44mag load question

I don't know why but I have a feeling you should be shooting those plated bullets at a much lower velocity. To my knowledge you plated bullets weren't meant for high velocity.

Never tried plated in the 44 Magnum. The LGS sells them, but they don't have a cannelure and I believe a 44 magnum bullet definitely needs a cannelure. I have thought about a cannelure tool, but honestly, I have good luck with the bulk 240 grain jacketed hollow points he sells. I worry that I would damage the plating causing the plating to peel and cause a barrel obstruction.

I use the JHP he sells and a maximum load of IMR 4227. It works well for me.

Some of the plated bullets can be shot at high speed and others can't. May want to find out from the manufacturer. You're load is not over the top so that shouldn't matter. I know others had problems with the bullet deforming when crimping because they are soft bullets.

I shoot 23.5 H110/W296 with 240gr coated cast bullets. Ruger SBH 7.5” barrel. I think your loads are fine. I’ve never shot the plated with my load so I can’t help there.

FYI: my primers look just like yours on the right @ 23.5.

EDIT: I double checked— my load is 23.5 of W296. Chrono’d @ 1451. Coated LSWC 240gr.
I have corrected the post.

My major concern with H110/W296 is the low starting charge in the OP. It's below the minimum suggested load for a jacketed 240 gr bullet in most of my manuals.(I've always used jacketed recipes for plated as most manufacturers state to do so). When crimping plated, especially heavy crimping for a magnum revolver, the problem is not the deformation of the copper plating, but the deformation of the lead core below. The copper plated jacket will spring back from compression, whereas the lead core will not. Thus while the jacket looks good, it is loose from the lead core and subject to separation when fired under upper end pressures and velocities. The primers look fine to me, and it's well known that primers shot in revolvers are a very poor indicator of pressure. Seating depth using cannelured bullets is not going to change significantly enough to make any difference in recoil/pressure and velocity, unless one crimps outside of the cannelure or the bullets are of such poor quality that the position of the cannelure changes. While crimp may affect burn and pressure, over-crimping can actually lower it, because of the decrease in neck tension it can create. My suggestion is to get some Unique or other medium velocity powder to use under those plated bullets and only crimp them moderately. Save the H110/W296 for jacketed.

I have been happy with 8.5 gr unique and 240 swc coated in my Blackhawk,
Works good for my paper puncher / target load

Erief0g said:

On my starting load for the H110. I have multiple load manuals for reference and my most recent publication is the manual from Hodgdon that states max load (only shows maximum) is 24 grains. I took off 10% which put me at 21.6. During setup my I settled on 21.5 and felt I was still in a good range. I also referenced my hornady 10th edition showing the starting load for a Hornady 240 gr XTP is 20.7 at an approx 1100 fps. Max in that book is 24.1 gr. at 1350FPS and 24.8 in the "red" at 1400 fps. Not stating it's right or wrong, just how I came to that load.

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Hodgdon's online reloading guide gives a starting load of 23gr with a max of 24gr of H110/W296 under a 240 gr jacketed. I believe they suggest only a 3% drop from max to determine a start load. I know Hornady has very low start charges for H110/W296, and they are safe, if one uses a mag primer and a heavy crimp. Performance is only so-so tho. H110/W296 likes three things......A full case/max load, a heavy crimp and a mag primer. When used as such, it is hard to beat. Because of it's narrow parameters, it is easy to beat when used for any other purpose, but full blown magnum type loads. RMR 240s in .44 are supposed to be good up to 1400fps. Seems they would be fine for full blown magnum type loads.

greg_r said:

Never tried plated in the 44 Magnum. The LGS sells them, but they don't have a cannelure and I believe a 44 magnum bullet definitely needs a cannelure. I have thought about a cannelure tool, but honestly, I have good luck with the bulk 240 grain jacketed hollow points he sells. I worry that I would damage the plating causing the plating to peel and cause a barrel obstruction.

I use the JHP he sells and a maximum load of IMR 4227. It works well for me.

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They DEFINITELY need a cannelure! I'm currently trying to shoot out 50 plated 240's that won't crimp properly. The procedure is: Shoot two, detect cylinder binding. push remaining bullets back into cases with finger. Shoot two.....grrrrrr.

@Erief0g please see my corrected post above: 44mag load question

I should have checked before posting and I have corrected the data.

Also, if you want a plinking load, my favorite is 7.5gr Unique. It works just fine out of magnum cases with 240gr lswc bullets. I bet your plated bullets would do well, too.

JO JO said:

I have been happy with 8.5 gr unique and 240 swc coated in my Blackhawk,
Works good for my paper puncher / target load

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I love this load also, but I use uncoated cast boolits. 8.0 grains of Unique also is an accurate, mild load that you can shoot all day without beating up your revolver or your wrists.

Load plated bullets the same as lead bullets. Also plated bullets don't like a heavy crimp. Most brands of plated bullets don't like to be run over 1,500 fps.