I just received some 300 grain Cast Performance bullets for my 44 Redhawk. I started out with the recommended loading of 19.5 grains of 296. I am now up to 21.5 grains and still see no pressure signs. Primers are nice and round and no split cases. What do I need to look for? I do not have a chronograph and rely on seat of the pants and visual aids, as well as accuracy, for my load work.
Thanks for all replies,
Todd

It sounds like your looking for the right things although ease of extraction from the cylinder might also be some thing to look at. There will always be a difference in max loads because of difference in reloading technique. My friend with his SRH can always use more powder then I do in mine because his crimps aren't as heavy as mine. Seating depth is also a consideration. Slim

I agree with Slim. Out of my handguns the first sign of pressure has allways been a hard extraction, or when you cant turn the gun over and bump the cartridges loose with the ejector rod but they must be pushed most of the way.

The best way is with a chronograph. Pressure and velocity are directly related. In a handgun, pressure signs are excessive pressure signs, and a highly unreliable, and potentially dangerous way to judge your loads.

The redhawk is a strong gun, but you need to use prudence in your loads. Depending on barrel length, I'd say 1200-1300 fps is reasonable, folks have gone faster, though it isn't recomended.

I have pushed a 330 gr 1300 fps from a 4 5/8" super blackhawk, though I don't recomend doing so, but I did it w/o sticky cases, or pressure signs, that said, it was an over max load. Only way to know where you are is a chrono.

With H110, there is a spot where the velocities become very consistant, and typically, that will be where your accuracy is best. Load for accuracy over velocity though, whether 1200 or 1400, the 300 will penetrate!

As Paul suggests, some over max loads will let the cases literally fall out into your hand. It looks mild, but it ain't.

Instead of pushing the 44 to its max. buy something bigger 480 or 454.

Sorry guys but if you rely upon visible signs ONLY you will easily get into trouble. Excellent article by Seyfried in the new Handloader covers this in depth. I could try to explain but I defer to Ross in this area.

Todd
Check the case head and if it expansion more then one thousandth you have high pressure this is the easy way. With a 300gr hard cast H110 I can go to 23.5gr 1285fps with on trouble if you can get some Vihtavouri N110 you can push them a little faster I use 19.2gr of N110 and get 1492fps and this is a safe load in my RSR 91/2

Boltgun, I've read and experience a bit on this subject and offer the following. Handgun brass is much like shotgun shells, you likely won't know your over pressure until something breaks. Case head expansion doesn't show much until you get to rifle, especially magnum rifle, pressures. Same with primer and primer pockets. Sticky brass is a nuisance, and often one brand will stick, Winchester usually for me, but with the same load Federal won't. Start with published loads for your handgun, and use velocity as your guide from there. Some very experienced reloaders have found themselves off the chart when there loads were tested in pressure barrels. Take care and enjoy. I love the Cast Performance bullets in my .45 colt Redhawk.

some questions on primers as signs of overpressure:

some of the comm. loads i got flaten the primer in my .357 and my .454, these aren't overpressure loads, are they?

if not, then using a primer is not very good sign, if so. i don't know where to go...

is a chrono the best way to judge for overpressure? aside from a pricey oehler machine?
thanks, nate

This is just an opinion. There ARE others out there who know more than I, and, as a result, there MAY be those who arrive at different conclusions. They are probably wrong.

Even in a rifle, many of which safely operate at quite high pressure, so-called pressure signs are often or usually evidence of having greatly exceeded proper pressure levels. See Art Alphins's A-Square reloading manual, available from Sinclair.

When you get to most pistols, and I believe that this holds true even for the SRH, the safe pressure is somewhat lower than that of a rifle. And the signs aren't usually, or maybe ever, any more sensitive.

It shouldn't be very hard to conclude from the above what so-called pressure signs are worth.

Speaking in practical terms, I have an S&W M29. Now, anyone who knows enough about .44 Mags that he should be reloading for them knows that there are loads, including over-the-counter store-bought cartridges, that are safe in the SRH and unsafe or progressively destructive in the M29. Don't you imagine that the "pressure signs" are the same in both revolvers?

The same type of margin, even if perhaps narrower, exists between the SRH and rifles. Yet even for rifles, the guys who know what they're talking about advocate not relying on pressure signs, but rather on load data and velocities achieved by people with access to pressure-measuring equipment.

Enough said. At least if you wear eye protection, you can relax, knowing that the thing will spit brass & gas two feet away from your head, not next to it. Hands are replaceable (sort of). Eyes and heads aren't.

[This message has been edited by Recono (edited 12-13-2001).]