I'm new to handloading and will be starting with a simple shot-load project to get my feet wet. Then Subsonic. Looking for anyone's experience with these types of 44mag loads. Gonna use it as a coon gun for a while. Had a few brave ones approaching lately.

How quiet can a subsonic load be and still be terminal when used to kill small game, <30lb. <20yards.

I'd love to talk to this guy I used to see at my range who had a load that was amazingly quiet. It was some obscure canon of a rifle too. No ear plugs necessary. Not even close. :confused: He was still shooting at 50 yards. Anyway, the memory of that is encouraging. Such a thing as a Subsonic/Shot load?

I use the Speer shot capsules for shot loads in both the 44 mag and the 38 special. These capsules can be obtained from some sporting goods stores or Cabela's or Midway. I load 7 1/2 or 8 size shot in them. Suggested loadings and powders are on the box the capsules come in.

As far as subsonic loads most loading books have low power load listed for the 44 special which can be loaded into the 44 mag case. I'd suggest a non position sensitive powder such as Titegroup for loads like that.

I've loaded both 44, 41 and 38's with cast bullets down to around 600-650 fps and they still make pretty good noise.

No. 12 shot is best for snake loads, if you can get it. What 44 mag are you using? I had a Ruger 44 mag bolt gun. 3.0 gr Unique with a 300 gr cast bullet worked well. You have to have a load that doesnt stick in the barrel so be careful. Handguns still make some noise with a squibb load. With rifles generally, 2 to 4 gr of Unique with a heavy cast bullet (no GC) will produce a quiet load good for 25 yards or so.

"Gonna use it as a coon gun for a while"
"used to kill small game, <30lb. <20yards"
My experience with shot loads fired from a pistol is that they are ineffective beyond 5-7 yards (and that may be pushing it, depending on the gun). I have loaded them in both .38/357 cases and in .45 Colt. and in low power loads in 45-70 cases as well as 577-450 Martini cases.
The big issue is that the rifling spins the shot capsule so that, when it emerges, it spins the shot into a donut-shaped pattern...wide and with a big hole in the middle. A secondary issue is the intended range of use. You are not going to have a lot of shot in a .44 case (about 1/3oz.), no matter how you do it . Shot capsules frequently load small shot like #8 and for coons, I'd expect that you'd need larger shot such as #6 or #4, even less shot. At 20 yards or longer the pattern, if there is one, is going to be very thin.
It will be an interesting project in any case. For some additional info, I found this article - though his shooting was done with smoothbores and .44 cases.
http://www.4-10.freeuk.com/mwpre410.html
Pete

Pete is spot on. In general, you can plan on seeing a one-inch pattern spread for every foot of range. At ten feet, the pattern is ten inches, and so forth. One can immediately see that even at ten yards, the pattern is a yard wide - with very few pellets to cover it.

Complicating it is the fact that to tighten the pattern, you have to reduce the velocity. That unavoidably reduces penetration. Together, handgun shotshell loads are VERY close-range affairs.

As a separate issue, subsonic handgun loads are a no-brainer: MOST handgun loads are subsonic. Anything under about 1100 fps is subsonic. (The speed of sound varies with temperature or density, but is generally about 1100 fps, give or take.)

A subsonic load is not going to be quiet in a revolver. It may be less noisy but it won't be quiet.

If noise is an issue, a single-shot rifle like an NEF chambered in .44 mag would be a whole lot quieter. Start with a cast bullet, about 3 grains of Bullseye, and go from there. Be prepared to stick a few in the barrel till you get it worked out.

Good luck.

Shot sounds less promising than loading down a bullet. Thanks for your thoughts.

Shot capsules are, in my experience, best left to soft critters. They're heck on snakes. But I would never dream of attempting a coon with a .44 shot shell (beyond point-blank.......and even then.............). You'd be way better served by a sub-sonic hard lead cast load. ;)

A subsonic load is not going to be quiet in a revolver. It may be less noisy but it won't be quiet.

I think the best explanation is the fact that even subsonic rimfire ammo in a handgun is going to get the neighbors attention.

To get a .44 slug out of the barel relaibly, it's gonna make noise. I'd definately go with the swaged lead for the project in any case, the "cowboy" bullets are both light and soft, requiring even less powder. I had some coons raiding my garbage cans, and found the speer plastic bullets with a magnum primer convinced them that the neighbors had better garbage :), and I didn't have to explain dead coons on the lawn.

I have some doubts about hunting coons with shot loads. My experience is that you'll need a conventional bullet to kill a raccoon, even at close range.
Shot loads are good for snakes and other relatively small things- but, as others have said- keep the range short. Like 7-10 feet.

i took out a coon in my neighbor girls dog house a couple of years ago..... i used a .357 with speer shot shells i loaded up with #2 shot.... can't remember the powder charge.... it took 4 shots from about 4 ft out to get him down... next coon i shoot i'm going to use .17 hm2 and a head shot i think....handgun shot loads are really not suited well to take game like that.......... the reason i used shot shells is i didn't want to use a solid bullet in town here around population and houses and such......

I got some of those 180-gr WC .429 dia that were given to me, guess these might make a good varment getter.

I think the best explanation is the fact that even subsonic rimfire ammo in a handgun is going to get the neighbors attention.

To get a .44 slug out of the barel relaibly, it's gonna make noise. I'd definately go with the swaged lead for the project in any case, the "cowboy" bullets are both light and soft, requiring even less powder. I had some coons raiding my garbage cans, and found the speer plastic bullets with a magnum primer convinced them that the neighbors had better garbage :), and I didn't have to explain dead coons on the lawn.

I think you'd be surprised what can be done with subsonic loads. I did some in my .35 Rem that barely popped, yet would go through a three-quarter inch sheet of plywood (testing), or a deer's head in the field. One concern, though, has got to be where the bullet ends up. If it's close enough for a neigbor to hear, it's close enough to bounce a bullet through one of their windows. If you think they don't like dead coons on the lawn.... :eek:

Just to discourage some critter, try a paintball gun with frozen paintballs. It's a heck of a lot safer.

Just to discourage some critter, try a paintball gun with frozen paintballs. It's a heck of a lot safer.

Now THAT is a good idea!

But over the years, I have managed to get a couple of bullets stuck in a barrel. Fortunately both times I realized the problem before shooting again. Both times I was underloading jacketed bullets over Bluedot.

I'll concede to quiet loads though. I had a bunch of cast bullets for a .30-30, that I loaded over Unique in an '06 that were very mild, not much more than a small firecracker. But as you said, they probably wouldn't stop in a wall, much less a window.

The ricochet problem is very real, and is even worse for much-reduced loads. That surprises some, but at low speed, bullets don't break up. They bounce like little super-balls. That's one reason the .22LR is so dangerous: those little lead slugs at subsonic impact speeds just bounce off many surfaces and go humming off in totally unpredictable directions.

Does your state allow suppressors? I just got my first pistol with a suppressor, a Walther P22 and a Advanced Armament Pilot suppressor, my CO2 pellet pistol is louder than this setup.

My next one is going to be an HK Tactical USP .45 with suppressor.

I think thus far we can sum up things---

Subsonic yes, shot loads no. Not for coons, Coons are tough. Go with a boolit.

I would say you can shoot a hard cast, flat meplat boolit and load at low speeds, even 500-600 fps and get it pretty quite and deadly on racoons.

But as someone else said handguns are not quiet. The longer the barrel the more quiet the subsonic. I notice this with 22 cal subsonic. The same boolit is loud from my 19 and 1/2 inch barrel and far quieter in my 24 inch barrel. Amazing.

The heavier the boolit the more it will smack down those racoons particularly since you aare going sub sonic. Shooting litttle pellets (any size) just wont have the terminal energy/penetration you need since you are throwing them so slowly. All the subsonic shooters I know go with the heaviest boolit they can get in that caliber and go from there with the powder load.