.44 Defense Loads

N

Nightcrawler

New member
Just out of curiosity, what are some good defense loads in .44 Special/.44 Mag? Ideally, something that maximizes power while minimizing the amount of time one's hearing would be muffled after firing a shot. (You know how it goes; fire a loud gun without hearing protection and your hearing is all muffled. Usually goes away after awhile, but a loud enough noise and it might not go away, maybe.)
 
Nightcrawler,

What I'm using in my 629 Classic is Winchester SilverTip HP in 44 Special.

Concerning touching off a 44 Mag. inside a room. Been there and I don't recommend it about 15 years ago it happened to me (negligence) with 44 Mag. load to max plus.

Turk
 
.44 social loads

I carried a 4" M29 for a duty gun for a couple of years, shot it DA through qualifications and made a 240/240 a couple of times with it- it was a small S/O, and I was the range officer so I had some latitude on what we carried. Always had another RO run my qualification when I shot.

I favored the WW 210 Silvertip in the magnum version as first choice, followed by Hornady's 240 lead SWCHP factory load at about 1000 fps. For inside/court security details I used to load it with CCI's Blazer .44 Special load featuring a 200 grain Gold Dot HP at about 900 fps. There are probably better .44 Special loads around now; I look at Cor-Bon or Buffalo Bore (both outfits run by fine folks) if I was shopping for a Special load today.

Fortunately I never had to dust anybody with any of these, so I can't say how they work- but even the mildest among them is equal to a .40 S&W, so I wouldn't feel too poorly armed with any of 'em.

Take care--
 
CorBon 165 gr. .44 Special PD loads are excellent. Low recoil and low flash.

The only time I have fired "in extremis", indoors, was in a tiled room, two rounds of .45 acp. I don't remember hearing the reports, and my ears did not ring afterward. On the range, if I have an inferior pair of muffs, they will ring for the next day.
 
I like the corbon 165 grain in the magnum case. They do 1300 withg 2" and under 25 yard groups from both my 4" Smith .44s. They kick less than a 250 grain loaded to 1000 fps and are back on target pretty fast.
 
This is something I have been fooling around with for the past few months. After getting a S&W Mountain gun. I have tried three .44 Spl., Federal 200gr LSWCHP, Winchester 200gr Silvertip, and CCI Blazer 200gr Gold Dot. and two .44 mags., Pro Load 200gr Gold Dot, and Cor-Bon 165gr JHP. In .44 Spl. I liked the CCI Blazer the best ( 897 fps ). Some people don’t like the Blazers for carry but that’s a different subject. The Federals came in second place ( 843 fps ). My biggest complaint was they didn't work well with speed loaders. The Winchesters were horrible ( 755 fps ).

In the .44 Mags. the Pro Loads were the best ( 1065 fps ) at least in my opinion. The Cor-Bons were good ( 1320 fps ) but had a big flash and loud blast. Recoil was about the same with the two, loading the cylinder half-and-half I could not tell which was which.
 
Go to Garrett bullets and look at their 255 gr. cast cartridges at 1000 fps...expensive but something to pattern your own defense loads after if you reload...........
 
picked up a box of CCI blazer 200gr gold dots and a box or the corbon 165gr for my smith 696. i started with the blazers, to warm up, and they were so accurate i never even opend the box of corbons ( might be the 50rds vs. 20rds $$$)

very accurate and recoil/muzzle flip about on par with a .38+p in a K-frame
 
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