Making light loads of .44 Mag. for my son to shoot??

Using 44 special brass and load data would be ideal.

For loading 44 special level loads in magnum brass, I just use the Max SPECIAL data in the magnum brass as a starting point to compensate for the larger internal volume and corresponding lower pressure in the Mag brass. I go up or down from there.

Bullseye would be perfect, Unique would be good.

You can load light 44 with HP38. I would have him shoot something with less recoil.

I you want to load lower recoil ammo in magnum guns whose cartridges where developed from more moderate precursor cartridges like the .44 special into the .44 mag you can load with powder and bullets using the data for the earlier cartridge. Rather than trying to guess on a light load for the .44 mag simply use .44 special data with moderate to fast burn rates as found in the load manuals for modest velocity loads that won't stick a bullet in your barrel. You can use magnum brass with lighter 240gr LSWC loads found in the Speer manual or use the same bullet and powder with .44 special loads. Data can be found for magnum loads under 700 to 800 fps and Special loads below 700 fps. I would think a 240 gr LSWC at around 700 fps from a revolver as heavy as the Ruger Super Blackhawk would have less recoil impulse than the typical .40 S&W. More like a target .45 acp load or .38 spl load from a K frame S&W.

Now someone is going to pipe in with the "larger" volume of the Magnum brass causing lower pressure and the chance of not getting the bullet out the end of the barrel. Remember that the .44 special was an old black power cartridge with lots of volume compared to cases developed in the smokeless powder age so data for it using smokeless powder leaves a lot of rattle room in the case without danger of sticking bullets. Personally I don't worry about the extra 11.7% extra volume giving rise to any significant reduction in pressure especially with faster pistol powders like Unique, Red Dot, Bullseye etc.

One issue you may get is with leading if you use hard cast bullets for your lighter loads as lower pressure and velocity will almost always result in greater lead deposits. If you are using bullets of softer target hardness of 12 BNH cast or swaged Speer or Hornady bullets there should be no leading problem. Polly coated cast bullets could also avoid any leading problems.

Charlie98 said:

I would start with .44 Special loads and work up to his tolerance. In a big pistol like that, he should be fine.

A reasonable load would be a 240grn cast bullet over 7grn Unique, or similar. If you want less of a recoil impulse, you can go to a lighter bullet.

My data log shows I've loaded 200grn cast over RedDot, TiteGroup, and W231, as well as Unique...

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I loaded about the same Unique load as Charlie98's 7 gr. for SWMBO to shoot from my Redhawk almost 30 years ago. I took her and a friend of mine shooting and brought the light loads for her, and my friend basically said, "Nice shooting, for a girl." (He was lucky I had the gun at the time....) I had also brought some of my development loads for moose hunting with, so I stuffed a cylinderful of those for him to try. (300 XTP @ 1200 fps) He almost indented the hammer into his forehead, then almost dropped the gun. He had a little more appreciation for her abilities after that. I rapped out the other 5 of the moose loads, and explained how to shoot hot loads from a .44 to him. Time between shots was longer than my usual .45 ACP splits. Didn't have a timer with, but at least a second between. 5 shots at 10 yards on a human silhouette, about silver dollar size. Wouldn't have needed the other 4 though with that load, I ended up going closer to 1300 with the ones I hunted with.

Unique, HP38/W231, Accurate #5, and a few other similar powders would be good for reduced 44 Magnum loads.

I load 240 SWC and 200 WC in 44 Magnum cases at levels a bit higher than 44 Special top powder charges. I generally use Unique.

usmc0811 said:

I have a nice 6" Ruger GP100 that he could shoot 38's out of that would be very manageable, but you know and I know he will want to try the big boy in .44 I know i would lol . I just want it to be enjoyable and manageable for him when he does.

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Well, here's where Unique absolutely shines.

You can load up a few dozen at the starting charge, and load batches of a cylinder full stepping up a half grain at a time to the max charge. It'll let him pick exactly where his recoil tolerance is. You can get almost peak 44mag performance from the top end load of Unique, but if he stops shy, you can just shoot them up and next time load a big box for just where he likes 'em.

Edited to add, to keep them organized, I'd just write the powder charge on the side of each cartridge in Sharpie. It'll clean off, but it's permanent enough.

usmc0811 said:

I do have some powder here with me actually they are H110, LIL gun, Bullseye, Unique, HP38, clays.

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6 to 8 grains of HP38 with a 240-250 grain bullets has very low recoil and low muzzle blast and is accurate. My favorite walking around load for my .44 mag is 8 grains WW231 (same powder as HP38) with a 250 grain hard cast..The velocity is close to 1000 fps so it can be used for deer hunting as is.

7.5 gr of Unique under a 240 gr cast boolit is a vary mild and good shooting load in my RSBH & my Contender

A number of posts are talking up Unique, but my experience is that using the data for Magnum produces sharper recoil than a slower burning magnum powder. What I would suggest rather than using 44 Special data is to work in the range between 44 Special maximum (for Unique) and 44 Magnum minimum. In addition to full up loads with IMR4227 and H110 I make moderate loads for all my magnum guns where I find a powder common to both magnum and the smaller relative. That also becomes the standard load for smaller guns that are near insane with full power ammo.

I also would suggest going with the advice to get lighter weight bullets, which is definitely a factor in felt recoil. I keep 200 grain for both magnum cowboy rifle and for a 44 Special Ruger Flat Top NMBH. I also have a 44-40 1875 Remington clone that uses 44 Special bullet diameter. 200 gr bullets in 44 work well and are very accurate for me. I have coated 240s in harder alloy and also XTPs for full power stuff.

Hodgdon themselves told me their recipe for developing Trailboss loads works just as well with jacketed as it does with lead. Their only warning was not to go below 70% of case fill. I've found that with jacketed, you're best off with 90%-95% of case fill. As for light recoil from a .44 mag in a SBH, I doubt if you could go wrong with 10 gr of Unique under either a lead or jacketed 240 grainer.

buck460XVR said:

Hodgdon themselves told me their recipe for developing Trailboss loads works just as well with jacketed as it does with lead. Their only warning was not to go below 70% of case fill. I've found that with jacketed, you're best off with 90%-95% of case fill. As for light recoil from a .44 mag in a SBH, I doubt if you could go wrong with 10 gr of Unique under either a lead or jacketed 240 grainer.

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I had read the same thing about jacketed bullets somewhere, I just can't remember where. I've used Trailboss with plated bullets in 38spl and 45acp with good success.

buck460XVR said:

. As for light recoil from a .44 mag in a SBH, I doubt if you could go wrong with 10 gr of Unique under either a lead or jacketed 240 grainer.

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Here is what 9.2 gr unique does in my sw 629. You could easily soften it more. I get large sd with Unique but even still it holds great accuracy

Created: 09/04/20 01:29 PM
Description: 44 mag rmr plated FP 240gr,unique 9.2gr 1.585oal
Notes 1: 70 degrees tidioute
Notes 2:
Distance to Chrono(FT): 10.00
Altitude: 1000.00
# FPS FT-LBS PF
10 998 0.00 0.00
9 1007 0.00 0.00
8 1014 0.00 0.00
7 977 0.00 0.00
6 887 0.00 0.00
5 975 0.00 0.00
4 996 0.00 0.00
3 1022 0.00 0.00
2 1001 0.00 0.00
1 880 0.00 0.00
Average: 975.7 FPS
SD: 50.7 FPS
Min: 880 FPS
Max: 1022 FPS
Spread: 142 FPS
Shot/sec: 0.3

Erief0g said:

Here is what 9.2 gr unique does in my sw 629. You could easily soften it more. I get large sd with Unique but even still it holds great accuracy

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The large SD could be from the plated bullets and not the Unique. I stick with 10 gr because it seems when I go less, accuracy suffers and I get so much more unburnt powder residue. For me, 10 seems to be the sweet spot under a 240 gr jacketed.

buck460XVR said:

Hodgdon themselves told me their recipe for developing Trailboss loads works just as well with jacketed as it does with lead. Their only warning was not to go below 70% of case fill. I've found that with jacketed, you're best off with 90%-95% of case fill. As for light recoil from a .44 mag in a SBH, I doubt if you could go wrong with 10 gr of Unique under either a lead or jacketed 240 grainer.

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IMR4227 is a far more friendly load than monster recoil from that much Unique. At some point in power level I always switch to a real magnum powder, and there are more loads for lead bullets using IMR4227 than many others.

Trailboss, it's designed to fill large cases. It's a go to powder for Cowboy Action big cases and light loads.

I loaded up some 180gr with 10 gr of Unique.
The only reason I used 10 gr is I'm pretty sure it filled the brass up about half way with powder.
It's hotter than 44spl load data and below starting load for 44mag but it burns nice and clean.

RealGun said:

IMR4227 is a far more friendly load than monster recoil from that much Unique. At some point in power level I always switch to a real magnum powder, and there are more loads for lead bullets using IMR4227 than many others.

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I've not found IMR4227 to be a good fit with moderate loads in pistols. I use it as my primary powder in my .41MAG rifle... where it works exceptionally well, but the few times I've worked with it in my revolvers, it didn't do any better than Unique. To get it to run clean, you have to fill that case up... but then you are looking at, essentially, full-house loads... not what the OP wants.

I see you have Bullseye on hand, which is important to consider during this panic/shortage. I have had great luck with 6.0 grains of Bullseye under a 240 grain coated SWC in .44 magnum brass. Both my revolvers (Ruger SBH Hunter, S&W 69) and my Marlin 1894 shoot this load really well. It's a very mild shooter but it does produce very enjoyable results on steel or jugs of ice.

This is a published load in the Speer #14 manual. The load range is listed as 5.5-6.0 grains of Bullseye. If you do the math that's 1200-1100 rounds per pound of Bullseye. Very economical also.

Charlie98 said:

I've not found IMR4227 to be a good fit with moderate loads in pistols. I use it as my primary powder in my .41MAG rifle... where it works exceptionally well, but the few times I've worked with it in my revolvers, it didn't do any better than Unique. To get it to run clean, you have to fill that case up... but then you are looking at, essentially, full-house loads... not what the OP wants.

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I wasn't referring to moderate loads in context. I was responding to use of a heavy load of Unique. I always use IMR4227 full up, even compressed, and it always pleases without undue punishment. If I was avoiding recoil, I would either shoot my cowboy load of Trailboss or shoot my 44 Special, which can be a challenge itself.

RealGun said:

I wasn't referring to moderate loads in context. I was responding to use of a heavy load of Unique. I always use IMR4227 full up, even compressed, and it always pleases without undue punishment. If I was avoiding recoil, I would either shoot my cowboy load of Trailboss or shoot my 44 Special, which can be a challenge itself.

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Gotcha. I'll have to try that... my standard Unique .41 load next to my IMR4227 loads, just to see.

Reeferman said:

I use 5 to 5.5 grains of Bullseye with either a 240 lead SWC or a 240 Campro plated with 44 magnum cases for my 5.5” SBH. There has been literally 1000’s of these through that gun with no issues, good accuracy and cheap to load.
After 2 to 3 hundred my stainless SBH is a tad bit darker with soot but it wipes right off. There has been girls as young as 12 to as old as 75 year women shoot that load and have smiles on their faces knowing in their mind they just shot a 44 magnum though most knew it was a very light load but it was a 44 magnum.

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Reeferman beat me to it. A 200 gr LRNFP and 5.5 gr Bullseye in a .44 Spl case and you’re good to go for any newer big-bore shooter.

This is a GP 100 3” shot DA at 12 yards with a 200 gr coated Eggleston over 5.5 gr Bullseye. In a longer barrelled SA .44 you can expect a lot more landing in the orange on a B-16 target like this one.



Stay safe.

I use unique for my light loads in 44 mag.

Elmer Kieth used 5 grains of Bullseye for his gallery loads and they have worked very well for me. Where my wife works there are some guys there of various ages who talk a big talk about shooting. She shows them a video of her shooting a SBH with a 5.5” barrel. She lets it roll up and makes it look like a full on nuclear magnum. They mostly shut up after that.