low powered big bore Rifle

T

TheBear

New member
Hi guys!
my first thread in this forum, hope for some great tips. Excuse my simple english, i`m not a native speaker.
I have the idea of a big bore rifle for small range shooting, just because i love to rip things apart with hot`n`heavy lead. I got myself a ruger 77/44 with a 4x32 scope on it and now im trying to find the best ammo for my purpose. It has to be super-low-power because my garden is rather small and as quite as it gets without a silencer because of my neighbours.
What i want is some kind of big-bore 22. So any extreme light 44Magnum/special loading data.
 
Use the lightest .44 Spl. loads you can find. Due to the shorter case length you may have to single load.
Loading down is easy. Loading up is a different story.
Hope this helps.
 
If you can find some 44 special, low recoil rounds for sale they should be the quietest you will get, the more powder the louder the bang.

Best I can do.
Good luck
Jim
 
i allready checked all factory 44 special ammo, didnt find anything that is as weak as i would want it to be. How low can i go reloading my own ammo? any load data for real weak 44special loads? has anyone experiences with the 44russian? My gunshop sells the cases but i didnt find any rifle reloading data for this cartridge.
 
Hello, The Bear. What you are looking for is a sort of Rook rifle load..like the British used in the 19th/early 20th century for garden pests & small game. Buy the .44 Russian cases. If you can find round ball in .429-.430 dia. so much the better. I would use TrailBoss. If you can't find R.B., try to find the lightest lead .44 bullet you can.
 
If you are willing to load them 1 at a time and you handload, you'd be better off with 44 Russian than 44 spl. Load them up with some Trailboss and some 180 gr bullets. Much quieter than a 44 spl.

OOPS! I read Ideal Tool's post after I made mine. It's pretty amazing how close our thinking is on this one. BTW, Starline is a good source of 44 Russian brass.
 
Some interesting thoughts come to mind. What are the laws/regulations regarding shooting where you are. What about ricochets? A slow moving .44 caliber bullet has some serious bounce factor. What kind of backstop? I'm not trying to be a party pooper here but I haven't seen anything regarding these issues.
Paul B.
 
If you are going to reload, you can download .44 Magnum cases to .44 Special levels. Then the magazine should feed normally and you won't have to single load.

I know there is a concern with creating what amounts to a "squib" if you load too lightly.

And, something to consider is the use of wax bullets which are powered by the primer alone. These are not as destructive as lead, but they would be less likely to ricochet and they would definitely be quiet. At close range, I imagine they would tear things up nicely.

(I believe a common technique for loading wax is to push the case mouth into a sheet of wax poured onto a cookie sheet. Also, you should drill the case flash hole to a larger size to prevent pressure from backing the primer out, and then carefully mark these cases, perhaps by filing a notch in the rim, so they aren't used for conventional reloading.)
 
Wax bullets? arent they going to mess up my barrel? And how accurate can something like that be, even if I onliy use them for 10 yard shooting?
But i think the basic idea of using material other than lead for bullets is great, maybe ill try some different materials like rubber, wood, playdoh or special kinds of wax. next time im at the hardware store, im gonna look around a bit what i can find.
 
I bumped into a guy who made rubber bullets from a commonly available material. He used magnum primers and no powder. Said it stung the neighbor hood cats and dogs in his garden without damaging them.

If I see him again, I will pass on the information.
 
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