I mounted an old Redfield 1-4x on an old model carbine. Dry-fires with no reticle movement, bases, rings, action, and barrel band are nice and tight.

It sprays 250 gr Nosler HG partitions very dependably into 5 MOA.

You guys have any tips on bedding this action or barrel band pressure?

I'm exploring lighter bullets but surely it should put about anything into 3 MOA.

Thanks.

Steve,
I bought a used one last week, also the old model.
I went to the range on Friday and fired 240 grains sierra (I think) and 300 grains speer,
Without scope, only iron sight, the best group was with the 240 grainers, but with both of them I was a little disappointed with the accuracy at 50 metres, not bad but.....
Do you know any detachable rings for this kind of scope mount?
I bought the bullets from the gunshop so I don't know the powder/charges.
Any recomendation for use in pigs??
Thanks
LG

My father has a carbine, for which I tried to develop several loads. It never shot well with cast or jacketed bullets, and I moved on to something more promising. I'd be interested in hearing from those who have them shoot well. In articles about this gun, I have never heard of its accuracy, but neither were problems noted.

I've never owned a Ruger 44 carbine, but I like shooting and I did try to find a good accurate load for a friend who owns one. Note that my comments below refer to the semi-automatic version of 20-30 years ago, not recent variants...

I'm afraid I was never able to get better than 4 inches at 100 yards (and most loads did 5 inches or worse). This was in spite of testing every commercial load I could find at the time (about the year 1980) My buddy was not a reloader and wasn't interested in buying the dies so that I could reload for him.

The really BAD trigger really made it difficult to shoot well, but I often wondered if the twist rate was a bit too slow as well. The best load I found was indeed one of the lighter bullets...

Still, he has shot truckloads of whitetails with that rifle! I recall one animal he shot at "long" range (perhaps 150 yards) -- 4 quick shots, 2 through the the lungs... venison!

jpb

I have one and a guy who works with me has two. All three are equally poor shooters. Mine will shoot about 6 moa at 100 yards. Sometimes it shoots a bit worse, but still good enough to get a deer at useful distance. Mine is sighted in for 75 yards and can hit a gallon jug at that distance if I use a rest of some sort.

Steve - I just got rid of my Ruger M77 bolt action .44 mag for the same reason. They just aren't very accurate rifles at that range. End of story.

I had a Marlin .44 mag. that shot very well, less than 1.5 inches even with Keith type cast bullets. After I missed a running doe three times a 100 yards closing to about 50, I went home and did the math. Lead at 50 yards was over six feet.

I sold the gun and went to a Savage 99 in .250-3000. Never regretted it for hunting, but wish I had that rifle back for Cowboy Action Matches.

My old carbine has the holes on the top of the barrel a little off center so I can not get a scope to mount on it easily. I have never been overly impressed with its accuracy.

leftoverdj---

That must have been one FAAAASSStt-ass doe!!!! or you were shooting that 44 in flintlock mode.

I haven't done the math but I pass shoot (at) birds against a water background nearly every day with a single action 41 mag at 1050 fps. Eighteen inches of lead at 50 yards will kill an unfortunate coot often enough to surprise both of us.

JBelk,

Let's walk through it. Doe at 30 mph = 44 fps. Fifty yards = 150 feet. Figger a muzzle velocity of 1500 fps and an average velocity of maybe 1350 over fifty yards. Transit time would be a smitch over .11 seconds. Doe would move 5 feet in that time. I know I said 6', but I may have used a slightly different set of assumptions.

Anyway, I have a lot more faith in my 250-3000. I have faster, more powerful, more accurate. but I don't have anything that will get to my shoulder faster and put a bullet roughly where I want it.

Just my opinion, but that is what makes horse races.

PS, JBelk

You have good taste in pistols. Mid-range load in .41 mag is one of the all time greats. I spent one season trying to shoot my way into expert class in PPC with a S&W 57 w/ 210 cast bullets at about 1100 fps. I could do it for a match or two, but never could put the three in a row I needed ogether. Sure had fun trying,

You both are probably correct about lead.

Jack is probably using sustained lead whereas Leftoverdj's computation is correct if the barrel is stationary. Lock time would also be a factor.

As for the carbine, I'm going to bed the barrel forward of the gas port and slim down the foreend. Probably will hollow the butt a little to gain back a little weight on the muzzle.

In other words, make everybody else's more collectible.

I bought an old Ruger 44 for $180.
I scoped it and got lousy accuracy with my usual 44 mag load of 240 gr JHP 24 gr H110.

I found out I had a loose scope and got some one hole groups at 50 meters just minutes before I blew the end of the barrel off from a stuck bullet.

I ran into a guy that collects old carbines. He said he has seen a dozen in the same condition as mine. He says no one makes replacement barrels. So I had a guy weld some smooth bore on the end. It gets worse goups than my pocket pistol! It turns out the twist rate in an old carbine is so slow it needs every last twist to keep from key holing.