Hello All,

Now that I have my .44 mag lever gun needs filled, I have a question for you reloaders. I have tons of experience reloading this cartridge in my Ruger SBH- basically I have stuck with a Speer Gold Dot (or Deep Curl as I believe they have renamed them) 270 grain soft point over a max charge of H110 as my go-to load. Tons of penetration on the sole whitetail I have taken with the handgun and very accurate.

My question is how much greater a charge could I load this cartridge for the rifle over my handgun? I will of course use the modern reloading manuals as a good place to start but I thought I would check here with the experts as well. I think I may try some of the Hornady Leverevolution bullets to get a better BC and maybe also try and hotrod this cartridge with the new CEB light-for-caliber offerings now available in handgun bullets.

In the interest of making sure I don't kaboom my SBH, I am going to color the bases of my loaded "rifle-strength" loads with a marker so I don't swap them up. The rifle I'm loading for is a Winchester 94 with a 24 inch barrel. Perhaps I should also just simplify life and load the same charge for both rifle and handgun but I thought why leave well-enough alone...

Thanks,

John

Common wisdom on loading pistol cartridges for rifles is to load them for your pistol then shoot them in you rifle.

My advice is to load to SAAMI spec for both and if you want a 444 then go buy one.

Overloading a cartridge because of some perceived action strength difference isn't the brightest thing to do.

You guys are no fun! I'll make sure to go by rifle guidelines/ SAAMI pressure criteria. Just looking for some lever gun pet loads.

-John

The Win. 94 dose not handle high pressures well. Be aware...Use some sense

quote:

You guys are no fun!

Some thing I haves learned after 50 some years of reloading is if you want bigger and faster by a bigger gun.

Its a lot nicer then blowing something up.

The Ruger handles pressure better than about any handgun on the market. That said, I would limit my rifle loads to those loads at maximum and work up to them slowly and carefully. Frankly, with the bullet weight and diameter, you really don't have to load it to the gills on medium sized game.

John, I have been loading a 240 gr. bullet in my sbh since the 1970's and have never had the slightest problem. Have since tried the load in two different .44 rifles and I get terrible feed ramp bulges from the unsupported chamber. I suspect this is why they lowered the pressures on the cartridge some years ago.
Just in case I have confused you with all this BS, I have found that the SBH will take MORE pressure than the rifle. Bernie

Thanks Bernie for the feedback, and others for their words of caution. I will go with the loads for my SBH and see what I come up with in the rifle. It sure is fun to shoot that gun- definitely will be a fun around-camp thumper!

-John

quote:

Originally posted by John Galt:
Thanks Bernie for the feedback, and others for their words of caution. I will go with the loads for my SBH and see what I come up with in the rifle. It sure is fun to shoot that gun- definitely will be a fun around-camp thumper!

-John

One point you need to know, the max pressure for the 44 is exactly the same whether in a handgun or rifle.
I use a Speer 240gr GD in Rem brass, Win pistol primers and 24gr's of 296 with a very firm crimp. Shoots 1" groups all day long in my 16" Rossi.

Cheers.

Thanks 416RigbyHunter. I will give that load a try. I essentially shoot the same load in my revolver, only with H110 (again, I believe the powders to be identical).

-John

I beg to differ w/ you Dave. I have been shooting 300grn, WFNGCs at 19-20 grns of H110 out of my Wich. Trapper since 1987 w/ no issues. On top of that I also use 300grn Nosler and 300grn XTPs at the same load. Been doing that load for the last 20yrs, w no issues. The Trapper loves the WFNGCs and Nosler. Point shoot, bang flop. Just sayin. To each his own.

I have found Li'l gun to be the powder of choice in my marlin 44 mag with heavy bullets. Just book loads, no need to push it past, as they are impressive as is.

John, I can't speak as to the Winchester 94, but I did load 44 Magnum for a Ruger NM Super Blackhawk and Marlin model 1894 and shoot out of both. A couple of examples were:

240hr Winchester JHP, 24.0hr H-110, CCI 350 prim

240gr Valiant cast LRN, 9.0gr AA#2, CCI 300 prim

In both cases, the cartridges shot and extracted well in the revolver, but had difficulty extracting from the carbine. So at least in my experience with this carbine, higher pressure loads than in the revolver would not have been a good thing. I have shot other loads in the carbine that worked fine, but they weren't in comparison to the revolver's.

Another couple things to think on. Lever action rifles are sometimes sensitive to overall length of the finished round and bullet shape. Some rifles will not feed semiwadcutters well and they will hang up going into the chamber. Some 44 mag rifles will feed both magnums and special cases with no problems, others will choke on the shorter specials. Generally speaking a more rounded shape (hollowpoint, softpoint or RNFP in a lead bullet) will feed the best. Finished ammo that is spot on OAL will generally feed the best. You can fix the rifle to run on what ever ammo you like by polishing and changing the timing on the carrier. Cowboy Action Shooters get this type of work done all the time for the 'race guns' they use.

You get higher velocity from thr rifle due to the barrel length why need hotter loads ?
Use a good bullet like Swift A frame ,Barnes or the deep curl .The Honady is fairly soft.

Just coming back to this post after a bit of a hiatus. Thanks again for all of the insight guys!

-John

When i reload 240gr jacketed for my Marlin 1894 i struggle to get past 1750fps from a 20" barrel.
QL says it is @ max. pressure anyways.
Heavier bullets will only steal powder space.

I have used a Nosler 300HP and H110 in both revolver and Marlin Leverguns with great success, on both deer and large/tough Russian boars. The bullet don't look tough...but it sure is.