Who is shooting .44 special?

Roland · August 01, 2012, 01:56:19 AM

Howdy, looking at an 1873 sometime next year (been saying that for 5 years now, always something that gets in the way!) to complement my 1892 in .44 magnum.

I want to shoot black powder out of the '73 and that puts me in mind of the .44-40, but I already have two 44mag guns and getting the '73 in 44spl would allow me to reuse old magnum casings that have had casemouth splits by trimming down, and no having to look for or buying the much rarer .44-40 cases. 44 magnums are by all accounts much more abundant. I also cast bullets, the H&G #503 bullet being my absolute 44 favorite, it does feed in my 1892 as well. It would be nice to be able to use these molds to cast bullets for the '73 as well.

The only real issues I can see with going with the .44spl here is that of:

#1 Fouling the action, the .44mag/spl brass is thicker and stiffer and straight walled and I can see that to leading to more blowback into the action. One of the nice things I have read about the .44-40 is how it seals at BP pressures and keeps the action squeeky clean, meaning you pretty much only have to clean the barrel and breech. Anyone this forum shooting BP .44 specials in a '73 that can tell me their experiences with this cartridge?

#2 bullet fit, SWC keith style bullets have never been that easy to get to work with leverguns, I consider my 1892 to be something of an oddity in that I only had to file a little bit on it to make it run smoothly with these 250gr whoppers that have an OAL of 1.70" - if they don't fit it would probably require me to buy a separate RNFP mold for the '73 and in that case part of the reason for a .44 special goes away, might as well go for a .44-40 bullet then right?

Your thoughts and input on this would be appreciated. I essentially want to minimize the purchase of new reloading equipment and supplies as much as possible. I load smokeless 44spl/mag on a Dillon 650 right now, I will probably have to at least get a dedicated BP powder measure, hoping I could just charge the cases on that and do the rest on the Dillon.

To end this post, here's my 1892 just because I feel like sharing it, it's a Rossi and it's without a lawyer safety, stock is a work in progress as well, filled out the crescent with wood epoxy and ground it flat, will fit a grind to fit recoil pad soon to it:

w44wcf · August 01, 2012, 09:06:35 AM

Roland,
I do shoot the .44 Special, but currently in a revolver. I wish that the Henry or '66 were still offered in the .44 Special chambering because the neat thing about the .44 Special, is that it has the powder capacity similar to the .44 Henry cartridge originally chambered in those rifles and thus would offer the same ballistics.

I did, however, try some .44 Special black powder rounds in a friends .44 Magnum Marlin carbine (20"). Having learned my lesson on straight walled cases and b.p., I annealed the cases first. There was no blowby and the cases came out very clean on the outside.

For b.p., I would suggest a 44-40 black powder bullet (DD's "Big Lube" or Accurate 43-215C for shooting longer distances).

Nice looking Rossi. I have one in .38/.357.

w44wcf

Abilene · August 01, 2012, 10:01:33 AM

Roland: the max OAL for a cartridge in a toggle-link gun will be approximately 1.6"

w44wcf: while the Henry hasn't been available in 44 spcl for some time, and darn few of those, the '66 is currently available in that chambering.

PJ Hardtack · August 01, 2012, 10:51:11 AM

Roland

My wife and I both have Browning B-92s and love 'em! It's the 'John Wayne' carbine supreme. I've yet to shoot BP in mine, but once I motivate myself to anneal a bunch of cases, I'll give it a go.

I shot 240 gr SWCs for years as it never occurred to me to shoot anything else. Powder charge was 12 grs 2400. I've since gone to 240 gr RNFPs as they operate a little smoother. My wife prefers 200 gr RNFP with 6 grs Red Dot.

I recently won our CAS 'Speed & Accuracy' side match with my B-92 and the above mentioned load. Just hold centre and squeeze ....

Roland · August 01, 2012, 01:04:18 PM

Ah that is very useful information, never considered case mouth annealing.

Major 2 · August 01, 2012, 02:27:00 PM

My 73 is in 44 Spl.

Roland · August 02, 2012, 01:12:52 AM

Quote from: Major 2 on August 01, 2012, 02:27:00 PMMy 73 is in 44 Spl.

Do you shoot black powder through it, do you do the case annealing?

I have never annealed cases before but reading up on it, it seems like a good idea. Should one anneal the whole casing or just the mouths?

Major 2 · August 02, 2012, 05:12:52 AM

Black Dawg when I can get it, and Black Hills .... I just got some Winchester Cowboy 240 grain I'll give try.

I never annealed case can't answer that question.

w44wcf · August 02, 2012, 06:56:25 AM

Quote from: Roland on August 02, 2012, 01:12:52 AM
Do you shoot black powder through it, do you do the case annealing?

I have never annealed cases before but reading up on it, it seems like a good idea. Should one anneal the whole casing or just the mouths?

Just that portion of the case that contains the bullet. If the whole case is annealed, the primer pockets will loosen up pretty quickly. Been there, done that.

(I tried it once with a few cases just to see.....).

w44wcf

Roland · August 02, 2012, 07:55:25 AM

Yeah I was wondering if I could imitate this technique used by a guy annealing cases in an empty lead pot, of course he uses the cases as jackets when swaging 10mm bullets.