hornady 44 mag brass

[glockky]

Well I got a phone call from a buddy at a gun show where they had a good price on 44 mag brass. Without asking him what brand I told him to pick them up, well long story short I now have 150 once fire hornady 44 mag brass that's trimmed too 1.255 for the lever revolution bullets.

Has anyone loaded this shorter brass with regular bullets without pressure problems? I shoot 44 in my 1895 marlin only.

 

[floydster]

I have loaded the Hornady shorter brass for my Ruger Super Blackhawk Bisley Hunter without probs, been using 240 SWC with 4227 or Unique.

 

[buck460XVR]

How much shorter are these cases than what you are using now? 2/100ths maybe? If there is a big difference in case volume, then I would adjust the load accordingly. It certainly would not hurt to drop down and rework your load, just as you would when introducing any new component.

 

[glockky]

I believe the trim to length is 1.280 so it is .025 shorter

 

[ReloaderFred]

I've loaded Hornady brass in .44 Magnum and .45 Colt that is shorter. With less than maximum loads, it works just fine.

I also hope you're not shooting the .44's in an 1895, since all my 1895's are chambered for .45-70. Now some of my 1894's are chambered for .44 Magnum.......

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[glockky]

sorry its an 1894 I have had both and get them mixed up

 

[ReloaderFred]

I knew what you meant to say. I was just pulling your chain..........

Fred

 

[buck460XVR]

I believe the trim to length is 1.280 so it is .025 shorter

Hornady shows 1.275 as trim to length. But the question asked was, how much shorter are these than the ones you are using now? IME, many times new and once fired brass is shorter than what my manuals show as "trim to".

 

[RealGun]

I suggest you use or extrapolate from the loads in the Hornady book, listed especially for the 225g FTX bullet, for which they specify trimming the case length to 1.255. The loads appear to be about 10% lower than those for the 240g XTP and the same powder.

 

[glockky]

The hornady cases measure 1.255"

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I have not loaded the shorter Hornady 44's but I have loaded the shorter Hornady .357 Magnum brass and they work just fine with "normal" bullets. Remember, the manuals give a charge weight range for a reason. You are not forced to go directly to the Max and then look for pressure problems.

 

[glockky]

I noticed with faster burning powders the charge really drops.

 

[blarby]

Another way to look at it is that you have plenty of cases already trimmed to length for those magical *cough* ftx bullets !

 

[glockky]

I think I am going to trim them to make me some nice 44 special cases

 

[evan price]

As long as your OAL of the loaded round is the same (same bullet) the only problem would be if your crimp now misses the cannelure on the bullet.

 

[ReloaderFred]

When loading the shorter Hornady cases, I load to my standard overall length and crimp into the side of the bullet wherever it needs to be when shooting cast bullets. To those who say this will destroy accuracy, I haven't seen that at all in my testing. In fact, groups remain the same, at least out to 25 yards in the handgun, and to 100 yards in the Marlin and Winchester rifles.

With jacketed bullets, I make sure I've got sufficient neck tension and shoot them as normal.

Hope this helps.

Fred