powder's burning INSIDE the barrel coming out at a high enough temperature to ignite when it mixes with the outside air, producing a secondary muzzle flash. (The primary one is the little red squirt you get from the incandescence of particles in the powder gas.) Nitrocellulose itself makes some combustible gases like carbon monoxide and hydrogen, but while they can ignite and heat up the smoke particles, the really pretty fire comes from organic vapors derived from residual solvents, stabilizers like diphenylamine, and deterrents like dibutyl phthalate in the powder. Many powders (like the IMR powders) have a small amount of chemicals like potassium sulfate added to reduce muzzle flash. They act much like tetraethyl lead did in the old leaded gasoline, inhibiting free radical chain reactions to slow autoignition of the fuel-air mixture, in this case until the expanding gases cool too much to ignite. A powder with a large amount of a nonenergetic deterrent like dibutyl phthalate (like the slow-burning Ball powders) will burn cooler because of the excessive fuel present in the gas, so is less likely to flash if there's sufficient expansion in the barrel to cool it to the point that it's unlikely to autoignite. But put the same powder in a dense load in a big cartridge with a low expansion ratio and it'll come out hot enough to light off, and the extra fuel will make a big flash. That's what's happening in the .44 Mag with 296. Most .45 Colts can't be safely loaded to a high enough pressure to adequately burn this stuff and make the necessary hot gas cloud that produces the big flash. But I can attest that the load I first mentioned does make an impressive flash. Try it for yourself.

[ 10-10-2003, 23:55: Message edited by: NotRicochet ]