.44 mag ballistics what's even the point anymore

Originally Posted By: PanteraAnyone here have experience with shooting FTXs through a handgun? I hear it might be bad for speed and expansion

I've killed deer with them from 5.5" and 7.5" revolvers, never had a problem with expansion.

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Hornady 44mag 225grn FTX. Dug out of my 50yrd sand berm, fired from a 7.5" Super Blackhawk.

My current "go-to" load for hunting is a 300grn XTP loaded to cylinder length (2nd cannelure) in a Super Blackhawk over 22.0grn (over book) H110/W296. Flat shooting and hits like a mack truck. Not well behaved at all to shoot these from my 2.5" Redhawk Kodiak Backpacker!
 
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Originally Posted By: PanteraOriginally Posted By: xphunterGo with the XTP's for hunting. Originally Posted By: msincFor the grips you want, get on the S&W forum and look up a guy whose user name is "Kurac"...he makes aftermarket "cokes" and you will love them. He is reasonable too. First rate work. The forum is a pretty good bunch of guys, but the moron that runs it is just that...a moron. Type the word "Hillary" and you are banned.
As to over penetration...if that is happening, your target is too small.
As to the ammo thing, get set up to reload and then get set up to cast bullets...it is as much fun as shooting. Then get yourself a 6 cavity Lee 240 grain gas checked SWC and for hunting the Lyman "Devastator" hollow point. Buy all the Alliant 2400 and IMR4227 powder you can find now.
I never liked the 44 magnum for many years. There was always some idiot at the range telling me my 357 would "grow up to be a 44 one day." They reloaded too hot, the gun always kicked so bad I couldn't hit anything with it...I just dismissed the caliber as anything useful. Then one day I got a new 629 83/8" full underlug revolver, loaded up some real rounds and fell in love. No doubt you will too, good luck.

msinc, what do you mean by "cokes"...


Very sorry for the delay...the grips referred to as "cokes" were made up until the late 60's, maybe 67 or so. They were shaped to better fit your hand and many were robbed off of older S&W revolvers. They are referred to as cokes because of the shape seen looking at the grips from the rear of the revolver. Just like an old bottle of Coca-Cola. The nice shape really fits and fills your hand very comfortably. I should add that an original set of cokes typically goes for about $400 plus...when you can find them. They really should never be taken off an original older S&W.
Like anything nice...they cost too much to continue to produce and were dropped. With today's modern machining practices and equipment I have to wonder why S&W hasn't reintroduced this very popular and sought after style grip. It doesn't take any more time to produce these on a modern pantograph copier than it does the straight sided ones. Here is a few photos of some of my "coke grips"...This is one of those things, I can show you better than I can tell you....





This is a "non-coke" current production S&W grip...

 
Originally Posted By: RustydustOriginally Posted By: TripleDeuce660 I inherited a 629 from 1963 and it had only been fired a few times.

I'm a bit curious as to what you actually had. The 629 was not made back in 1963 but the M29 was. The 629 did not appear until the late 70's.

629 was introduced in 1978. I was lucky enough to find a 6 inch one in about 1981 and still have it along with a factory 3" from around the early 90's.
. Great carry guns!
 
Originally Posted By: RustydustOriginally Posted By: TripleDeuce660 I inherited a 629 from 1963 and it had only been fired a few times.

I'm a bit curious as to what you actually had. The 629 was not made back in 1963 but the M29 was. The 629 did not appear until the late 70's.

Yeah, M29. Blued with 6" bbl.
 
I run the gamut as to powders with my .44's but my favorite medium field carry load uses HS-6.

I cast my own RCBS 250K bullets and run a large magnum pistol primer (Federal in my case) and settled on 11.8 gr. of the above powder.

My four inch Smith MG runs 1066 fps with just 7 fps SD and my 7.5" and 9.5" Rugers run/ran 1176 with 15 fps SD.

The accuracy and lighter recoil for the power delivered keeps me coming back for more!

This is a published load from the Hodgdon's #26 manual of yesteryear!

In jacketed loads I like the Speer 270 gr. Gold Dot and Nosler's 300 gr. HP ...... these are really good slugs. I don't run HS-6 with these bullets as they are getting on the heavy side for a medium burn weight powder ...... those get launched with the likes of H110 for best overall performance.

The assertion that a .44 mag is not for SD does not make sense. If you get over the weight and bulk of the gun ...... like my Mountain Gun at 39 oz ....... just an ounce over a standard 1911 ..... you can certainly find or taylor a load to do just about any good work!

Best regards

Three 44s
 
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