Keith 250 Grain bullets in my Lipsey's .44 Special

[mm6mm6]

A good friend gave me a whole bunch of 250 grain Keith .44 Special bullets. They measured .430 with a dial caliber so they should be perfect in my Ruger New Model Blackhawk Lipsey's Exclusive!

I loaded up some rounds with 17.0 grains of 2400. That's just a bit below Keith's load of 17.5 grains.

That oughta pack a heck of a wallup!

 

[batmann]

That's a good load. By the way, how did you get your .44 all 'scratched' up?

 

[Aggie01]

Keith's 17.5 grain load was for balloon head cases. Reduce to 17.0 max in modern solid head brass.

Mine actually prefers 16.0 grains of 2400.
And I put 13 grains 2400 under a 300 grain bullet. That gave me just north of 1K fps, IIRC.

 

[.44Special]

Beautiful Flattop, and well composed photograph. Very nice.

 

[Dale53]

Actually, Keith's load for ballon head cases was 18.5 (.44 Special balloon head cases).

With today's 2400 and modern solid head cases I would suggest 16.5 grs of 2400 with a 250 gr Keith bullet.

I am extremely happy with my .44 Lipsey Special - it is truly a FINE revolver!

When I couple that with MiHec's H&G #503 six cavity bullet mould or the MiHec 2 cavity Cramer Style Hollow Point mound, well-l-l, it just "don't hardly" get any better than that. That revolver of yours sure is pretty. I'll bet it shoots as good as it looks, too!!

 

[mm6mm6]

batmann: Michael Gouse engraved it for me with 75% coverage American Scroll as a Skeeter Skelton tribute (it has Skeeter's Bar-T cattle brand on the backstrap). www.mtart.com

I had it engraved to match my S&W 624 .44 Special which Gouse had done for me previously:

 

[CraigC]

Yep, Keith's load was 18.5gr in balloonhead cases and 17.5gr in solid head cases. Folks like Taffin and Pearce recommend cutting that back to 16.5-17.0gr with newer 2400.

 

[M'BOGO]

That is a beautiful pistol. I've had visions in my head since saturday of an evgraved .44 flattop, I met Joe Rundell, and was overwhelmed. He went over in detail the shotgun that is highlighted in the Engravers Cafe interview, for me. I'd seen his work published I realized, when I got home.

Not trying to steal your thread, just love your sidearm, and dreaming...

 

[don44]

That's a very nice looking revolver.

 

[Sonnytoo]

Folks like Taffin and Pearce recommend cutting that back to 16.5-17.0gr with newer 2400.

Yep.
Brian Pearce reco's 17.0 grains with CCI 300 primer for 1211 fps in the June 2009 HANDLOADER magazine for that particular handgun. EK's original load of 17.5 grains was reduced by 0.5 grains to compensate for today's faster burning Alliant 2400. Again, Pearce's article.
Sonnytoo

 

[protoolman]

Wow thats a nice setup with a perfect load. Elmer and Skeeter would be proud!

 

[Chip]

Beautiful! 8)

 

[Stoots]

Hey Steve, you gonna let Lauren try those?


:wink:


By the way, I'm sure she could handle it!

 

[targetshootr]

Very nice. After engraving, did he do the reblue?

 

[mm6mm6]

Stoots: NO! I want her to keep enjoying shooting with me! (LOL!)

No, that's the factory Ruger blue. Gouse simply re-blues inside the the cuts that he makes. He does not need to re-blue the entire gun, just where the metal is cut away.

 

[Bucks Owin]

VERY nice!

 

[.44Special]

Wow, that deserves a second compliment! Beautiful, beautiful Flattop. The shrine to Skeeter is also very well done, and the envy of anyone who loves his writing.

I've met his son Bart, who is a true gentleman. I can't imagine the apple fell too far from the tree.

 

[AKGrouch]

Talked briefly with Mr. Gouse today about his engraving. His prices have gone up but appear to still be very reasonable. He stated that 50% coverage is $575 and that 75% coverage is $675. Starting to get a bit spendy but his work appears quite nice, especially the Ulrch american scroll with a bit of the Nimske influence added.

 

[Rodfac]

Fantastic...you've re-kindled my interest in getting one of my pieces cut. Good lookin' leather too. Rodfac

 

[batmann]

Truly a couple works of art, and they shoot great too!