44 Special

[MT Gianni]

5 gr Green Dot in a Charter Bulldog and 624 Smith.

[Shuz]

Ben--I have a Saeco 4C designated 446-A. The boolits it casts look exactly like yours and weigh 208g from ww+1 alloy. I load 8.5g of Green Dot or 8.0g of NM-04 in.44MAG cases. These work real well in my various .44 mags. I don't use .44 Special cases. If you also have a .44 mag, you may wanna consider those loads.

[kbstenberg]

If i can find a Saeco 446 mold what price am i looking at? Ive read other good reports on the bullet.
Could i get someone to send me a few to try in my 44. Just send me a PM, we should be able to arange something.
Thank you Kevin

[NHlever]

I loaded up some of the Lee 44-200 RNFP today with both 5.0, and 5.4 grains of TiteGroup. I'll let you know how they shoot in my 4 5/8" .44 Special BH. when the weather gets above single digits again..... maybe next week. I loaded some of the Lyman 429215's over the same powder charges for comparison.

[Tater]

I use 6.3 grs. of 231 with a Magnus 215 gr. SWC in my Lipeys Ruger 44 Special for around 900 fps. as my control round to judge all others when checking out a new recipe or when I want to show off! Very very accurate, best of the best in my 44 Special.

[That'll Do]

If i can find a Saeco 446 mold what price am i looking at? Ive read other good reports on the bullet.
Could i get someone to send me a few to try in my 44. Just send me a PM, we should be able to arange something.
Thank you Kevin

Midway USA lists the 4 cavity at $150, the 2 cavity at $92.

Saeco molds are definitely worth the price though.

[brettb75]

I love the lipseys 44 specials, mine is a 4 5/8 inch barrel, i want a stainless one too , ohhhh and i hope they make a stainless bisley flat top. I use trail boss alot, it is very clean, and i really like about 7 grains of unique, it is very accurate in my lipseys 44 special using 429421 bullets.

[Crash_Corrigan]

I tried 6.4 gr of Unique in my Charter Bulldog shorty under Mihec's 256 gr LRN boolits. It about tore my hand offa my arm. Too much recoil in a light gun. I toned it down to 5.3 gr of Unique and I am where I need to be. You know you got off a shot but there is no pain.

I need to do some water jug killing and play with this loading to see where I get good expansion and accuracy but maybe I can reduce the charge to a lower weight and get less recoil but good expansion and accuracy. Now I am working with Mihec's .44 Special HP boolit and they are just beautiful.

I figure loaded with solt lead and at about 800 FPS or so they should be a DRT self defense round with decent accuracy if I can develop the right load.

I have some Trail Boss, W 231, Bullseye, Red Dot, Clay's and Unique so I have some work to do. Sometimes the fun is just taking the journey. It keeps me out of bars and from chasing women.

[MakeMineA10mm]

Well, Ben, how's it shoot?!?

BTW, I've had really good luck with 6.0grs of @231 in 44 Spl. It makes shooting a 44 centerfire feel like a 22, and it's very accurate.

[Ben]

Well, Ben, how's it shoot?!?

I shot some with 5.0 grs. of B'eye and they shot real well.

Thanks,

Ben

[Dale53]

I don't have the Saeco 215 gr bullet. However, I have the 200 gr Group Buy full wadcutter - It gives 878 fps with 5.0 grs of Red Dot. That would be a DANDY self defense load for the Charters.

My all time favorite bullet for the .44's is the H&G #503 (similar to the Lyman 429421) 250 gr Keith. 7.5 grs of Unique with the #503 gives 950 fps with a 5½" barrel. 5.0 grs of Bullseye with this bullet makes for a nice target load. I have not chronographed that one but it should give about 800 fps from a 4" barrel. That would also be an excellent self defense load for the Charter Arms, especially with the MiHec hollow point bullet.

The .44 Special may be the one best field load (the Skeeter load of 7.5 grs of Unique with the MiHec H&G #503 solid OR H.P.) best used in a Ruger .44 Lipsey Special or an S&W 24 or 624. I would be hard pressed to pick my favorite to carry between the S&W's or the Ruger.

I certainly would not argue with anyone who preferred the .45 Colt, .45 ACP, or even the .357 for an excellent field caliber (and for certain uses, a .32 or .38 Special with a proper bullet can work just fine) but the .44 Special kind of "sings to me"...

Fortunately, I don't have to make a choice these days. I can pick whatever out of the bunch at any given day to carry and have often done so.

Dale53

[Ole]

200gr Lee RNFP and 6.5gr of Unique is a nice general purpose load in my CA44 snubbie.

[dougader]

I had to go back just over 1 year worth of posts to find a real good 44 Special thread. There are other shorter threads, but I like this one... got to try some of the 200 grain rnfp bullets in my Ruger 44 Special Flat Top Bisley...

[Hammerhead]

I had to go back just over 1 year worth of posts to find a real good 44 Special thread. There are other shorter threads, but I like this one... got to try some of the 200 grain rnfp bullets in my Ruger 44 Special Flat Top Bisley...

I can appreciate digging up a good old thread. I'm a recent convert to .44 spl. Bought a S&W 624 and a 5.5" flat top Bisley.
My issue is that other than Clays, I'm having trouble with excessive amounts of unburned powder with the 200 RNFP and 240 SWC. I've been using Universal and HP-38/W231. I guess I need to shovel more coal on the fire to get it to burn more cleanly, but I'm at Hodgdon's max with the 240 and Universal, and I'm getting enough 'corn flakes' (unburned Universal) to interfere with chambering fresh rounds.

Clays burns super clean, but is so quick, I don't want to use it for anything but my target loads using a 185 DEWC.

[Rocky Raab]

Here's a 25-yard group fired with the load shown. It's a commercially-cast bullet, bevel base, so this is an especially pleasant result. Those are one-inch squares.

[PacMan]

MY SS Ruger 4" & 6 grs of HP-38 under the Noe 265gr hP will make one big ragged hole at 25 yards at 790fps by my graph.
Very plesant to shoot (will spoill ya) and very accurate which double spoills ya.
Packed the targets for moving or i would post them.

[Mal Paso]

I was shooting True Cast's 200g RNFP a while back. 5.5g of Titegroup was where my accuracy peaked. Tried it again last month, Nice clean target load.

[Hammerhead]

Here's a 25-yard group fired with the load shown. It's a commercially-cast bullet, bevel base, so this is an especially pleasant result. Those are one-inch squares.

Solid shooting. I get pretty good results with the commercial 200 BB-RNFP with HP-38, but way to much unburned powder. I think It's time to go with Clays. Pressure spikes shouldn't be an issue at .44 special pressures, and I inspect every powder charge before I seat a bullet, so I just need to man up and use Clays.
I'll stoke up the Universal loads with the 240s until I get clean burn or some sign of pressure. From everything I've read, the Hodgdon data is very conservative with Universal and the 240 lead.

[shdwlkr]

the shooter?

[kelbro]

All of my shots are 'called flyers'. I get a bunch of very good one shot groups though.