This weekend, I fired some old loads with 24.5g of H110 with 240 Horady JHP. Anyway, I noticed the primer a little distorted or crushed on every 7 or so. Also, the round was thunderous with tremidous recoil. Do you think I was hitting maximum? They wasn't hard to extract. When I loaded them several years ago, I don't remember having trouble.

Also, for the past few years, I have only went to the pistol range with Unique 10g. So the difference was a little more than I remembered.

I have never exceeded the 24 gr 240 gr book load for 44 mag in my S&W 29-4. I have shot the same load over and over for years.

I HAVE pushed the limits beyond the book loads just to see what would happen in 23 other calibers [usually case failure, some gun failures].

I think one of the things holding me back in the 44 mag is that it already kicks hard enough.

Ya know, I got that max load from Hornady. But after looking at Hodgdon's data, I think I will back off to 24 or 23.5g. Every once in a while when your all stressed out, going and shooting 100 heavy H110 loads will be the medicine the doctor ordered.

I routinely shoot a Hornady 240 gr. JHP with 24.7gr. of W296 (same as H110). It is extremely accurate in my Ruger SRH and shows no signs of excessive pressure.