Hunting load suggestions for .44 SRH

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Flyover_Country

Bearcat
Joined
Jan 2, 2018
Messages
62
Hello,

Long time lurker, new poster. I recently got a new to me 1999 vintage .44 7 1/2" SRH for target shooting and deer hunting, and also to get experience in shooting a handgun as I enjoy shooting and that's the one smokeless powder weapon I have not shot very much. I grew up shooting a shotgun and only a shotgun as my father was an Iowan, and "that's all they could use up there," despite the fact that we lived in more civilized country since I was five years old. I did eventually get a .30-06 as it kicks a whole lot less than a 12 gauge slug gun (buckshot is illegal here.) It might be a bit too effective as I have only spent about an hour and a half in total for the last three years deer hunting. Being able to shoot 200 yards accurately enough to kill a deer with one shot takes quite a bit of the sport out of it. I have shot a few friends' semi-auto handguns (.380, 9 mm, .40) in the past and enjoyed it, and thought it might be fun to try to hunt deer with a handgun.

I started out shooting the SRH with some factory .44 Special cowboy loads. That was about as much fun shooting as I'd ever had! I shot two boxes' worth and realized that it takes a lot more practice to shoot a handgun well compared to a rifle at typical hunting ranges, and it costs about the same to shoot a .44 per round as it does an '06 but I'd go through 20-30 times as many rounds per year. I reload shotshells since I go through a number of them shooting clay targets, so reloading isn't new, but I've never reloaded metallic cartridges before. I got a Hornady single stage press and dies and got the only brass and primers available locally, Starline brass and CCI 300 primers. I already had a bottle of Unique for shotshells, so I loaded up the oft-recommended 8.0 grain load with 240 grain Berry's plated bullets (which I can get locally inexpensively) at about 1000 fps for a target load and it was as good as recommended. I'll stick with that load for target practice.

My question is what to do for a hunting load. I am anticipating a 50 yard maximum range and typically deer here are about 150 pounds live weight, a little one is 100 and a big one is about 200.
 

contender

Ruger Guru
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Welcome to the Forum!
You are on the right track it seems.
But,,, specific loads are not what I'll suggest. What I will offer is this.
You are already working on a target load,,, to practice with. Good. Next,,, you can step up a little,,, by getting a quality cast bullet,,, in a similar weight,,, with a good SWC design, or even a WFN design. Then,,, using your loading manuals,,, study what powders will get you in the 1000-1100 fps range,,, load some to see what YOUR gun prefers. Each gun can & will have preferences.
A good WFN or SWC design,,, moving in that velocity range will anchor any deer in North America. (As well as most other game.)
 

tsubaki

Single-Sixer
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It appears that you have some wiggle room possible with the components you already have on hand.
I'd have to start playing with 10.gr of Unique and a chronograph to see if the gun/bullet/powder like each other.
If you can get that bullet close to Berry's suggested maximum velocity of 1250fps, it has enough energy to be adequate for the deer in your area.
240gr projectile with a BC of .20 and 1250fps muzzle velocity = 607ftlbs at 100 yards.

For MY general rule of thumb, I try to base the energy on 500ftlbs at a certain given range.
 

Flyover_Country

Bearcat
Joined
Jan 2, 2018
Messages
62
tsubaki said:
It appears that you have some wiggle room possible with the components you already have on hand.
I'd have to start playing with 10.gr of Unique and a chronograph to see if the gun/bullet/powder like each other.
If you can get that bullet close to Berry's suggested maximum velocity of 1250fps, it has enough energy to be adequate for the deer in your area.
240gr projectile with a BC of .20 and 1250fps muzzle velocity = 607ftlbs at 100 yards.

For MY general rule of thumb, I try to base the energy on 500ftlbs at a certain given range.

10.5-10.7gr of Unique is the book max (depending on which book) with 240 grain bullets and is supposed to be good for ~1200 fps. I also have a canister of IMR 800X which is supposed to be good for 1350-1400 for for a max load with a 240 grain bullets as it is a little slower powder. I have shot 10.0 gr of Unique under the plated bullet and it was very shootable, but I didn't chronograph it. The one full power load I have shot was a 200 gr JHP at 1600 fps. It was loud, had significantly sharper recoil than the 10 gr Unique/240 gr plated combination, and did not seem to whack the steel gong any harder.

My hunch was to use Unique or 800X with a suitable 240 grain hunting bullet and call it a day, especially since 800X isn't that far off of powders like H110, etc. in performance. I have it on hand and it doesn't require full-throttle-only loads or magnum primers. But with looking at hunting loads online, it's either moderate 2400 loads with lead bullets (similar in performance to 800X loads) or max H110/Lil' Gun loads. I saw very little for moderate hunting loads with Unique, 800X, etc so I wanted to make sure I was not out in left field.

I don't think that a plated bullet is legal for hunting here as expanding or plain lead bullets are required. Meister Bullets is in town and Missouri Bullet Co. is close by, so I'll see what they have.
 

contender

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One more piece of advice.
When loading plated bullets,,, use cast bullet data only. The plating can & will strip off at higher velocities. I shoot a lot of the Xtreme plated bullets,, and I've also used Berry's & Ranier bullets. Plated is not the same as jacketed.

Since your state requires certain bullets,,, look hard at a quality cast SWC or WFN. I've been handgun hunting for decades. Trust me when I say it's hard to beat a good bullet, running in the 1100 fps range like I mentioned. I load one like that in 45 Colt for bear,,,,! I never feel underpowered or anything.
 

wwb

Hunter
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contender said:
.........When loading plated bullets,,, use cast bullet data only. The plating can & will strip off at higher velocities.......

I've shot a boatload of Ranier Ballistics and Berry's plated bullets. With a mild load, they're a great inexpensive practice load. I've seen intermittent accuracy problems at anything over 1150 fps, so I'm guessing that's about where the plating is starting to give up.

For the SRH and deer, I load a jacketed soft nose (I've used both Nosler and Speer) with 2400 at 1/2 grain under max. Accurate, and it anchors them right there... but it's not fun to shoot for more than a few rounds; the trigger guard and my middle finger don't seem to get along.
 
Joined
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With 10 grains of unique and a 240 grain SWC bullet you should be good for any deer. For hunting I currently load a 240 grain Hornady XTP over 23.5 grains of H-110. These shoot very well in my 5" SRH and my 12" Encore. I have recently started loading 240 grain SWC's using Unique and Universal. looking to get a plinker load and hunting / carry load with these.
 

Jimbo357mag

Hawkeye
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19.5 grains of Accurate #9 and a 240 grain XTP bullet. Max is 20.5 grain. If that is too strong you can back back off the powder till it feels comfortable for you. I shoot 240 grain Rainers with 18.0 grains of Accurate #9. Loading with H-110/W296 you can't reduce the charge that much.

http://www.accuratepowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/WesternLoadGuide1-2016_Web-1.pdf
 

daveg.inkc

Hunter
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Jimbo357mag said:
19.5 grains of Accurate #9 and a 240 grain XTP bullet. Max is 20.5 grain. If that is too strong you can back back off the powder till it feels comfortable for you. I shoot 240 grain Rainers with 18.0 grains of Accurate #9. Loading with H-110/W296 you can't reduce the charge that much.

http://www.accuratepowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/WesternLoadGuide1-2016_Web-1.pdf
AA#9 is very accurate in my 10.5" Super Blackhawk 20.1 grs with a 240XTP 10 grs Unique in my 7.5" Supers also 23-24 grs IMR 4227 is a favorite Check out Missouri Cast bullets for their coated cast projectiles. I took a tour thru the plant. I watched a 240 gr Elmer cast get smashed with a ball peen and coated did not chip, peel, or come off. They shoot great for me
 

Flyover_Country

Bearcat
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Jan 2, 2018
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62
I did some more reading and experimenting.

1. Hornady 10th Ed. has some loads that are quite a bit above the recommendations of other sources with similar bullets. I had a few 200 gr XTPs and loaded them up with Unique and IMR 800X. The two Unique loads including the "book max" did fine, and the starting load of Unique at 10.5 gr/1300 fps was very accurate, notably better than anything else I'd shot out of the SRH. The 800X loads did fine until I got to the intermediate load below the maximum, which was 15.7 gr/1500 fps. I had some mild primer flattening and a LOT more recoil than the load just below it. The book max is 17.2 gr/1550 fps which due to the primer flattening with the 15.7 gr load I will not try to shoot. IMR data shows 15.5 gr is the max with 200 gr JHP bullets and my experience with the 15.7 gr load suggests that is true and the 17.2 gr in the Hornady manual is probably a bit "optimistic."

2. Shooting 10.0 gr of Unique under the Berry's 240 gr was very shootable and probably about the max the bullet can take. I think I'll stick with 240 grain loads as shooting the 200 gr loads was far noisier, recoil was sharper, and they didn't seem to whack the steel gong I shot at the end any harder than the 240s. The 200s at 1500 fps certainly did shoot lower though, about half a foot at 25 yards.

3. I did some more reading and Alliant 2400 is a very well reputed powder since it's pretty slow burning and thus operates at lower PSI than something like Unique or IMR 800X, but unlike H110/W296 can be used with normal primers and loads can be reduced. I got a pound of 2400 and we'll see how that works. I did pick up a box of 240 gr Hornady XTPs as the local gun stores all carry Hornady handgun bullets and little else in .44, and I'll see how Unique, 800X, and 2400 behave with those as well as the Berry's plated bullets. 2400 also is little tiny pellets vs. flakes of Unique or 800X so it should meter well through a measure. Unique and 800X being flake powders are typically +/- 0.3 gr. That's OK for target loads several grains below max, but I had to set the measure a little low and trickle every load up to spec for anything near max to avoid going over. We'll see how 2400 works.

4. Next step will be to use those powders with some cast bullets. After doing some research, pressure rather than velocity seems to be the main issue with lead bullet hardness, and this appears why the cast bullet guys love 2400, as its slow-burning nature produces less pressure than the faster-burning shotgun powders. I am leaning towards the Missouri Bullet Co. coated 240 gr Keith SWC.
 

tsubaki

Single-Sixer
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Well now that you have spread out all over the place with powders and projectiles, it seems appropriate for me to post a load I'm happy with and intend to use it for hunting purposes.
These are from a 7 1/2" SBH.
They are cast from a Lee TL430-240SWC, actual weight averages 242gr. They were powder coated. Approximate hardness BHN11.
20.0gr of 2400 was used with CCI350 primers.
Average muzzle velocity 1410fps.
Retrieved from a dirt pile about 30 feet away.

Hope this gives you some ideas!

413102325.jpg

413102326.jpg
 

Flyover_Country

Bearcat
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Messages
62
I went and shot the SRH today :mrgreen: I didn't have any empty brass to load so I didn't try any new loads today.

I confirmed that the Hornady book max for the 200 gr XTP loads with IMR 800X (17.2 gr) is a little overpressure, at least with the Starline brass I am using and in my SRH. I shot a few of those and the cases were sticky to extract, requiring a firm push on the extractor to extract. The "next lower load" of 15.7 grains was as easy to extract as the 8.0 gr Unique loads so I would consider this the max load in my revolver.

I then shot a bunch of the 8.0 gr Unique/240 grain Berry's plated loads. These shoot reliably a foot lower at 25 yards than the hot 200 grain XTP loads and require the rear sight to be screwed nearly all the way down to shoot with the recommended front blade even with the top of the rear blade sight picture. I shot my 5 and 6 inch gongs and the Unique loads clearly whack the gong harder than the 200 grain loads, despite the 200 grain loads having much more muzzle energy.

I did notice that the .430 diameter Hornady XTPs grouped much more tightly than the .429 Berry's plated bullets. I haven't slugged my barrel yet but I suspect it's closer to .430 than .429. I ordered some .430 diameter 240 grain 18 BHN coated Keith SWC bullets from Missouri Bullet Company, and we will see how they shoot. I ordered them directly from MBC and they are considerably less expensive than plated bullets even with having to pay sales tax. I'll load some up with Unique, IMR 800X, and 2400 and report back how that works in a couple of weeks.
 

daveg.inkc

Hunter
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Do yourself a favor and put 10 grs Unique behind the 240 Elmer. My Super Blackhawks shoot this load very well. Others on here have said same
 

David Bradshaw

Blackhawk
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"... 200 gr XTP loads with IMR 800X (17.2 gr) is a little overpressure... shot a few of those and the cases were sticky to extract..."

Answer----"a little overpressure?" That may be a New Years understatement. The burn rate of this powder is much too fast for proper velocity acceleration in the .44 Magnum. Alliant 2400 is about the fastest appropriate powder for velocity with the Hornady 200 XTP, and excellent accuracy may be achieved with it. IMR 800-X and Unique are too fast for proper deer loads in .44 Mag; will achieve neither accuracy nor velocity with 200 XTP safely available from Alliant 2400 (not to mention Win 296 and Hodgdon 110, both of which are 296).

"... the .430 diameter Hornady XTPs grouped much more tightly than the .429 Berry's plated bullets..."

Answer----Highly doubt accuracy of a gray market plated bullet at the hight of its glory can match the Hornady in its sleep. I do not shoot plated bullets, except those made by SPEER, inventor of the process. Speer went through a difficult development period in sorting out manufacture, the equal of which I have not seen elsewhere.

"I'll load some up with Unique, IMR 800X, and 2400 and report back ..."

Answer---- Good loads may be fashioned with lead bullets over modest charges of medium burn rate powder in the .44 Mag case, but do not pretend they're top shelf. You have 2400; use it. For hunting deer at 50 yards, hollow points by Hornady, Sierra, and Nosler will do the job. Cast bullets must be selected more carefully, as there are so many variables. Plated bullets I would stay away from
David Bradshaw
 

Flyover_Country

Bearcat
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David Bradshaw said:
"... 200 gr XTP loads with IMR 800X (17.2 gr) is a little overpressure... shot a few of those and the cases were sticky to extract..."

Answer----"a little overpressure?" That may be a New Years understatement. The burn rate of this powder is much too fast for proper velocity acceleration in the .44 Magnum. Alliant 2400 is about the fastest appropriate powder for velocity with the Hornady 200 XTP, and excellent accuracy may be achieved with it. IMR 800-X and Unique are too fast for proper deer loads in .44 Mag; will achieve neither accuracy nor velocity with 200 XTP safely available from Alliant 2400 (not to mention Win 296 and Hodgdon 110, bot of which are 296)

I had Unique and IMR 800X already on hand as I also reload shotshells, which is why I initially used those powders. I didn't get the 2400 until later. I was following the loads in the Hornady 10th Edition manual and never exceeded their maximum loads, their maximum load is 17.2 grains of 800X underneath the 200 gr XTP. My comment was that the maximum IMR 800X load listed in their manual had signs of overpressure in my firearm and in looking at other sources, their load for IMR 800X and a 200 grain XTP is notably higher than others, such as Lyman, who lists 15.5 gr as the maximum underneath the same bullet. I was not trying to make a "full throttle" load out of a medium burn rate powder, I was simply using powders I had on hand and following listed load data and seeing how they behaved, knowing full well they weren't 100% maximum performance loads but hotter than the target loads I shot before.

If I shot those and found it difficult to shoot well due to recoil, there wouldn't be much point to loading up even hotter loads with H110/W296 that would be even more unshootable.

"... the .430 diameter Hornady XTPs grouped much more tightly than the .429 Berry's plated bullets..."

Answer----Highly doubt accuracy of a gray market plated bullet at the hight of its glory can match the Hornady in its sleep. I do not shoot plated bullets, except those made by SPEER, inventor of the process. Speer went through a difficult development period in sorting out manufacture, the equal of which I have not seen elsewhere.

I used the plated bullets for practice loads as they are notably less expensive than jacketed bullets and widely available. As I stated before, they are very likely illegal to hunt with in my area and I had no intention of trying to do so. I just made a comment about my practice loads.
 

daveg.inkc

Hunter
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These Berry bullets, I have a box for .45 Auto that wouldn't make good fishing weight. Junk, never again. You want a practice load, use MO Bullets. Big difference
 
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daveg.inkc

Hunter
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And 800 X is not for .44 M, as David Bradshaw stated. Only load where I have stuck cases in my Super BH's. Give AA#9 powder a try. Very accurate in .41 M as well
 

Flyover_Country

Bearcat
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I reloaded a bunch of cartridges in the past couple of weeks and finally made it to the range today. What I did was go from starting load to just under the lowest max load listed in either one of my manuals (Hornady 10th Ed. and Lyman Pistol and Revolver 3rd Ed.) with each of the 3 types of powders I had (Alliant Unique and 2400, IMR 800X) and bullets I tested- Hornady XTP 200 grain and 240 grain, and the Missouri Bullet Company 240 grain 18 BHN Keith SWC. I did not load up any new loads with the plated bullets.

Here's what I shot. I shot jacketed first, then coated cast in case there was leading (there ended up being none.)

Unique
1. Hornady XTP 200 grain. Min 11.4 grain/1300 fps, max 12.9 grain/1400 fps. I loaded up 11.4, 12.0, 12.5, and 12.9 grain charges.
2. Hornady XTP 240 grain. Min 9.5 grain/1100 fps, max 10.7 grain/1200 fps. I loaded up 9.5, 10.0, and 10.5 grain charges.
3. MBC coated 240 grain. I used identical loading data for the 240 grain XTPs (min 9.5 gr, max 10.5 gr) as Lyman's manual used their SWC bullets which were seated a lot longer than the MBC bullets due to the location of their crimp groove being closer to the base of the bullet.

800X
1. Hornady XTP 200 grain. I shot those at the previous range session and Hornady's load data was a bit hot in my SRH, I did not load and shoot any more of these. I would agree with Lyman's data of 15.5 grain being a maximum, not Hornady's of 17.2 gr.
2. Hornady XTP 240 grain. Min 10.5 grain/1100 fps, I went up to 13.5 gr for 1300 fps by 0.5 grain increments despite Hornady's manual listing 14.1 grain/1350 fps as the max load.
3. MBC 240 grain, I used identical data for the 240 grain XTPs for the same reason as above.

2400
1. Hornady 200 grain XTP. Min 22.1 gr/1300 fps, I went up to 23.5 gr for 1400 fps by 0.5 grain increments, Lyman book max is 23.6 gr. Hornady book max is 25.3 gr/1550 fps.
2. Hornady 240 grain XTP. Min 17.4 gr/1100 fps, I went up to 20.4 gr for 1300 fps by 0.5 grain increments, Lyman book max is 20.5 gr and Hornady is 21.2 gr/1350 fps.
3. MBC 240 grain. I used identical data for the 240 grain XTPs for the same reason as above.

Notes
1. The real star of the show was the SRH, it made it a pleasure to go shoot about 150 medium-hot to just-about-top-performance rounds in one session at the range. It just sucks up the recoil. I've shot full-sized 9 mm semi-autos shooting lukewarm 115 grain factory FMJ ammunition that were notably less pleasant to shoot. The 200 grain loads had a noticeably snappier recoil than the 240 grain loads, and were a little less pleasant to shoot.
2. None of the loads except for the 800X/XTP 200 grain loads I shot last session exhibited any pressure signs whatsoever.
3. The most accurate combinations were 10.0 grains of Unique, 10.5 grains of 800X, and 20.0 grains of 2400, all with the 240 grain XTP. The 240 grain MBC was a little less consistent than the XTP but still performed very well.
4. The worst combination was 800X and the MBC coated bullets. All loads of this patterned instead of grouped. There was also a fair bit of smoke and acrid burning plastic stink which suggests the bullet coating was burning.
5. None of the 200 grain XTP loads shot nearly as consistently as the 240 grain XTP or MBC loads with the exception of the 800X/MBC combination which was horrible.
6. 2400 was the most pleasant powder to load as it meters very consistently, I got charges at most a tenth off straight out of the measure but typically dead-on. Unique is typically a tenth off in either direction, and 800X is usually 0.2-0.3 gr off and likes to bind up in the measure.
7. 800X was the cleanest burning powder and burned pretty cleanly at all charge weights. Near max charges of Unique burn about as cleanly, lighter ones are a little dirty. 2400 is very dirty, one round of that put as much soot and crud on the revolver as shooting 50 rounds powered by Unique and left way more crud in the bore. Starting loads are filthy and it wasn't until near maximum loads that it cleaned up very much, and even then it was much dirtier than the other powders.
8. The plated bullets are pretty hard and do not expand well. I dug some bullets out of the dirt behind the target. The cast bullets and the XTPs flatten out to nickel or quarter size but the plated bullets either shatter or simply burrow into the dirt. I dug one out that had rifling engraving on it but otherwise looked unfired. From now on, I'll shoot the MBC bullets as my target bullets.

Conclusions
1. I'll leave the 800X in the cabinet to use with the shotguns. It does burn cleanly, is about 25% less expensive than the other powders, and has decent performance potential. But, it meters very poorly, the load data seems to be the most variable with this powder, and it does not work well with the cast bullets. There isn't anything it can do that I can't do with the other two powders without the "issues."
2. The 240 grain XTP with 20.0 grains of 2400 would be my choice for a hunting load out of the above as it shot as well as anything else and has the most punch.
3. If I was going to experiment with any other powders, it would probably be H110/W296 as I can get it locally and it is supposed to burn cleaner than 2400 and has even a little more pop, although that's probably not absolutely necessary.
 

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