77/44 with Oregon Trails 310gr

[dmazur]

I've read several threads about whether heavier cast bullets will fit in the 77/44 rotary magazine.

Here's a picture of Oregon Trails 310gr. You can see that it fits, but there just isn't any room to spare.

I found that this feeds fine and empty cases eject fine, but ejecting loaded rounds is a problem. The rim of the next cartridge causes "early ejection" which makes the bullet hit the edge of the ejection port. If you drop the magazine first, the loaded cartridge will travel further back, hit the ejector and eject without trouble.

More standard 240gr loads are short enough to handle early ejection.

 

[Woodsloafer]

dmazur, do you know what the overall length is? Thanks!

 

[dmazur]

Sorry for the omission.

Using the provided crimp groove, COL is 1.610" (which I think is SAAMI max for .44 Magnum.)

Because the magazine is sort of rounded, I was surprised the "shoulders" of the bullet didn't hit.

 

[mike7mm08]

A few of the heavy cast bullets will work. All depends on the crimp groove. For example the 255 grain and 300 grain from Cast Performance work just fine in all the magazine fed Ruger 44s. But the 275 from Cast Performance is to long.

 

[Fenring]

Running the Lee 310 in my 96/44 with zero issues.

 

[mattsbox99]

I took my Dremel to the edges of my 99/44 mags to make sure my Beartooth bullets fit fine.