[rufjustis]

I've had a stainless, 7.5", .44 Mag Redhawk for several years. I've reloaded Hornady 200 grain, XTP's and Cast 235 grain Elmer Keith's. Both loads, using Blue Dot, shoot relatively good. I've never taken the time to work them down real but "close enough for government work" so to speak. Having said that, I got a stainless, 7.5", Super Blackhawk here a while back. The Blackhawk, with the XTP's, off my rest, group about 5" at 50 yards. Which for old shaky Jake (Me) is pretty darn good. The cast loads though are all over a 2' square target. I know every firearm shoots different loads differently, but I wasn't expecting that. Out of the Redhawk the casts shoot the same 5" group at 50 yards. One thing to add I guess, is the Redhawk has stock factory sights and the Blackhawk has a Leopold red dot sight. Comments welcome.

 

[HBK]

Your cast bullets may be undersize for that revolver. What dia. are the cast bullets, what is the dia. of the chamber throats and the dia. of the barrel.
Most often you need your cast bullets 1-2 thousands over the groove dia. of your barrel for best accuracy. If your barrel is .429, you need your cast bullets at .430 to .431 in dia. Hopefully your chamber throats are not under size where they are sizing down the bullets upon firing.
I have a Ruger blackhawk in 44 spec. that is so-so in groups with bullets sized .431, but sizing the cast bullets to .433 I get a 1-1/2 inch group at 25 yards.

 

[rufjustis]

Your cast bullets may be undersize for that revolver. What dia. are the cast bullets, what is the dia. of the chamber throats and the dia. of the barrel.
Most often you need your cast bullets 1-2 thousands over the groove dia. of your barrel for best accuracy. If your barrel is .429, you need your cast bullets at .430 to .431 in dia. Hopefully your chamber throats are not under size where they are sizing down the bullets upon firing.
I have a Ruger blackhawk in 44 spec. that is so-so in groups with bullets sized .431, but sizing the cast bullets to .433 I get a 1-1/2 inch group at 25 yards.

The bullets are .431 and not gas checked. As to the chamber throats and barrel diameter I don't know. I would have thought the barrels would have had the same dimensions. Why would Ruger make them different or would it be just different tolerance on different machinery? I hope I can find me one good hunting load in the 235 to 250 grain range that will work in both guns.

 

[rclark]

The .44 240 that I buy commerically are .430 which work well in my Ruger .44s. Barrels from Ruger are .429 from what I understand. Cylinder throats is really what 'varies'. They should be .430 to .431 . Machinery 'wears' so you will get some inconstancy here. You can check with plug gauges. A quick test ... .430 bullet should pass though the throat(s) with just finger pressure. If not the throats are under-size and need reamed. If your .431 bullet passes with finger pressure, you are good to go also.

[url=https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-tools-supplies/barrel-tools/reamers/throating-reamers/revolver-cylinder-throating-reamer-prod7700.aspx] Throat Remears [/URL]

The .44 throat reamer will make the throats .431

 

[gwpercle]

Are you a good shot ... I ask because a buddy and I would go to the range, he had a 44 Magnum Super Blackhawk , his 12 inch patterns left him unsure if it was ammo , gun , sights or what ... so he asked me to shoot it .
Three shots fired and three shots touched each other ,,, classic Cloverleaf ... it was "or what" the guy just couldn't shoot that big magnum very well . The 44 magnum had given him a vicious Flinch and he had to go back to 22 LR shooting to try and get over it . He sold the 44 in short order and got a Ruger Security Six ... less recoil .
I don't care for the 44 magnum myself and nowdays it's nearly all 38 special loads in a Ruger Blackhawk .

With your 235 grain cast bullet try 6.0 to 7.0 grs. Unique in your revolver ...
My pet load in 44 special brass is 6.5 grains Unique but 6.0 is a duplicate of the original 44 special loading and a good accurate load .
Gary

 

[ngashooter]

I too have a 7.5" Redhawk and a 7.5" Super Blackhawk . Both are accurate .44 magnum revolvers with jacketed bullets. I will hunt sometimes with the Redhawk and keep it stoked with full power 240XTP hand loads. I use the SBH for fun shooting and load 250gr lead bullets a friend moulds. Either the sizing is wrong, or the scuba weights they were made from don't agree with the big single action. It will only shoot into 6" at 25yds even after I have adjusted powder and weight of propellant. I was worried about the gun so I tried a couple of types of factory .44spl defensive loads at 25yds. The revolver isn't the problem, it just doesn't like the cast lead bullets I have. I still have fun with it inside of 25yds just plinking and shooting steel plates.

 

[CoalcrackerAl]

I like loading for the 44 mag. Such a wide variety of loads for them. You can go from mild to wild. I had mine out the other day. Ran a mix of 240 grn with 8 grains of unique and 14 of blue dot.

 

[Phish]

To me the 44mag gets much more accurate when you push the properly sized bullets at high end of max. What I would do is mike the cast bullets and see if they drop through the cylinder throat without sticking but a light push on them is ok. If they do then they are too large and need to size them down .430 might be the ball park range. A lot of cast bullets are just way too hard and use the crappiest bullet lube. If you can collect a bullet that not overly damaged after shooting then check if there is lube still in the groove and the base of the bullet and rifling groove are sharp. I use 2400 for mid high levels because they are quite accurate but H110/296 beats everything hands down in the accuracy department especially jacketed bullets like the XTP's.

 

[rufjustis]

Thanks to all for the comments/info. Best I can tell both revolvers throats are .429. I tried pushing the bullets through the throats and they're really tight. I'm leaning towards just going straight with jacketed bullets for both. Hate to though as I've got a good stock of cast bullets.

 

[gwpercle]

Size your cast bullets .429 " , Lee makes a economical Push Through Sizer , .429" throat with .429" bullet ... sounds perfect ! No sense letting a good stock of lead bullets go to waste in this time of bullet shortage .
Load them with from 6.0 to 8.0 grains of Unique . Lead bullets and the 44 special/magnum go together like PB&J .
Gary

 

[firescout]

Thanks to all for the comments/info. Best I can tell both revolvers throats are .429. I tried pushing the bullets through the throats and they're really tight. I'm leaning towards just going straight with jacketed bullets for both. Hate to though as I've got a good stock of cast bullets.

Before you go further, you should accurately check the throat diameters of your cylinder with pin gauges. Some throats can vary by 0.0005", and you should determine the exact sizes. Pushing a 0.431" cast bullet through a 0.429" throat would usually take significant force to do by hand.

 

[TMan51]

To me the 44mag gets much more accurate when you push the properly sized bullets at high end of max.

I like and use a variety of cast bullets in all of my handguns, auto's and revolvers. If the bullets are not sized properly, or the alloy is not the correct hardness for the load recipe, the gun shoots like poo. Get a good balance, and your gun can shoot as good as you can. I have several BH/SBH revolvers. With a good recipe and bullet, they all shoot just fine. Get it wrong, and they shoot like a little girl throwing rocks.

 

[Sr40ken]

Get a good check on your cylinder. My Super Blackhawk easily passes .430.