44 special and black powder ..... ?

T

the Black Spot

New member
Anyone know what velocities I could get shooting a 255 gr bullet over
20 gr of 2f
25 gr of 2f
20 gr of 3f
25 gr of 3f

7.5" barrel

Thx!
 
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My understanding is that you are not supposed to leave any airspace in the case, when loading black powder. Wouldn't that mean only one load for a given bullet and powder?
 
Yes - I mean no.
No air space between bullet and black powder.
But the amount of powder in the case, the bullet depth and over all length of the loaded round can vary.
To answer the OP, check the duelist's videos on using different bullets and round ball in his tests of BP revolvers, right here in this section of the forum.
Those should give you a good idea.
 
I would expect the velocities to be close to standard .44 special velocitiy since the .44 special was originally a black powder round and the smokeless ammo sold later essentially duplicated the black powder velocities.
 
.44 Colt is similar, as is .44 russian. Expect 650-700 fps. I suppose you could get rather more velocity with a crimped ball.
 
You should be able to get close to 1000 fps with a .433 roundball and a full charge of fffg. More powder fits under a roundball.
It'll shoot really low however, bad if your revolver has fixed sights.

I cooked up some roundball loads for the .44 Magnum using BH209 and I was measuring 1100 fps with my chrono.
 
The .44 Special was developed by Smith and wesson in 1907, well after the advent of smokeless powder. The cartridge is a slightly lengthened .44 Russian which increased the case capacity from the .44 Russian's 1.05cc's to 1.65 cc's. It did not significantly increase performance however.
 
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