Ok, here's something I do know something about.
My all time favorite cartridges are the .44 Mag and .44 Spec. I have had no less than 8 guns that shoot this round. I currently have 4.
First I would like to talk about the guns. My Marlins,,, I have a .44 mag Rifle with a 24" barrel and Ballard rifling, and a .44 mag Carbine with a 20" barrel with Micro Groove rifling. Both are 1/38" twist rates. The rifle's groove dia is .431, and the Carbiine is .430. Niether one of these guns is a tack driver, in fact 3" at 50 yards is about as good as it gets, and for what they are designed to do, that's OK? They will shoot Mags or Specials interchangably
I have a Ruger Super Blackhawk Bisley in .44 mag, and a Blackhawk Bisley in .44 spec. Both of these guns have chamber throats that are .430 and bores that run .429. This is exactly what they should be as you want the throat about .001 larger than the bore. The .44 mag's chambers look like shit, the .44 spec looks perfect.
For this caliber I have shot every bullet known to man. I gravitate to cast bullets made from wheel weights. Here's pics of the bullets I currently shoot.
From the left is Lyman 429244 SWC GC 250gr. Lee 240GR GC, Magma 44-190gr FB and a 200gr Extreme Plated lead bullt I am trying to see if they are worth buying. I will be buying a 300 gr SWC mould soon, and I always prowl the gunshows for interesting moulds for this and several other calibers. i have also shot Beartooth Bullets 250Gr WFNGC's. This is a bullet designed by Veral Smith and is as close to be completely cylindrical as it gets. The Meplat(front flat of the bullet) is .340 in Dia. It is very satisfying to hit a 200 yard steel Ram with this bullet as the sequence goes,,,, Bang,,,,,,,,,,Fonk!!!! and the ram slams down with authority!!!!
GC stands for "Gas Check" which is a small copper cup that is installed on the base of the bullet to protect it during firing and also seal the bore. They also prevent leading of the bore which can happen if you try to push plain base bullets too fast with high pressure powders.
I don't use bevel base bullets as they promote leading in many cases by allowing gases to bypass the bullet and transfer lead to the bore as a result. The bevel base is used mainly to promote easy bullet seating in progressive presses, and I don't have that problem.
Also all of these bullets are cast from strait wheel weights which is about 8-9BNH. Too hard a bullet will not obturate(conform to the bore) and will result in leading. For bullets I know are going into my rifles I sometimes heat treat the bullets by dropping them into a bucket of cold water right out of the mould. They end up about 15BNH but revert back to soft with in about 1 year.
If you going to buy Hard Cast Bullets from any of the numerous makers just make sure to buy gas check style bullets, otherwise bore leading can be a problem and if allowed to get bad can result in skyrocketing pressures which can change your out look on life.
I don't shoot any jacketed bullets now because the cast ones cost virtually nothing to make (once you've got the tooling) and they will do anything you can possibly want to do with the .44 mag or .44 spec in any rifle or handgun. Accuracy will be as good as the gun will shoot, and penetration is complete on just about anything you will shoot up to a 59 DeSoto.
There is nothing wrong with Jacketed bullets in most pistols, but in the Marlin Rifles with loose bores they will not give any kind of accuracy.Most Jacketed bullets are .429 or at most .430. In fact my experience with jacketed bullets in my rifles has been one of numerous keyholes in targets. Not exactly what I look for in accuracy.
I am not a hunting expert, but everything I have read on hunting game animals in NA by "them that knows" suggests complete penetration on anything up to Moose with any 250 gr cast bullet at anything above 1000 feet per second. That would include the .44 Special also. The great bears of the North being the only possible exception.
In selecting a bullet you need to know what your groove dia is on the gun you'll be loading for. The cast bullet needs to be .001-2 bigger than the groove dia. This is also the reason the throats on revolvers chambers are sized at .001 above the groove dia. So a proper sized bult will go thru unscathed.
I will not quote charge weights. You get to figure this out yourself by reading as many loading manuals as you can get your hands on. I also suggest a subscription to Handloader Magazine. This magazine is written by "Them that knows" and the combined expertise on everything related to loading ammo is in the "hundreds of years of experience". I get alot of current and standard info from this source, and believe me they will not steer you wrong.
Powders that work well with low range loads from 700 to 900 fps for pistols are the same as for any other pistol round, see Bullseye, Unique, W231/HP38, Red Dot, Green Dot, etcetera.
Mid Range loads up to 1000-1200 fps and many of the same powders still work well. Powders like Unique will deliver 2-4 times the number of loads per pound that you can get out of H110/W296 or 2400 or some others. Just becasue of the smaller charge weight.
Hot Rod or full power loads up to 1300-1500fps brings in 2400, H110/296 and others. These slower burning powders don't work very well at lower pressures and I reserve them for Hot Rod Loads. I have 8 lbs of H110 and that's the reason I want a .410 shotgun.
Also anything you load for the pistols will work in the Marlin rifles except they will go alot faster. A 250gr gc bullet at 1400 fps in a pistol will be going 17-1800 fps out of my rifle, will go strait and clean thru anything on this continent, and leave a 1/2 to 3/4" + hole behind.
There are also bigger bullets made. There are cast bullets, and moulds for the .44 that go up to 335 gr. However a stock Marlin rifle with it's 1/38" twist barrel won't stabilize anything longer than about 265-280gr, and the overall length of the round is too big for the action to swallow. They still work well in pistols as most all pistols have 1/20" twist barrels and cylinders long enough to shoot them. The cure for the abismal accuracy in the Marlin Rifle is to rebarrel to a 1/20" twist .430 dia barrel. (this is where mine are heading after the SHOT Show in Jan)
If you go to the Garrett Ammuniton page you will see factory loaded ammo with bullets as big as 330 gr. And if you look thru the picture gallery you will see a huge pig shot(600lbs?) shot by Ashley Emerson with his .44 mag Marlin Takedown Carbine that has not only been rebarreled, and converted to takedown, but modified to accept the longer rounds. This is a very powerfull little rifle.
These 330gr rounds are leaving the muzzle at around 1600fps, and that's deeply into 45-70 ballistics, but in a gun that is 36" long and weighs less than 7 lbs. you won't shoot many of those mega loads thru this one in one sitting unless you are impervious to recoil.
The .44 Mag and Special are cartridges that perform well beyond their paper ballistics, and specifications. You can't argue with the fact that everything on earth with the possible exception of whales and Obama have been taken down by them. There is versitility for every use from plinking to bears.
I personally think it is THE most versitile caliber out there.
It is also loads of fun, because you can interchange rounds just like .22 Short and Long Rifle. One for a tin can, one for a Bus.
Randy
