44 Rem Mag question

[Mikej]

I have not yet fired this rifle. I was feeling the stickiness when I was loading/unloading the rounds with initial AOL of 1.610.

Was I the only one that thought you meant AFTER firing?

Before shooting one of your reloads open the action, point at the ground, and drop a round into the chamber. It should "Thunk" into place. Then point barrel up with still open and see if it falls free. If not give side a pop with the butt of your hand. It should fall free. If it doesn't fall out easily you likely have your OAL too long.

 

[DLS]

@Mikej, I thought the same thing.

I second the "plunk" test. No need to run the rounds through the gun and risk an ND.

 

[gmerkt]

Could I load 44 special for this rifle? Same bullet and powder with shorter OAL?

You could down-load your .44 Magnum cases to .44 Special velocities, it's not necessary to use Special brass. And it's beneficial not to use Specials in a Magnum chamber, because it eliminates the carbon ring deposited from firing Special cases in the Magnum chamber.

Don't know if you have a chrono to check your work. Conventional wisdom and experience has it that when using Special data to load into a Magnum case, a bit of velocity is lost. E.g., if you use Special data, you won't get full Special velocity, so you will have to adjust upward a bit but it still won't be near Magnum charge country - or velocity. When so doing, I'd use a fluffy powder as you have with Unique. I'd recommend against using a ball powder.

Re. original question, the amount of difference in seating depth between recommended and cannelure ring in this matter is inconsequential. So I side with seating to and carefully crimping into the cannelure.

I agree that your charge of 11-something grains of Unique is excessive for the plated bullet used.

 

[po18guy]

In a tubular magazine rifle, it also keeps the bullet from setting back due to the spring tension in the tubular magazine, enhanced by recoil

What is the intended result from not crimping in the cannelure? I can imagine an attempt to get the bullet closer to the lands of the bore toward an accuracy improvement?

I am strongly recommending a moderate crimp IN the cannelure. If you are crimping the mouth hard enough to gain purchase on the bullet away from the cannelure, you are damaging the bullet. Any miniscule (probably unmeasurable) improvement in accuracy derived from seating the bullet out from the cannelure may well be negated by that damage.

We're talking lever action here, so MOA is not to be expected, I would assume.

 

[arrowshooter]

Momentarily back to your feeding issue, you may want to try another bullet with a different profile to get back to book COAL values. I ran into feeding issues with 10mm using a "square shouldered" bullet like the Berrys, but my pistol runs all day with Xtreme "round shouldered" bullets. You can see the difference below:

Berry's 240 gr 44 cal:

Xtreme 240 gr 44 cal:


Again, just a thought.

 

[Spitpatch]

We're talking lever action here, so MOA is not to be expected, I would assume.

Yup (in his case). I just couldn't imagine any reason the cannelure was not engaged toward its purpose.

Now, about that blanket statement regarding lever actions and MOA not to be expected...

 

[po18guy]

336. JM, Remlin, Ruglin....I suppose there's one out there somewhere capable of MOA. Never seen it though.

 

[Spitpatch]

336. JM, Remlin, Ruglin....I suppose there's one out there somewhere capable of MOA. Never seen it though.

You will.

 

[drstrangelove]

I'd just like to see a pic of a Marlin 336 in 44mag. Perhaps OP meant 1894 model?
If im using a lever action rifle, I'm buying bullets with a cannelure, and using said cannelure. Safety issue. Likewise with a revolver. You don't want setback from the bullet stack, nor forward creep past the cylinder face. Either one will make your day suck.

 

[Spitpatch]

I'd just like to see a pic of a Marlin 336 in 44mag. Perhaps OP meant 1894 model?
If im using a lever action rifle, I'm buying bullets with a cannelure, and using said cannelure. Safety issue. Likewise with a revolver. You don't want setback from the bullet stack, nor forward creep past the cylinder face. Either one will make your day suck.

Yes, the 336 was so chambered for a few years.

 

[ma96782]

I loaded up some .44 mag last night. I was also thinking about the 1.610" that the book says is the maximum COAL.

Nah......I got mine to 1.585" and it looked nice enough. BUT, But, but.....thats NOT all folks. Yup, I had to see if they would in fact FUNCTION though the new Rossi (actually, my son's rifle).

Dam those cartridges were difficult to get through the loading gate. And, I suspect that it wasn't about the loading gate's spring.....the dam port is just soooo small. F$#@ Rossi engineers. Yup......I'd pass on the Rossi 92 in .44 mag. For me........I would have bought a Marlin. Though as my son put it.......the Marlin didn't come with the cool handguard that would allow mounting stuff and there wasn't one with a threaded barrel.

OMG!!!!!

Back to the testing.

WARNING : Please be EXTRA CAREFUL when testing. ONLY YOU are/can be responsible for your own SAFETY.

OK, Ok, ok.......once I got the cartridges in there, the functioning of the lever action took place as expected. Though admittedly (it's new) it was ROUGH.

Aloha, Mark

PS.....so, these are my first trys at .44 mag reloading. 240 gn. Berry's bullets, Unique and large mag pistol primers.




Next will be the range testing. Before I make a more serious run at production.

 

[ma96782]

RE : Post #31
.44 mag reloads

My son said that they went off without much of a "hitch". But a few cartridges......had a problem with the "ignition" of the primer.

Hummm.....I used magnum primers.

But.....in reality.......I'm not all that concerned.

Why?

Because, it's not my gun(s). LOL. And, I figure that maybe, he should have cleaned out the bolt/firing pin channel. Besides, he didn't actually tell me if the problem was limited to firing through his S&W revolver or the Rossi.

BTW......I also loaded up some coated lead 240 grn lead SWC bullets with the same load data. I was keeping things in the lower power range. Like .44 special vs. magnum level.

The bullets were from : https://tbbullets.com/bullets/

My son didn't mention any problems.....there. Funny, because when I run SWC lead bullets......sometimes, the bullet's edge will catch a bit, when it's entering the chamber of my lever guns. And for that reason, I like the truncated cone style of lead bullet.

Oh well.......he should be making his own reloads. And provide his own components if he doesn't like what I have. LOL.

Aloha, Mark