Remington NM 44CF Loads

[Barbarosa]

I just purchased an original Remington NM Factory Style Conversion to .44 CF.
This gun will be a shooter, although not very often.
I found ammo in this cartridge at http://www.riverjunction.com/catalog/guns/ammunition.html
They offer this as .44 Remington 248 Gr. Cartridge with Heeled Bullet Outside Lubricated Smokeless.
I contacted River Junction and he has these custom loaded, and they are loaded with 5 grains of Unique. This is a fast burning shotgun powder I use to use in my .45 Colt loads.
Has anyone bought these cartridges and shot in a revlover like mine?
I am wondering if the ballistic specs loaded with this smokeless powder equal the blackpowder loadings as the original made cartridges?
Appreciate any info- anyone has regarding using this ammo.

Thank you.

[Halfway Creek Charlie]

I shoot this cartridge in my two Original NMA conversions. One is the original Armory cylinder and the other has an R &D drop in in 44 Rem. C.F. I love this cartridge! I shoot these originals every month and they Rock!

I did not shoot my RJ 44 Rem, Unique cartridges in an original, but I see no reason why not to if the pistola is in good working order.  I did play with a Unique load, but went to Trail Boss because the Unique was not burning up in the 8" bbl. I was peppering the paper at 15 yards and starting fires in the indoor range...

Only I use BP now. (I do have some PD loads in Trail Boss) I used one box of the Unique and decided I'd rather load BP, I do load Trail Boss in it. 4.5 Grns or 4.75 grns and have some PD loads at 5 Grns. The 4.5 shoot accurate. as well as the others.

28 Grns FFG or FFFG Holy black and the heeled bullet.This is VERY Accurate.

R J's Supplier is Old West Moulds. I buy my bullets, and supplies directly from him.
He has a Lee factory crimper for this cartridge and a sizer die. He also has moulds for it from single cavirty to at least 6 cavity.

Old West Moulds, Fruita Co.
Bernie Knowles is the owner you can reach him here: allisonmonument@aol.com. Tell him Halfway Creek Charlie in CA. sent Ya.
He's a good guy.

[Fox Creek Kid]

Beautiful gun but I would NOT, repeat NOT shoot smokeless in that original gun. Mike Venturino had an article awhile back about a fella who blew up a 1st Gen. Colt & a 1876 Win. both with smokeless! Metallurgy then was borderline alchemy and a lot of people think "it can't happen to me" but that's like the little boy whistling as he walks past the graveyard at night. Don't do it. Get some BP rounds.

[Halfway Creek Charlie]

Liability? I don't know, but when I got mine I saw they were drop shipped from Bernie and I contacted him directly. He was very informative.

I drooled over that Gun, it was on Antiqueguns Right?  If not it's sister was. Yes you have a nice factory conversion. I have to drop my cylinders out to reload but I don't mind and in fact I'm quicker doing that than ejecting them.

I'd pull the bullets and use 28 Grn BP FFG. Just to be on the safe side. And I bet she rocks.
Nice gun.

I shoot my originals once a month at our shoots, I have another coming, but it's a C & B 58 Remy transition gun from OMA(parts) to NMA. it'll get an R & D 44 Rem conversion cylinder too ...if it passes muster. And I'll get a 4th one too. So I can trade off Originals and not shoot them each month.

[Halfway Creek Charlie]

Barbarosa,
I use my kinetic puller to pull my bullets from smokeless or BP! if I want to save the bullets I put a bit of rubber in the catch basin of the puller. it is the simplest way to pull them.  Even though crimped, they pop out easily. I just pulled a dozen yeaterday working up several different cartridges (44 Spcl. Brass, 44 Russian, 44 Mag, etc) to try in the 46 RF Converted to 44 C.F. that I'm working on for a member of CAS City Forums.

I smack my kinetic puller on a 4 # sledge hammer head. Pulls them just fine and I have pulled over a thousand rounds in 30 years,
smokeless or BP and have never set of a primer, nor has static electricity set off the BP.

[Fox Creek Kid]

The down side is that if you pull the bullets, well you're stuck because they are a heeled bullet that take a special crimp. Charlie can explain better than I as he has Bernie's special crimping tool for loading the original .44 Rem.

[Halfway Creek Charlie]

AW but....these do not really need to be crimped if you don't have the crimper, per instructions from Bernie. So resize the brass in a 44 Colt resizer die and fill them with 28 Grns BP and seat the bullets. I crimp them because I bought the crimper, but Bernies says you don't have to. I resize them after I crimp them because my Original Armory Conversion is picky, and so is the R &D conversion cylinder.

I shot my first pulled/reloaded with BP cartridges from RJ without a crimp and I didn't loose a bullet in the cylinder.

Hint, if you have a 45LC crimper it just may work too.

[Fox Creek Kid]

I shot my first pulled/reloaded with BP cartridges from RJ without a crimp and I didn't loose a bullet in the cylinder.

Well I'll be................I'd a bet money that w/o a crimp the bullets would've slid out tying up the gun. Charlie, how's the ignition & accuracy w/o a crimp?

[Halfway Creek Charlie]

If you have to buy a 45LC crimper die, I'd just buy the correct die from Old West Moulds. He redoes the Lee Factory Crimper for the 44 Rem. They work great. and he'll make shell holders for you too. He did 44 mag, 44 Spcl and 44 Colt for me and I may have him make one for 44 Russian. I can crimp all three cartridges now. (different lengths of shell holders.)

Bernie may sell 4D 44 Colt dies too, or some other brand. I'd ask him these questions too. he'll steer you right.

I could tell no difference in the crimped and uncrimped loads.  I just shot 25 per gun too, one box. Then my stuff came from Bernie and I was set to go with the 44 Rem. C.F. in BP from the git go. I crimp thrm all now.

44 Colt dies from 4D (Buffalo Arms) is nice to have, but I loaded(seated the bullets in a Lyman 310 handloader in 44-40 adjusted so there was about 1/4 inch of brass sticking out when the bullet seated,(to keep the bullet from sticking in the seater doe)  because that was all I had,. I could not find my 44 Colt Dies at the time. I load them now with the 44 Colt dies in my RCBS Rock Crusher.

28 grns lets you campress the powder a little I do not use a wad under the bullet.

Bullet dimensions are Heel=.429 dia, drive band(external lubegroovers between)=.451, ogive=.439

Case take large Pistol primers. I use CCi Magnum or Winchester, depending on what is available when I go buying LPP's.