I had some encouraging results today with 17 grains of 2400 and 240 grain jacketed bullets. This is at least a grain or two less than any published MAGNUM loads I could find and 44 Special loads with 2400 are hard to come by.

I felt pretty comfortable trying this load but am leery of going any less.

Suggestions, comments, warnings or loads appreciated.

Go to a faster powder such as blue dot, red dot or bulls eye for lower powered loads. Check out your manuals. I like a plinking load with a 255 grain hardcast at 650-850 fps.

I'm using 6.5 gr 700X with a 240 LSWC for a very mild load with good accuracy. I tried Green Dot, but didn't get accuracy as good as 700X.

I may end up with a Unique load.

Paul, I have tried 6.5-8.5 grains of unique in half grain increments with 240 grain cast bullets. Very little change in point of impact or group size across that whole range in my rifle. 9 grains is where the groups disentegrated. 7 to 7.5 seemed about the best.

2400 does not suffer from reduced loads like 296/H110. What kind of loads are you looking for? A good mid load for the 44 mag is 10.0 grains of WW231 with the 240 grain jacketed bullet. This is a comfortable but still powerful load. 10.0 grains of Unique with a 240/250 grain cast bullet is also good. I would save the 2400 for full loads. The classic hot load for the 44 Special is 17.0 grains of 2400 with a Keith 250 grain bullet like BTB sells. This is for modern stong guns in 44 Special and of course can be used in any 44 mag.
From a 7 and 1/2 inch barrel this load goes about 1200 fps.

I trying to find the most accurate load I can with mild report and recoil.

Gross leading has caused me to curtail my cast bullet loads for the moment.

If the rain stops today I'm going to go shoot some of my 240 grain jacketed bullets with 7.5 grains of unique.

The 2400 loads were encouraging but since I changed powder and bullets I need to find out which component is making the most difference.

Ken,

Thanks for the Unique guidelines! Unique is a powder like 2400 for me. It took almost 40 years of reloading before I tried my first can of either.

The 700X load I posted will shoot 1" at 25 yards out of my 8" Dan Wesson 744 with open sights. It's mild, accurate and doesn't present leading problems, so it is a very good plinking/target load.

I had some encouraging results today with 17 grains of 2400 and 240 grain jacketed bullets. This is at least a grain or two less than any published MAGNUM loads I could find and 44 Special loads with 2400 are hard to come by.

I felt pretty comfortable trying this load but am leery of going any less.

Suggestions, comments, warnings or loads appreciated.
I've had outstanding results with 6.5 grains of 231 and 240 grain lswc like one hole at 25 yards.

My favorite 44 mag load is one Dad loaded for his 44 Special. A 250 grain 429421 Kieth bullet with 5 grains of Bullseye behind it. It runs about 850-900 fps out of a 7 1/2 inch Redhawk. Not too loud and pleasant to shoot. I try to keep 3-4 hundred loaded up all the time but I've been slippong here lately. :rolleyes:

Dad's "magnum" load for his special was 18 grains of 2400 behind the same bullet. Seem's to me that load runs about 1100 fps. It's alot of fun to shoot and I've never had any problems with leading using wheel weights and Lyman's Alox bullet lube. Your revolver looks like you've been shooting black powder but oh well it needed cleaned anyway :D

I still use some of Dad's special brass to make these loads when I run out of 44mag brass.