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Old June 14, 2011, 02:24 AM   #1
Gunn Smithy
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Need a 44 Mag Handgun Hunting Mold/Load

Just a little background for you; I'm now 50 and my first gun was bought by me at 18 (a shotgun) and have been shooting/reloading/casting ever since. My hunting is a little more sparse. Guns I've hunted with are 22's both pistol and rifle, 30-30 lever, 308 bolt, 7mm bolt, 58 Zouave, and mainly a 12 gauge shotgun. Game has ranged from squirrels, dove, quail, rabbit, chukkar, turkey, up to deer and antelope. After 25+ years of registered skeet shooting in the NSSA, my target shooting is now Cowboy Action Shooting. My gun locker is filled with old west themed 45 LC's and 12 gauges and I load and cast for black powder loads for both.

Even though I have a few 45 Bisley's for the old west shooting, what I'm doing now is I have a new Ruger Bisley Hunter in 44 Magnum as well as a Ruger Alaskan in the same caliber. Most of my reloading/casting gear is single stage Lee stuff of which I am quite happy with. I am now looking for a heavy duty multible cavity (2 to 4) mold, maybe with gas check?, For the 44 with the intention of shooting feral hogs out of the 7 1/2" Bisley Hunter. I have never shot any game over 100 yards and my scope will be a fixed 4 power Leupold. I said "load" in the header, and what I meant by that was more a mold like Lee, Lyman, or other name brand that would have load data floating around that I could use having a beefy load that I might need for shooting hogs.

This is the first time I've ventured out in this area and will probably enlist the assistance of a professional guide (since I really don't know what I'm doing and using a hand gun to boot). But would like to have the load all dialed in and ready to go before I show up. Thanks in advance for any assistance you guys can offer. Smithy.
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Old June 14, 2011, 07:44 AM   #2
Rifleman1776
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You have a good gun and scope combo there.
For my Ruger Redhawk I used commercially hard cast Keith style SWCs.
I do have favorite loads, but have decided to not publish on forum anymore. With all the experience you have shooting, I suggest you just look in your reloading manuals for starting points. Sorry for the put-off. But, I'll also suggest part of the fun of reloading and shooting, for me, was the testing, which involves shooting. Good luck.
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Old June 14, 2011, 08:01 AM   #3
reloader28
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I like the Lee 310gr FN gas check. I aint shot animals with it, but it really "thwacks" the target loud. They say its a hell of a hunting bullet with some heavy doses of 2400 or 296 powder.
Shoots good in my pistol. I'm working on some 44mag rifle loads right now.
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Old June 14, 2011, 11:46 AM   #4
Gunn Smithy
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Quote:
I like the Lee 310gr FN gas check. I aint shot animals with it, but it really "thwacks" the target loud. They say its a hell of a hunting bullet with some heavy doses of 2400 or 296 powder.
Shoots good in my pistol. I'm working on some 44mag rifle loads right now.
Thanks Reloader 28! That's right up my alley for mold manufacturer and the grain I was thinking I might approach as well as a powder (2400) that I might like to try (first time back into smokeless in a Long time). Lee molds are so inexpensive as well, it won't cost much to work up a few loads to see how it works/recoils/groups etc. By the way, do you know; Is 2400 a bulky powder? In other words with a near maximum load and that big of a bullet will most of the case capacity be taken up? In an ideal world I'd prefer for about half to three quarters of the available space taken up with the powder load.

In my black powder loadings it was easy, all of the available space was taken up with powder and the powder was slightly compressed (no double charges here). With smokeless I don't want that extreme, but would like to have the "no chance of double charges" feature ie. more than 50 percent of the space taken up with powder. Just a thought. Smithy.
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Old June 14, 2011, 12:01 PM   #5
GeauxTide
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I would choose the RCBS 250K or the 300. RCBS is more expensive, but more bettah.
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Old June 14, 2011, 07:01 PM   #6
Clifford L. Hughes
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Gunn Smithy:

In my three .44 magnums I shoot Lyman's 429244 if I remember the mold number correctly. It's a 250 grain Keath gas check wad cutter shot without the gas checks. I load it over hefty charges of 2400, 296, H110 or accurate 9.

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Old June 14, 2011, 09:28 PM   #7
GP100man
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429421 240ish SWC , cast soft over 8gr. of Herco ,or cast hard & 20gr of 2400 or some H-110.

This is a plain based booilt the 429244 is the Gas checked SWC.

I`ve seen some 44s shoot the lee real good !!

The trick to shooting lead is haveing the throats a little larger than bore then fit the boolit to the throats !!

A good source for the caster is at Castboolits.gunloads !!!!
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Old June 14, 2011, 10:45 PM   #8
reloader28
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If I remember right, my 17.5-18gr of 2400 is around 2/3 or so of a case full.
It seems like a decent load so far, but I'm still playing.
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Old June 14, 2011, 11:29 PM   #9
jmortimer
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You might want to spend some time over at Cast Boolits site. I would check out Accurate molds and LBT molds.
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Old June 15, 2011, 06:21 AM   #10
PawPaw
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I run 19.0 grains of 2400 under a 240 grain SWC. That gives me 1350 fps from my 7.5 inch Ruger and good accuracy.
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Old June 15, 2011, 10:44 PM   #11
grubbylabs
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I cast a 265 grain gas check Ranch Dog mold. Info about it can be found at http://www.ranchdogoutdoors.com/. Many people on the castboolits web site will give good reviews on his molds. It is a mold of his design made by Lee. I have a two cavity that was given to me and I am very happy with it. It is a tumble lube bullet if that makes a difference.

Once mine are lubed and the gas check is on they come in at 270 grains so I use the data from my Speer book. I am loading 18.5 grains of Win 296 which they list as the starting load. I shoot this out of a Smith and Wesson 329 PD which is a scandium framed revolver with a 4" barrel. It shoots very well out of this gun.

I also load this up for my .444 and it shoots equally as well in the lever action as it does in the revolver.

I am using water dropped WW with a little solder added. I size with a Lee .430 sizing die.

If Ranch dog only sells the 6 cavity mold and you only want 2-4 cavity molds then I would look at accurate molds. Tom will make any mold you want. I am very happy with the one I purchased from him. He communicates mostly by email but is very prompt about it. Tom makes a top notch product and has equally good customer service.

Best of luck to you
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Old June 16, 2011, 12:07 AM   #12
GreenMachine
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So you wish to have a hunting load do you. Ok here is a good one.

Lee 310Gr RNFP/GC sized at .431 but first check the throats in your cylinder. with 21.O-21.5Gr of W-296 or H-110 Rem Case with a Standard Primer not the Mag primer. And set the bullet out as far as it will go or to say to the bottom crimp groove.


Another if you do not wish to have that much recoil is the 431244 SWC/GC sized at .431 in a Rem Case with 23.0Gr of H-110 or W-296 also with a Non Mag Large Pistol Primer.

As a heads up W-296 and H-110 is now the same stuff.

Have Fun

Here is a 50 yard Target with the 431244 SWC/GC with a Ruger Bisley Super Blackhawk Hunter. Yes it was my bad I pulled one lol.


Last edited by GreenMachine; June 16, 2011 at 12:15 AM.
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