accurate #7 for 44 special

[akinswi]

I loaded 7.7 grns of accurate #7 with a 240grn FN plated bullet for 44special using Remington large pistol primers and overall length is 1.59 and having issues with a lot of unburnt powder and squibs. I use lee factory crimp die. any help would greatly be appreciated. Im shooting the loads out of my ruger super black hawk hunter in 44mag.

[Pathfinder45]

I think your load may be a little light. Since you are using it in a 44 magnum you should be entirely safe with a maximum charge for 44 Special. I don't know what to think of your primers as I have never used Remington primers. I use a lot of WLP, CCI, and Federal primers. I think AA7 is more suited to medium-heavy loads, not lighter target loads. So, yeah, I'd use more powder or go to a faster burning powder if you want light target loads.

[Nick_C_S]

Oh yeah, your charge is way light. Speer #14 shows a hard cast 250g starting at 10.6 grains. If it were me, I'd start there.

As previously mentioned by Pathfinder45, since you are shooting from a 44 Magnum, you have plenty of safety "head room." Not to mention that AA7 is a slow and forgiving propellant on top of that.

Load 'er up.

[SSA]

Like they said. Way light.
#7 can work real well in this application.

[Nick_C_S]

#7 can work real well in this application.

It can. But you're going to have to load it up real good. AA7 is a bit slow, but the heavy slugs are going to work in your favor.

Nowdays, we load with the powders we can find. Like Pathfinder45 said, a faster powder would be more in the wheelhouse for this application.

[SSA]

Okay.
#7 has worked really well for me, especially with a 240 gr cast bullet in a 44 magnum case at about 1050 fps.

[rclark]

I liked AA#7 11.0g (999fps) and 11.5 (1050fps) when I was testing it.... At least I marked the loads as accurate. I prefer the Skeeter load for my my .44 Specials (except for the Bulldog). If I was using the AA powders for .44Spec, I'd go with AA#5 . It's excellent for this application.

[sawdustdad]

This is good news to me, too. I managed to get several pounds of AA#7 this week, and have been looking at uses. .44 plinking/target loads is one of my needs.

Loaded some 20 rounds with a minimum (Lyman manual starting) load of IMR4227 last night. Hope to test them this weekend.

Any port in a storm as they say..

[Pathfinder45]

I confess that I have never owned a 44 Special or magnum. So my comments are only qualified to the extent that I have a lot of experience with a similar cartridge, that is, 45 Colt. The powders that work well for me tend to be the same ones that work well in the 44's. IMR-4227 is a good magnum pistol powder that is more flexible than H-110/W-296 in that it has a wider range between starting loads and maximum loads. Still, it is at it's best when loaded closer to maximum, if you already have AA-7 for the mid-range loads as AA-7 uses less powder to get the same velocity. IMR-4227 can take you to higher velocity,........at the expense of more powder.

[Nick_C_S]

If I was using the AA powders for .44Spec, I'd go with AA#5 . It's excellent for this application.

I completely agree rclark.

One of my 44 Spl loadings (I don't shoot a lot of 44Spl/Mag) is 9.0g AA5.

[Slamfire]

I am of the opinion that AA#5 is a better 44 Special powder than the slower burning AA#7. When these ball powders are loaded below their optimum pressure levels, you get all sorts of unburnt granules. I tested AA#5 and used Acurate's data from one of their loading manuals. I really don't trust Accurate Arms data and this was another example, their velocities were much higher than I got using their data. Sometimes their starting data creates an overpressure load. Anyway I quickly dumped their guidance and got pretty good results around 8.5 to 9.0 grains.

  4" M624   			
					
240 LSWC Valiant 6.1 grs AA#5  thrown,  Lot 35 590,  Mixed Brass WLP	
T = 62 °F	25-Feb-07				
		 			
Ave Vel =	523.1				
Std Dev =	31.1		 		
ES =	121.9		 		
Low = 	585.1				
High = 	463.1				
N =	28				

Accurate, light recoil, lots of unburnt powder	
					
240 LSWC Valiant 6.7 grs AA#5  Lot 35 590 Mixed Brass WLP	
T = 62 °F	25-Feb-07				
					
Ave Vel =	571.1				
Std Dev =	34.46		 		
ES =	142.6		 		
Low = 	645.4				
High = 	503.4				
N =	32				

accurate, light recoil, lots of unburnt powder	
					
240 LSWC Valiant 8.5 grs AA#5 Lot 35 590  Mixed Brass WLP	
T = 64 °F	3-Mar-07				
Ave Vel =	790.4				
Std Dev =	30.69				
ES =	134				
High = 	845.7				
Low = 	711.6				
N =	32				

Accurate			
					
240 LSWC Valiant 9.0 grs AA#5 Lot 35 590  Mixed Brass WLP	
T = 64 °F	3-Mar-07				
Ave Vel =	845.5				
Std Dev =	17.43				
ES =	51.74				
High = 	869.9				
Low = 	818.1				
N =	10				

Very Accurate		
			
					
240 LSWC Valiant 9.5 grs AA#5 Lot 35 590  Mixed Brass WLP	
T = 64 °F	3-Mar-07				
		 			
Ave Vel =	901.3				
Std Dev =	13.6				
ES =	41.57				
High = 	922.6				
Low = 	881				
N =	8				

Very Accurate, barrel leading

[rclark]

One of my 44 Spl loadings (I don't shoot a lot of 44Spl/Mag) is 9.0g AA5.

9.5g under 240g SWC is mark accurate+ in my table (1029fps, 7 SD, 26 ES, 15 shots). The 9.0g (975fps, 11 SD, 33 ES, 15 shots) is also marked as accurate. When using AA#5, 9.5g is what I load.

, their velocities were much higher than I got using their data

Different gun, different barrel lengths, etc... All make a difference.

[Nick_C_S]

The 9.0g (975fps, 11 SD, 33 ES, 15 shots) is also marked as accurate. When using AA#5, 9.5g is what I load.

I'm not surprised the 9.5 is a better loading. I've never done a full workup on the combo. I just toss together the 9.0g loads for general purpose shooting. I've never even chronographed them.

[rclark]

For some reason, I found it 'easy' to find good loads for the .44Special. Just about every one I tried I've marked as accurate and some I felt were exceptional... With my .45 Colt and now the .32 H&R Mag, I had/have to work at it to find a load that satisfies my accuracy needs.... Go figure. Going out again tomorrow (weather permitting) to test 3 more loads for the .32....

[Sevens]

This is good news to me, too. I managed to get several pounds of AA#7 this week, and have been looking at uses.

This powder seems to fly under the radar, in my experience.

I use it to very good effect in the .327 Federal Magnum, where it can really make both 85 and 100gr jacketed slugs just haul. It's also supposed to be a really good powder if you want to run 10mm to it's natural ability, and like all of the Accurate brand powders, it's so easy to work with in any measure.

Accurate also does a fine job of publishing many good loads and their published guides are quick/free/easy .pdf downloads on their website. Very handy when you print them out. I've got a whole collection of them, my oldest one runs back to 1989 and I find it interesting and somewhat informative to see how the data slides up or down a little bit, and not exactly in the manner most would predict.

If you are looking for any specific calibers/bullet weights for AA#7, post them and I can do some digging across these guides.

[Nick_C_S]

So far, I like AA7.

I've gotten it to roar with 158g 357 Mags. At 11.2g, my primers were starting to get flat and it took a little extra push to extract the cases. Seemed like a good stopping point to me. This load is in compliance with Speer #14.

1191 fps through my 686 3" bbl. SD = 17.11
1272 fps through my 686 4" bbl. SD = 11.66

So I'm quite pleased with it for full power 158's through shorter barrels. Getting good velocities without a lot of flash and recoil, like a magnum-slow powder would develop. For my street cannons (8-3/8" bbls), I go with W296 of course.

I haven't gotten to tinker with AA7 for my 10mm's yet, but I have a feeling results will be excellent.

[sawdustdad]

Accurate also does a fine job of publishing many good loads and their published guides are quick/free/easy .pdf downloads on their website.

Yes, Western Powder's loading data download is quite good. I've got a copy stapled together on my loading bench. I've also been using Hodgdon's on line reloading data, as well as a new Lymans #49 manual. It's interesting that all these sources show different max loads compared to my Speer and Hornady books from about 1987.

I haven't tried AA #7 in .44 sp yet, but plan to when my next shipment of plated bullets arrives.

[Sevens]

Without specifically knowing a load ahead of time, I would always guess/bet that Lyman 49 is going to be a lower max load than every other source. For some reason that's not been mentioned, it's just more reserved than most any published source I ever dig through. Lyman does often list a slew of odd bullets though, and the manual is a solid, interesting book.

[akinswi]

Have some CCI magnum pistol primers, Ill up the charge around 10.6 accurate #7 with the magnum primers see how they run.

Sorry with the late reply. Been loading alot of 45acp and 9mm havent had the chance to look at this post.

[Mike Irwin]

If you're just loading plinking loads for the .44 Special, I can't recommend Trail Boss highly enough.

I was using 231 in my Specials, and was not happy with the ballistic uniformity.