Life is GOOD

[unclejack37]

Sold my single shot 410 shotgun to a fella and purchased his Super Blackhawk for a real good price. I wasn't looking for a 44 but when he told me the price I just could not say no, even when I realized she was going to kill when I brought this thing home. This is my first .44 mag and I always wanted one. They look so badass especially with a scope mounted on them. I finally got all the stuff I needed to start reloading .44 mag and came up with a recipe that felt pretty good in the hands of an old guy just turned 69.
I used Hodgson CFE pistol between 10.4 and 12 .8 grains, and a 180 grain XTP JHP bullet.
Book calls for 12.6 grains powder starting load for a 180 grain bullet, vel 1,466 f/s, 27,400 psi with a col of 1.600"
I ran 6 bullets thru at 10.4 grains and 6 at 12.8 grains. Distance of 25 yards. Using the red dot scope I put 4 of the 10 grains in the bullseye, 1 high 1 left. With the 12 grains I put 3 in the bullseye 2 high 1 low left. The other 6 of each I put a giant hole in the paper from 10 yards. I think I fell in love today. What a fun gun. I also ran some store bought rounds 280 grains JHP and some 44 special cowboy. I unloaded the Blackhawk after the first .44 special because it was so light I thought I had a squib. I had to inspect the barrel. Did I mention that I really, really like this handgun. I haven't had this much gun fun since my first day at the range with my AR. The range was indoors so the flash was really bright and I heard the lady in the booth next to me mention something about Jesus after the first round went off. Just a tad loud I think. Can't wait to get after some of those hogs in South Carolina. I'm gonna be making bacon. Just had to share this with someone.

[ligonierbill]

Nothing like a nice big bore revolver. Get ya some 240 XTP and H110 and let 'er rip. Good luck with those hogs.

[Dano4734]

Wonderful

[DaleA]

New Gun Day (NGD) is something a lot of us celebrate vicariously with you.

And Ruger has always had a soft spot in my heart. I like their tech videos on all their guns. I think they do a great job of supporting their products.

[tallball]

Congratulations!

I have a lot of handguns, but my SBH is easily my favorite.

[Prof Young]

I've had my Super Black Hawk 44 mag for only a couple of months but seriously enjoy shooting the beast. At 15 yards I can do a six inch group, not off a rest, if I really take my time and engage everything I know about shooting a pistol for each shot. It's one of those guns that will easily shoot as good as you do. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

Life is good.
Prof Young

[unclejack37]

Well, I finally got the Blackhawk out to the farm in South Carolina. I reloaded about 75 shells with 180 grain JHP with 14.6 grains of Hodgson CFE and had a blast. I couldn't believe the damage this thing does. I had 2 beer cans filled with water, when the bullet hit, the cans exploded into pieces. On my smaller calibers the can usually has a hole going in and the back of the can is split wide open. Both cans exploded into pieces. I tried it on a couple of plastic quart milk bottle and got the same result. Pieces all over the place. What an awesome gun. I need to get better grips because the factory wood ones are too small and slippery. Spent 6 days looking for a hog not a single sign of one. My neighbor thinks its been too hot and they're hanging in the marsh or wet lands till winter.

[Model12Win]

What an awesome story, congrats!

[LE-28]

Spent 6 days looking for a hog not a single sign of one. My neighbor thinks its been too hot and they're hanging in the marsh or wet lands till winter.

Pests are never around when you want to have some fun punching holes in them. It's like someone tips them off.

Nice gun by the way. You will (already are) have a ball with it.

[44 AMP]

Grips are a very individual thing. I use the rubber pachmayr grips, and swear by them. The gun still rolls a bit in the hand (as SA's are supposed to do) but less than with the stock wood grips, and I find the larger rubber grips much more comfortable, not to mention filling in behind the trigger guard keeps my middle finger from getting smartly rapped during recoil.

Some people have a fit when you put rubber grips on a single action, but I'm not one of them. I'll take improved performance over traditional looks any day.

I spend about 30 years with a .45 Blackhawk before getting a .44 Super Blackhawk, and just handling the two, the small differences in the Super made it feel odd.

Took about half a box of shooting, and it felt just fine!

[bamaranger]

The SuperB is a serious hunting handgun, my Dad had one with the 10-1/4 " bbl, scoped with a Leupold 2.5x, and it shot like a carbine, in fact BETTER than my .44 Carbines.

I didn't see barrel length mentioned in the thread, what length tube is on your new revolver?

I've shot a number of whitetails with the .44/180 XTP from .44 carbines, and while it rendered dead deer, I cannot say that the 180 XTP at carbine velocities was a good performing game bullet. I never had an exit wound on any of my kills, and slugs/jackets often separated. I had one slug impacting at very close range (10 yds) literally explode within the chest cavity of a 125 lb whitetail. Hornady indicates that the 180 XTP is not really intended for the velocities obtainable from a carbine, and my take is, likely from full bore .44 mag revolver as well. The 180 XTP appears more to me like a .44 spl slug, or a .44 mag loaded down for SD. The 180 XTP is a pretty soft bullet.

All that to say you might not be happy with the 180 XTP on a bigger hog. I have no doubt it will kill one in the 100 lb range dead as a hammer, but on a really big one it could be a different story. The 180 is a pretty soft bullet. I switched to the 200 XTP in my carbines, and there is a noted difference in penetration on whitetails, for one thing, I now get exit wounds. I'm not saying the 200 XTP is an ideal hog bullet either, but it's a good step up from the 180 for larger game.

But, congrats on your new (to you) revolver. The Suber B is a real work horse.

[44 AMP]

Hornady indicates that the 180 XTP is not really intended for the velocities obtainable from a carbine, and my take is, likely from full bore .44 mag revolver as well.

Your "take" is slightly mis-taken.
The bullet is built to give its full performance from full bore .44 Mag loads, fired from the usual 6-7.5" barrels of hunting revolvers.

The problem is the extra velocity the carbine length adds. Every expanding bullet has a range of velocity it performs in. Too slow, it doesn't expand, or expand enough, too fast and it expands too rapidly and too much.

The usual hunting revolvers will drive that 180 in the 14-1600fps range. And, of course the greater the distance the lower the speed, so the bullet needs to be "soft" enough to open up properly at even lower speeds at 50 or even 100yards.

The .44 Magnum is mostly a handgun round, and despite all our carbines, a lot of the factory ammo is intended to do its work from a handgun.

Add another 4-600fps that you can get from a carbine and the bullet is going too fast for proper performance.

You can do it rifle rounds too. Drive a 150gr .30-30 bullet at 300 Magnum speeds and it comes apart rapidly. The 125gr .357 bullet that is such a good performer out of a 4-6" revolver becomes almost a grenade when pushed to 2200fps from a carbine. The Speer 400gr .458 bullet is built to expand at the black powder speed of the original .45-70 loading. Drive to 1800fps and you get jacket and core separation often. Drive it to 2100fps from a .458 Win mag and it acts like a huge varmint bullet. Almost explosive.

The 180gr load is on the light end of bullet weight for the .44, but its a good load, out of a pistol. Out of a carbine, the bullet is slightly overdriven, and you should choose a different load with a heavier constructed bullet.

Weight is important, but what the bullet is made to do, (and at what speed) is as important, if not more so.

[gwpercle]

Reminds me of a Beatle's tune....Happiness Is A Warm Gun !

Nice score , Congratulations !
Gary

[unclejack37]

Bamaranger, the Ruger is a BH Hunter 7-1/2 inch barrel. Headed down to South Carolina near Westminster next week and I'll be looking for some hogs. Looks like the weather will cooperate a little so maybe I'll get a chance at one or 2. I did get the pachmayr grips so if nothing else I'll be trying them out. They worked really well on my Ruger 357 so I expect I'll hold the BH a lot better. I did buy some of the 240gr xtp suggested by ligonierbill so I'll give them puppies a try. I LMAO every time I shoot the thing, what a fun gun. It just blows stuff up.

[Reloadron]

Enjoy it, a S&W Model 29 was among my first revolvers and I still have it and the 44 Magnum along with 308 Winchester were among the first cartridges I loaded. I took off and saved the pretty wood years ago and went with Pachmayr also. Coming up on 69 myself and the rubber is just more pleasing.

May your 44 Magnum bring you many pleasant and enjoyable times.

Ron

[gw44]

The 44mag caliber is also great in a rifle !!!

[Brutus]

I remember reloading some 185 grainers for my 1st. SBH a heavy dose of WW296 created a huge fireball and vaporized cinder blocks that were about 25ft. away.
Lot of giggles and wow's from my shooting buddies and me.

[Drm50]

I got a SBH in 1964 and have been shooting 240gr Hornady JHPs / 21.5gr of 2400 since it was new. At the time I had one of each caliber Ruger SAs. The SBH is only one I shot hot.
The reason was its sweet spot. At the time handgun deer wasn't legal in Ohio and mainly
used it on groundhogs. It became my official deer hunting pistol. I then went into my S&W
phase about same time and offed all the Ruger SAs except SBH & Single-6. Then I proceeded to acquire a set of S&Ws of which I offed to go into pre64 Win M-70s. Presently
over last 10yrs back with a set of S&Ws.

[Wag]

A big +1 on the Pachmayr grips. With the stock wood grips, I can shoot mine about a dozen times and I'm done. The Pachmayr grips, I can shoot all day long. Definitely worth it to put those on there.

It's a spectacular gun no matter what.

Originally Posted by 44 AMP

Your "take" is slightly mis-taken.
The bullet is built to give its full performance from full bore .44 Mag loads, fired from the usual 6-7.5" barrels of hunting revolvers.

The problem is the extra velocity the carbine length adds. Every expanding bullet has a range of velocity it performs in. Too slow, it doesn't expand, or expand enough, too fast and it expands too rapidly and too much.

The usual hunting revolvers will drive that 180 in the 14-1600fps range. And, of course the greater the distance the lower the speed, so the bullet needs to be "soft" enough to open up properly at even lower speeds at 50 or even 100yards.

The .44 Magnum is mostly a handgun round, and despite all our carbines, a lot of the factory ammo is intended to do its work from a handgun.

Add another 4-600fps that you can get from a carbine and the bullet is going too fast for proper performance.

You can do it rifle rounds too. Drive a 150gr .30-30 bullet at 300 Magnum speeds and it comes apart rapidly. The 125gr .357 bullet that is such a good performer out of a 4-6" revolver becomes almost a grenade when pushed to 2200fps from a carbine. The Speer 400gr .458 bullet is built to expand at the black powder speed of the original .45-70 loading. Drive to 1800fps and you get jacket and core separation often. Drive it to 2100fps from a .458 Win mag and it acts like a huge varmint bullet. Almost explosive.

The 180gr load is on the light end of bullet weight for the .44, but its a good load, out of a pistol. Out of a carbine, the bullet is slightly overdriven, and you should choose a different load with a heavier constructed bullet.

Weight is important, but what the bullet is made to do, (and at what speed) is as important, if not more so.

Now THAT is an eye-opener for me. Thanks for posting it.

--Wag--

[Charlie98]

You... you SOLD a gun??? *gasp!*

For nostalgia sake, I have a H&R Topper .410 single-shot, it's stupidly fun to shoot... certainly more fun than the 20ga Topper it replaced (and was stolen,) that thing kicked like a mule!

Congrats! That's quite a pistol!

[Eddietruett]

Originally Posted by unclejack37

Well, I finally got the Blackhawk out to the farm in South Carolina. I reloaded about 75 shells with 180 grain JHP with 14.6 grains of Hodgson CFE and had a blast. I couldn't believe the damage this thing does. I had 2 beer cans filled with water, when the bullet hit, the cans exploded into pieces. On my smaller calibers the can usually has a hole going in and the back of the can is split wide open. Both cans exploded into pieces. I tried it on a couple of plastic quart milk bottle and got the same result. Pieces all over the place. What an awesome gun. I need to get better grips because the factory wood ones are too small and slippery. Spent 6 days looking for a hog not a single sign of one. My neighbor thinks its been too hot and they're hanging in the marsh or wet lands till winter.

I'm in SC too. Been looking forward to shooting some hogs with my .357. It got so hot, all the hogs did migrate into the deep swamp. After hurricane Florence, the landowner reported he was down in the swamp after the fast water rise and he saw 20-30 that got caught and drowned. I hated it but of course to a farmer, that is great news. The mosquitos are so bad right now, I'm not about to get out and hunt and its near the middle of November! I did hear cold weather coming next week so hopefully we can go after some hogs and coyotes soon. Hope you get to try out the 44 mag soon. I used to hunt with a 44 and its perfect for hogs. I'm trying to prove that I can do equally as well with a .357. Worked up some great loads, but now just waiting on the weather