What are you guy's favorite loads for the good old 44-40? I just bought a brand spankin' new Marlin 1894 and want to relaod for it. I don't want to load it up like a 44 mag, but I also don't want an anemic (sp?) cowboy load. Just something that is safely within the potential of a modern rifle action without being a lame cowboy action load designed for a 120 year old pistol.

My favorite is 12.8 grains of Bluedot and either a 200 JSP or 225 Lead. I use the old Lyman 42798 mold and mine drop out at 225 grains. Way better than either factory or "cowboy" loads but no where near 44 mag levels.

I can shoot ragged one hole groups at 25 yds with my S&W N frame.

I've been using anywhere from 7 to 9.5 Unique with the Lyman 42798 boolit. Several different primers, too.

The 9.5 Unique was a tad hot for my original '73, though.

205 gr. lead bullets:

14 gr. 2400. The recoil seems less violent and less blast than Unique, in pistols anyway. More of a "boom" than a harsh blast. This is my favorite load.

9 gr. Unique. shoots great too, see above.

Stay away from loads using huge amounts of 2400 that are found in old lyman manuals. They listed somthing like 27 grains 2400 with a 200 grain bullet. Way too hot!! These loads give 30-30 energies. They may be OK in strong modern rifles like my Remington 14 1/2. But, if you want a 44 mag buy a 44 mag. Don't hot rod your 44-40. It will only damage your rifle. I once shot one of these super loads in a Peacmaker replica, by mistake. It It gave over 1600 fps and scared me pretty good. I now only load for my weakest gun of that caliber. A mix-up could be tragic.

I have the most fun with my BP 44-40 loads. It is more powerful than the smokeless factory loads. I also load Unique (and have tried 2400) similar to the loads mentioned above. In order to keep the hotter loads so that I don't get them in the wrong gun, I load a jacketed SP with hot loads and lead with mild loads. Even if they get separated from their marked boxes, I can tell instantly what is in them.

I have an early 1990's 44-40 Marlin 1894 that has microgroove rifling. It is a tackdriver with jacketed bullets. I had some problems with lead loads. However, I have worked that out by loading semi-hard (Bhn 15-16) bullets sized to 0.431" in them. These are just as accurate as the jacketed and don't lead. Fortunately, the chamber is large enough to take the oversized bullet.