Favorite .44 mag load

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Pudge

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A buddy got a Remlin lever action .44, and he's having trouble finding an accurate load. Anyone have one that works in a Marlin .44 mag?
 
I've had goodluck with the 240gr Winchester in my Ruger 44 semi-auto carbine. Every gun is a bit different, but any of the major manufacturers is a good start point.
 
My Win 1894 Trapper shoots 10 gr Unique and a coated or plated LSWC well... and fortunately for me that’s the same mid-range load my 629’s shoot well, too.

It’s not a thumper nor a hunter, it’s more of a plinking/target load.

Stay safe.
 
Jacketed 240 grain soft point. Or, work (emphasis on work) up a cast load. 429244gc over 21 grains of 2400 works in mine. Sized .430
 
Mine did well w the Hornady 240gr JHP factory load. Well enough i tried nothing else.
 
My 1894 Marlin would not shoot any .429 bullet from any manufacturer. I got nice 5” groups at 100 from a few but usually larger. PPU was around 10”.

I would buy some .432 lead bullets and try them out. That was how I was able to get close to 2”.

Ended up getting rid of the rifle. In fact, that rifle made me get out of 44 altogether. The idiotic .431 SAAMI spec compared to .429 for handguns still baffles me....and everyone else.

Many people can get those 44 1984s to shoot but it was way too much work for me to get mine to. It really bummed me out too because it was an uncommon 1894SS that felt great.

Maybe I should have rebarreled it.
 
Howdy,
I rebarreled my Marlin to tighter bore and a faster twist ! Glad I did. 1 in 16 twist and a .429 bore barrel from Douglas. The factory slow twist of 1 in 38 and .4325 bore would not stabilize a 240 gr bullet let alone a 300 gr cast bullet, unless pushed hard and I could not make a .433 size cast bullet work in the Redhawk. Without a lot of gun smithing work ! With the new barrel on the Marlin it works all the time weather pushed hard or slow. Expensive route but I was determined to have a sidearm and rifle of the same cartridge that worked well with the same load. That being said, my two favorite loads for the 300 grgc hard cast , sized to .431 are, 5.5 grs of Winchester Super Target for about 780 fps in both firearms, I was surprised that barrel length did not matter for that load. 20gr of 2400 for 1350 fps out of the 7 1/2" Redhawk and 1750 fps of the 24" Marlin. I have a lot of Winchester and Federal brass so if it is a Winchester case it is a slow load and if it is a Federal case it is hot. Because they look identical:thumbup:

SAAMI used to allow up to .433 grove dia. in rifles, at least they tightened up to .431 now. STILL stupid to have one spec for a rifle and another for a sidearmo_O
I knew nothing about this fiasco when I bought the Marlin!

Not a path I say is the ONE for all, but it is the one I took!

John
 
240 gr. JSP from Everglades or Montana Gold(I think it's the same bullet)and 1gr. short of max of IMR 4227. Best load I've developed for my Henry Big Boy Classic. 240 gr. XTP's work well also.
 
my grandfather hunted with the plain old Winchester white box 240gr soft points.

Those work well in mine too.

<nodding> Over the past 3+ decades I have put hundreds of rounds of that type of, what I think of as, generic .44mag ammo (much of it branded as American Eagle) thru my 1984-mfr Marlin 1894S.

In my rifle, in my hands, with the add-on Williams 5D rear aperture sight I have always found that ammo to be very accurate.

Because of that (and the stock of "vintage" American Eagle that I still have along with now only shooting the rifle rarely) I have never (yet) developed any handloads specifically for the rifle.

Next time I bring it out of the gunsafe the first ammunition that I will be testing in it is my .44mag & .44spl handloads that I have developed for my handguns. ;)
 
I settled on 240 gr jsp with a little less than max H110 load. Very accurate in my 7.5 inch SBH and my Henry BB. I don't have to worry about different loads and different bullets as the same load works well in both...
 
Thank you all for your replies. It is nice to see that goods results are typically found pushing 240 grains relatively fast. I wanted to start from a place that's had success. If everyone said cast 300 grains at 800fps worked best, you might get frustrated running 240 grain xtp's over a max charge of H110. Thanks again for the input, and the .431 discussion was particularly enlightening.
 
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