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Help reloading

bluemulebluemule Member Posts: 59 ✭✭
edited March 2002 in Ask the Experts
I am reloading for a 44-40 Ruger VaqeroSince the this is very close to a .44 magcan .44 mag reloading data be used for the 44-40?
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Comments

  • cpermdcpermd Member Posts: 5,273 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Nopecpermd
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  • Der GebirgsjagerDer Gebirgsjager Member Posts: 1,673 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    No, the cartridges are quite different. The .44 Mag. is a much more powerful cartridge and it's top loads are well past what is recommended for the .44-40. Also, the .44-40's bullet diameter is usually a little smaller that the .44 Mag. Invest in a good reloading manual.
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  • PiadeaPiadea Member Posts: 146 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Saxon is right. A 44 mag load in a 44-40 case would be potentially disasterous. Then ruger would probably hold up but the case itself would not. 44-40 cases are much thinner and not designed for the types of pressures you'd generate and would surely fail leading to flying brass, burning powder etc.
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  • v35v35 Member Posts: 12,710 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The 44-40 (as well as 38-40 and 32-20) has been offered in a high speed load for the Win 92 rifle since the turn of the century. Older handloading tables for 44-40 rifles, gave loads up to 2100fps using 2400 powder and 200 grain, JSP bullets at 33,000psi chamber pressure. The use of the old folded head brass H.S. rifle loads inrevolvers has caused enough damage that ammo makers stopped making H.S. loadings. Today's ANSI/SAAMI standards for the 44Mag show 43,500psi as a max acceptable product average pressure with a max individual pressure of 50,400psi (copper units).Several important changes have taken place in the last 35 years. Folded head brass has been replaced with solid head brass, SAAMI has established standardized ammunition and chamber dimensions and Ruger has designed revolvers to operate at rifle pressures. Because of solid head construction, today's brass should not blow out with yesterdays H.S. loads in a gun having excess headspace. Since pressures with those loads are below 44Mag pressures I believe they should be safe and should be carefully worked up to, watching for sticky cases and loosening primer pockets. Being thinner cases than the 44mag, the crimp may lack strength to hold heavier bullets from jumping the crimp in recoil.Use .429dia., 200 grain bullets. Note that solid head cases have about two grains less capacity than folded head cases so old data should be reduced by at least two grains.
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  • w n whitew n white Member Posts: 6 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    GreetingsJust a note of caution, the 44=40 brass has a case dia. at the rim simular to the .45 Colt and the cyl. walls will be thin compared to the .44 Mag. that was the problem when loading h.p. loads in the Coltyears ago. Luck Bill
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  • S&W ManS&W Man Member Posts: 208 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The only way you want to load 44-40 with 44mag specs, is if you have your insurance WELL paid up and you don't mind the chance of a major disassembly of the gun in your shooting hand. It may hold up to it and again it may not. With continued shooting of the overload, it will eventually fail.
    The second admendment GUARANTEES the other nine and the Constitution!
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  • kaboomkaboom Member Posts: 75 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I don't know about Ruger, but S&W does, or at least it used to, a different heat treatment on their magnum caliber cylinders than they do on standard calibers built on the same frame size. In other words, a N-frame .44 mag cylinder got a different treatment than a N-frame .45lc, and a K-frame .38 was treated different than a K-frame .357. I'm not an expert on that kind of thing, I just happened to see that a few years back on a S&W promotional video being shown at a gun store. Personally, I value my eyesight too much to fool around with guess-and-by-gosh reloading data.
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  • old single shotsold single shots Member Posts: 3,594
    edited November -1
    If you want 44mag. performance then buy a 44mag. revolver.If your revolver was designed for 44-40 then stick with 44-40 loading data.It's just not worth the risk to your gun or your safety.
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  • v35v35 Member Posts: 12,710 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The Ruger 44Mag cylinder wall is .090". In 44-40 chambering,it would be thinned .005" or 5.5% the thickness of two sheets of paper.SAA Colt cylinder walls in 44-40 are .070" thick and in 45LC are .062" thick.Being the Ruger is designed to operate at 43,500psi, it's no stretch to expect a 44-40, 33,000 psi high speed rifle load to be safe even with a .005" thinner wall thickness of a Ruger.Gun writers like Mike Venturino want their bullets to fall out of barrels at 600fps for cowboy competition shooting. The truth is that the 44-40 was a serious cartridge in black powder at 1000fps out of a 7-1/2" barrel.In the later smokeless H.S. loading out of a 92 Win it was said to be more effective than the 30-30.
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