Found a nice mild .44 Mag load for the wife

[Lennyjoe]

Loaded some 240gr Meister hard cast over Unique last week and got some good results. Not a power house load by any means but a solid accurate round that's easy on the hands. The wife was a bit rattled with the AA-9 hunting loads so I think she'll enjoy the Unique alot better.

Here's the results. Temp was 89 degrees and elevation was 1900ft.

240gr Meister hard cast, WLP primers and Unique in mixed brass shot thru a Ruger Super Redhawk with a 7.5" barrel. and a Weaver 2X scope.

9.3gr
1151
1137
1137
1134
1141
1140

9.8gr
1178
1184
1179
1200
1197
1184

10.4 gr
1227
1238
1236
1246
1235
1252

10.8 gr
1275
1269
1287
1272
1285
1274

The 9.8gr load was the most accurate with just over 1.25" @50 yds off of a sandbag rest. No leading in the barrel whatsoever unlike the AA-9 hunting loads. I think I'll roll a couple hundred of the 9.8s for when the wife wants to go shooting. All of the loads are under the 11.8 max load listed on the website. Actually, if you look in Lymans 48th you'll see that the loads I started were 1.0gr under the max listed for 240gr lead loads.

 

[bouis]

That's remarkably consistent for Unique. What're you using to measure it?

 

[BluesBear]

One of my favorite plinking loads in .44 Magnum is an even 9.0 grains of Unique under a 240gr Keith SWC.

Accurate and economical.


For light loads for beginners, I also like 8.5 grains of Unique under a 210 SWC.

Recoil in my S&W feels like a .38 special.

 

[Lennyjoe]

RCBS Chargemaster combo.

 

[deputydon]

FWIW my .44 mag target load is a 215gr SWC GC over 10gr of Unique. I cast the bullets from wheel weights. Have shot this for years and find it to be very accurate. -Don

 

[Lennyjoe]

I've been tossing around the thoughts of casting my own. Don't know if I need another time consuming hobby like that though. Have enough of them, at least that's what the wife says.

 

[bouis]

I got a chance to shoot some of these Unique .44 mag loads and I was impressed too. Lots of fun without being uncomfortable, surprisingly clean, and cheap!

I only got off five shots before the battery on my Chronograph failed, but with a ~245 grain LSWC over 9.6 grains Unique with WLP primers out of my 8 3/8" Smith,

1087
1089
1060
1083
1096

Loaded on a Dillon 550b with LEE dies and auto-disk powder measure. I have to say the Lee stuff works really good, even if it isn't as smooth as the much more expensive Dillon stuff. I'm a little disappointed that my longer barrel is getting inferior velocities compared to your Ruger

 

[bakert]

I shoot at an indoor range that frowns on full bore .44 mags. Backstop problems(maybe) and the noise hurts the little ears of the high cap auto shooters even with muffs. My favorite plinking and target loads are either 7.6 grs of Universal under a 240 cast bullet or the same bullet over 8.5 frs of Universal for just a bit more oomph. Easy on the gun and shooter. I like Unique and still use it but Universal is just a bit cleaner and meters a bit better for me.

 

[Ben Shepherd]

It's an odd thing, but after shooting A LOT of pistol rounds over chronos:

I've found that rugers seem to shoot faster than smiths on average. Don't know why, just seems to happen.

There are exeptions, but generally that seems to be the case.