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Re: 255gr bullets in 44Mag

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 5:14 pm
by bradaz11
ok, rather than start a new thread, thought it would be best to revive this.

firstly, I've been using the drum measure for almost a year now going from the date of the post above, and I have this to say... BUY ONE... It is an excellent measure in my eyes. so far it has mainly seen service for pistol powders as haven't done much rifle loading. It has done approx 4 thousand 9mm, 3 thousand 44 and my other assorted calibers. It really is a set and forget tool. I bought multiple drums and mark them up as to what they are, then its a case of empty powder, remove drum, quick brush out. new drum in, new powder in. and generally they need no alteration, at most just a small tweak.

anyway, on with the point. I've been playing with a chrono, and my 255gr 44 mag load comes out at 970fps. This would put me over the range limit on one of the indoor gallery ranges I shoot at. My GF was shooting it the other day and was complaining it was a bit too hard hitting. so I was thinking of loading up some 200gr into the mag length case, the 44 spl loads i load up for an actual 44spl rifle are 200gr with 4.8gr vectan A1 in a 44 spl case (not got around to chronoing this, as recently moved over to it from the same weight in GM3 as the large flakes of A1 stay in my nitro revolver chambers).
do I just copy this load into the magnum case and let the extra case size reduce the pressure even further, or load it back up again slightly and let the reduced weight of bullet soften the shooting for her?
the load phedera mentioned above, 200gr with 6gr GM3 for 800fps would put me under the energy limit on the range, plus I have GM3

Re: 255gr bullets in 44Mag

Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 8:55 am
by mag41uk
I use A1 and find it leaves very dirty cases if underloaded.
When I was loading 200gn bullets into 44 mag cases I was using around 5,5 gns of AS so I think your 4.8gn of A1 may be too low.

Re: 255gr bullets in 44Mag

Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 5:56 pm
by bradaz11
what do you aim at with A1 and do you know the sort of velocity you are getting?

Re: 255gr bullets in 44Mag

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 10:03 am
by mag41uk
Just checked my data:
1. 240gn 5.9gn A1 Ave 925fps low 897 high 965
2. 200gn 6.3gn A1 Ave 1040fps low 1007 high 1072
3. 250gn 5.9gn A1 Ave 935fps. low 889 high 989
4. 200gn 5.9gn A1 low 833 high 940fps

These are 5 shots strings out of a Marlin.
I came to the conclusion that A1 loads need to be top end to work well.