Just a quick question outside of the quotes below. Do reloaders calculate ballistics for their loads, like velocity and drop and different distances?
i shoot 200 cast bullets that are powder coated at about 2000 fps maybe more from my marlin 44 mag. these shoot good and don't have much drop, i use 21.6 grain of 2400 the 21.6 is the lee dipper so loading is fast. a 44 mag out of a rifle can push a 200 jacketed as fast as a 35 remington. i did try some 452 lead bullets that i size to .430 and coated they were about 160gr with the same 21,6 still shot very good.
what gun do u have.
Interesting. So my thought process isn’t too far off in the real world.
None yet, but I’m planning to pick up one of those skinner specials at some point, and I have a gp100 in .44 special on its way.
Very light for caliber bullets...unless made of something much lighter than lead end up being very short little cylinders with horrible BC's. Yes you can drive them very fast, but they also will then shed that velocity rapidly so they remain a short range proposition and penetration is most often pretty sketchy so the size of critter they can be effective on is much reduced.
Even alternate material bullets that can have a decent size and aerodynamic form will lack momentum and therefore penetration and still shed velocity due to lack of mass driving it through the thick atmosphere. There are very good reasons you don't often see 100 grain 44 bullets as they'll be much less than a round ball and just not a great projectile.
This is kinda what I thought the problem was, but it seems there are 160 and 180 gr. Bullets available for .44 so maybe they have enough aerodynamics? Or maybe like you said that they still lose velocity and trajectory too fast and end up not much different than heavier bullets past 100 yards?
This however, gets me thinking about alternative bullet designs. I’m sure the manufacturers have already played with this kinda stuff and that is why it doesn’t exist, cause it doesn’t work? What I would give for some time to play at a cartridge manufacturer’s r&d facility.
Won't the problem be bullet selection? If not on paper, then in practice, wide meplat .430 bullets in the 240 grs range from a rifle are awfully good on deer out to 100 yards anyway, certainly don't seem much less effective than the 30-30 at that range. After that, to keep speeds up, it needs shedding bullet weight and diminishing returns abound.
The 44 that does what you're talking about is the 444 Marlin: 265 grs at 2,400 fps and a 250 yard MPBR. Fantastic cartridge.
But no reason not to see where you can get with the likes of the Hornady 180 grs XTP for speed. Barnes 200 grs XPB might be interesting too. I just can't say that the terminal ballistics of these bullets will deliver at 175 - 200 yards. Heavy cast bullets will, but you've lost your 44 Express with those. Interesting idea to explore! Best of luck and keep us informed.
Ah, but that is it, I want to push .44 to 150+ yards and more importantly reduce bullet drop and increase point blank range. Hence my following this rabbit hole.
Yeah, bullet selection is maybe the problem? Well if it don’t exist, maybe I need to make it? If only I didn’t have to work for a living...
I guess I need to learn how to reload and play with the 180 and 200 gr options that already exist.
A bullet with that poor of a sectional density would penetrate very poorly on deer sized game. It should work well as a varmint round though. It won't "fly" as well as a 150gr 30cal.
Kinda what i was thinking would be the case regarding flight.
But regarding sectional density, so you are saying that 150gr projectile that is slightly shorter and fatter will penetrate that much less than a 150gr projectile that is slightly longer and thinner? This doesn’t make sense to me, don’t 30 cal hunting bullets expand anyways? Maybe I don’t understand the dynamics at play but I can’t understand how projectile going the same speed and the same weight would penetrate significantly differently just because the projectile shape changed a little. Of course that’s assuming stable flight and ability to maintain similar speeds.