.44 mag pistol/rifle plinking combo.

B

Brutus

New member
Looking for a good combo for my 6" 629 and a Marlin 1894.
Have some 240gr. XTP JHP's on hand. Want to brew a handload that's accurate and fun to shoot. I'm thinking about 7.5 to 8.0 gr. of universal but have other powders available such as
AA#7, AA#9, Power Pistol, HP-38, WSF and Autocomp.
Please, no Tyranasaurs loads, just a good plinker.
 
The XTP is a good bullet, maybe a little to good for me as a plinker. I would try Extreme's 240gr plated RNFP with 7.5-8gr of Universal.
 
For a bullet I use a 240 grain cast SWC. I'm away from the house at the moment, so I can't give you a powder charge, but they are snappy enough and if you stay reasonable on the charge, your brass can last darn near forever.
 
44

Any thought to reloading 44 special brass? I use them when cowboy shooting along with 240 hard cast lead SWC.
Not at home but will gladly send you reloading recipe when I return.

PM me.
 
I agree that XTP's are a bit pricey for plinkers but other than kieth style SWC's they are all I have on hand, besides that's what I'll be using in the field, albeit a wee bit hotter so I'm using them to check for feed reliability in the rifle and also to chorno velocity difference.
Will bring some hotter loads to test as well but the lighter loads will be for fun.:)
 
For plinking, I load Xtreme plated 240g RNFP bullets in .44mag cases with 5.6g of Red Dot. That's not one of your listed powders, but lots of other powders would work as well.
 
I have some plated bullets on hand but they have no cannelure, work fine in a revolver with a very light roll crimp but I have a concern with bullet set back in the Marlin as to heavy a crimp will only serve to shred the plating. Any advise on this would be appreciated.
 
Well I can't speak for the 629 because I don't have one yet but it is on the list but I do load for my Marlin 1894 and also my Ruger 77/44 rifles. Im not home right now to verify so I won't tell you how many grains but for powerhouse hunting loads I have not found any better powder for either of my rifles than H110,296, and 2400. For plinking loads in my Marlin I have really good accuracy with Unique so I'm sure that Universal would do pretty well. My hunting bullet is the Sierra 240gr JHC and for plinking I use 240gr swc's, rnfp's, and have used some plated bullets also with a light crimp but I only put one in the chamber and one in the mag so I don't have to worry about bullets being pushed into the case further. I will verify grains when I get home.
 
The Extreme plated .357 and .44 have a weak cannelure which works good enough for mid-range loads, the plating is thick and a medium roll crimp should do. I tried a taper crimp for .357 mag. and had some bullet jump in the revolver.
 
8gr of universal behind any 240gr pill will be a good load. Easy to shoot, but not a complete featherweight.

With that said, your marlin will probably slug at .431 or higher while your smith is .429. Sooooooo, the rifle would benefit from the xtp diameter of .430 if you are chasing the utmost accuracy.

I shoot extreme 240gr pills from mine as plinkers with 8gr unique which is about equal to universal. It groups nicely, but the xtp's do better and that's what I use for whitetails. They are just too expensive for a plinking round IMO. The extreme bullets are $ .10 cheaper each.
 
After scouting around a bit I ran to Cabelas and bought some Laszercast 200gr. rnfp's at
.431 dia. didn't have any 240 grainers. From what I've read the round nose flat point should fuction more reliably and be more accurate with the .431 dia. Sure hope so cost $68 for a box of 500.
 
Come on guys, the OP asked for a plinking load with the components he has on hand, not a recommendation of what you yourself would rather use.:rolleyes:


10.5 grains of Unique will drive those bullets just fine at about 950 fps. Very gentle on the hands and enough to clear the barrel on the Marlin. I find them quite accurate also outta my 629, my Marlin Lever and my Ruger 77/44.
 
Yes but no where do we see in the OP's posts that he has Unique powder on hand. He says that he has Universal. The Lyman 49th does not show any handgun loads for the .44 mag using Universal. Unique is a little farther down (slower) on the burning rate chart than Universal so the 10.5 gr of Unique should probably not be morphed into 10.5 gr of Universal. Many complain they are unable to find Unique (maybe I have the only can left). :)
 
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For mid-pressure loads, Unique and Universal load data are pretty much interchangeable.
Go w/ 8.0 grains of either: 16-20\ksi_high 900's velocity in the pistol/1,220 rifle
(Unique is the lower of the two pressures)
 
Well, I had a rather disappointing time at the range yesterday. Loaded up 50rnds. of the Lazercast RNFP. bullets with 7.5gr and 50 with 8.0gr. of Universal.
Loaded them all to a 1.563 overall length which was right at the upper end of the crimp groove. Not one round will feed in my Marlin 1894.
Can't for the life of me figure out why. WW white box feed perfectly and their JSP looks to be the same profile as my cast bullets. They measure to a 1.586 overall lgth. Snap caps which measure 1.535 also feed without any problems.
Carefully inspected my reloads and about the only thing I can see is that some rounds display a slight bulge right where the bullet ends inside the case.
It's more visual as I can't measure a difference with a set of calipers. Still that's where every round seems to hang up. I suspect the problem lies with the bullet not being seated straight probably the result of the SWC cup in my die. I always seat first, very gently and crimp separately, so I don't think the problem is with technique.
Anybody else ever experience this, and how does one overcome it?
By the way the both loads were very pleasant to shoot with the 8gr. load being a real tack driver, although a bit snappy in the revolver.
 
Decided to test my straight seating theory and the situation worsens.
changed the seater to the round nose configuration and very carefully prepared two dummy loads, same result. Then I tried a Hornady 240gr. JHP.
and I still get the same result. In the case of all three dummies the visual bulge is gone. Beginning to think I need to have a gunsmith polish or chamfer the mouth of the barrel. Just can't seem to figure out why the factory loads function without a hitch. :(
 
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Bullets hang up with about 1/8" of the case into the chamber. If I back off the lever, turn the rifle upside down so the cartridge falls in line with the bore they will slide right in. The Marlin has only a slight chamfer on the throat of the barrel and the bullets lock up at about a 20/30° angle.
Using an RCBS sizing die that resizes to .448Ø
After seating both bullets case mouth measures .455/.454Ø
WW White box ammo measures .453Ø Hard to imagine .002/.003 diff. is causing the problem but something has to be doing it.
The lazercasts are .431 advertised dia. but actually measure .432Ø with a micrometer, on the other hand the Hornady XTP measures .429Ø and it won't feed either. Called RCBS to see if they could provide some feed back. Very nice gentlemen asked if I had tried just a resized case with no bullet in it, to which I replied no but I will as soon as I get off the phone. He then went on to say I could send in my die set with bullets, unloaded of course and they would fix the dies up to function properly with the bullets I want to use. What a wonderful company, never had a problem with their products or customer service, wish their CEO would take over Kimber, I might consider one of their pistols again. resized empty case cycled like a champ.
 
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