300 grain load for the 44 special

CraigC said:

A 300gr at 800fps would be a nice mild thumper. I have to wonder how the penetration would compare to that of a 250gr Keith at higher velocity. It would be fun to test it against the Skeeter and Keith loads.

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what bullet weight and velocity?

murf

back to the montana bullet works 300 grain wfngc (bhn 12):

i must only shoot the first three shot well; the rest suffer the consequences of not well. the first shot penetrated 8 water jugs (six inches depth each) and ended up in the nineth. 490 fps, 300 grain bullet, through four feet of water is excellent penetration. recoil is very mild (like a commercial 38 special load). the biggest downside to all this is the seven inch high impact point @ 25 yards. i'll deal with that later.

this mbw bullet has a longer nose than the other cast performance bullet and doesn't seat as deep. so, the extra room in the case slows the powder combustion and, therefore, reduces the velocity of the mbw bullet (from 564 to 491 fps). the penetration and accuracy doesn't seem to be affected by this fact. so far so good.

now for the results of this load in the 44 special blackhawk:

strange velocity increase from the super blackhawk 491 fps average to the 44 special blackhawk 502 fps average. still no position sensitivity with this load. fair accuracy out of this gun (maybe i won't need to spend money on the barrel).

i like this load so now it's time to raise the front sight height and practice shooting the gun more to take my inaccuracy out of this.

i noticed that either bullet (cast performance or montana bullet works) works well. i have no problem loading either for a light shooting deep penetrating load.

murf

p.s. here is a pic of the two bullets:

cast performance on top, montana bullet works on the bottom.

Riomouse911 said:

I checked out Grizzly’s website, all of their heavyset were sold out.

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one reason i went to montana bullet works. the other is they offer four different diameters for each bullet.

Riomouse911 said:

Looking forward to putting together some big slowpokes

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i have always been partial to heavy-for-caliber bullet loads.

luck,

murf

finally got out shooting again:

my ego said "it's the gun, so i benched it and shot fairly well @ 50 yards. there is a lot of vertical dispersion because i can't see the black-on-black sight picture. the front sight is getting painted before i go out again.

the reason for this session is to make sure this load is accurate out to 50 yards and beyond. i'll shoot it at 100 soon to make sure it doesn't fall apart past fifty. the holes in the paper are still round and the black ring around the holes shows the bullets hitting straight-on. next is no crimp and 100 yards.

i am impressed with this load because: of the lack of recoil, of the low es number of the ten shot string, of the accuracy (a couple inches wide at 50 yards is real good), of the small amount of powder needed.

the setup:


i shot at 27 yards first, then 50, so that may explain the fifty yard shots being just as good as those at 27. i haven't shot off a rest in i don't know how long and i couldn't see the black-on-black sights very well. i will keep shooting off a rest for subsequent test sessions.

murf

wcwhitey said:

Interesting work. I have been meaning to experiment with some of my 255 grain Keith bullets at the bottom of the advertised data hoping to find a nice soft load for my Charter Arms Bulldog. I have always loaded the middle of the spectrum and they are just not pleasant. Keep up the good work.

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@wcwhitey , if you ever do a water jug penetration test, i'd sure appreciate you posting the results here.

murf

joneb said:

Uhmm Ruger .44 cal. leading at the forcing cone and creeping up the barrel? I would check the cylinder throat diameter.
Most Ruger .44 cal. have cylinder throat diameters at or above of .433", and that is not a good thing.

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i actually had to lap out the barrel restriction right in front of the forcing cone. so far so good on the gun accuracy. bad leading of the forcing cone will scatter the group.

thanks for the tip,

murf

p.s. the montana bullet works bullet has a .431"diameter and barely fits through all the cylinder throats. the bullet is also gas checked and should keep the forcing cone leading away from the barrel grooves.

more shooting today:

ten shots benched at 50 yards, five with a small crimp, five with no crimp. i painted the sights on the blackhawk and this makes all the difference in the world trying to see at fifty yards. i like the results of the first four shots. i'm going to load up some more with a full crimp and try the accuracy thing again. i don't know why the last five shots were not accurate; maybe i was getting tired (it doesn't take much shooting @ 50 yards).

i checked the gun for leading and it had the same amount as when i started. i cleaned it all out this evening and will start with a clean barrel next time.

i will only paint the rear sight half way up and drop the front sight half way down into the rear sight opening. maybe this will drop the poi enough for this load.

the sights:

murf

joneb said:

Thanks murf, this restriction is from a crush fit of the barrel to the frame?

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yes, i lapped the 44 special, an old model 357 mag and a new model 357 mag. i didn't have to lap my super blackhawk, or my 45 colt blackhawk. so it depends on the gun whether lapping is necessary.

murf

wcwhitey said:

Interesting work. I have been meaning to experiment with some of my 255 grain Keith bullets at the bottom of the advertised data hoping to find a nice soft load for my Charter Arms Bulldog. I have always loaded the middle of the spectrum and they are just not pleasant. Keep up the good work.

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i am doing this because the 300 grain bullet has so much more inertia than a 240 grain bullet. inertia translates into penetration at low velocities and i want something that will penetrate deep without the resulting recoil.

murf

more shooting today:

i borrowed a scoped model 29 dx and a scoped blackhawk hunter for testing at 100 yards. the blackhawk made poor groups so i will do all shooting with the m29. the five shots in the upper right corner are by me. the five shots that string vertically are by shooter #2 who had a light grip on the gun. the best thing about this gun is that it shoots the 300 gn load well and is only 3.7" above point of aim. this should do well at fifty and one hundred yards.

shooter number two is old and has gout. he said that he could shoot the 300 grain load all day in that gun whereas he took one shot of the 200 gn bullet load and handed the gun back to me nursing a sore hand.

and here is a pic of the m29 shooting 200 gn lrn bullets @ 1200 fps:

so now i know that this gun shoots light fast bullets to the same point of impact as the slow heavy bullets. good to know for the 100 yard shoot. i'm thinking the 8.375" barrel, the full underlug and the 66 ounce weight have something to do with that.

more to follow: test at 50 and 100 yards, penetration test at 50 yards, chrony data from the big m29.

murf

again at fifty yards:

shooting a half inch low at fifty yards and three and three quarter inches high at twenty five yards is easy to deal with. a 3.5 inch group at 50 yards is not bad accuracy-wise. next is to check accuracy, penetration and stability at 100 yards. and to use a lite crimp for this load.

murf

@no.5enfield i have a few more 300 grain 44 spl rounds. what is your take on "better"?

murf