.44-40 lead in .44 S&W brass?

[xkadet]

I've run into a lot of 44-40 lead cowboy 205gr bullets (.427" diameter) and wonder at the possibility of loading these in my 44 S&W brass. I believe i can determine a safe powder load (in the 50gr range with HP-38) but wonder if there's anything that should keep me from doing this. These are to be shot in my Rossi .44 revolver, only. Thanks and this is a great forum.

Regards,

xkadet

 

[rcmodel]

.427" bullets are too small for .44 Spl.
They are normally sized .429" or .430".

I would imagine you will get gas cutting & severe leading.
But the only way to find out is to try it.
Maybe if they are soft enough they will bump up to fit.

(in the 50gr range with HP-38)

I think 50.0 grains of HP-38 might be a little on the hot side for a .44 Spl!
But it would for sure bump them up to fit.

I would try 4.5 Start - 5.6 MAX per Hodgdon data for a 200.

rc

 

[steveno]

with that diameter of bullet it also might be a bit small to get good case tension on the bullet even with a crimp. you might have to make the sizer plug around .425 or so.

 

[xkadet]

thanks for the comments

Ok, first 50gr would be a hot load for a 44 spl. my bad.

I was hoping that someone out there had already run the experiment.
I'm thinking it's probably not worth the risk at this point. I've got a few loaded and may test them to see how they do. But that's as far as I'll go at. They crimped ok in a lee crimper but the missing .002" is noticeable. Pushed one bullet onto the lands and it was tight, but again, we can speculate if it was tight enough or not. I'll let you know what I find out.

Thanks.