44mag and 300gr

[Alaskashooter]

Was wondering if my taurus 44mag mod numb 44ss4 will handle a 300 gr round. Most of the lead will be 240gr at the range but i want hot shot in the woods here in alaska. Thanks for the help.

[jack404]

Hi there and welcome to the Forum !

i've relocated your post to here as it will get the attention it deserves without the need to post it 3 times

the big taurus wheel gun should be able to handle it ok provided you have the nominated clearence from the front of the chamber , but the real experts will be along shortly to correct me where needed

cheers

[Alaskashooter]

Sry abought the three posts dont know how that happend thank you very mutch.

[jack404]

no worries

a Friend who lives in Canada said to look at these ( aint I.M. great!)

http://www.garrettcartridges.com/44hammerhead.html

i know he had to take out a bear recently with his as it was after his dogs

did the job well apparently..

[Carne Frio]

The Garrett offering looks fine, but Buffalo Bore might
be easier to find in the local stores:

http://www.buffalobore.com/index.php?l=product_list&c=6

[Alaskashooter]

Carne frio thanks for the info on buffalo bore ive seen it at the store. But the question was will my taurus handle a 300 to 305gr shot. I was told that taurus cannot handle a hotshot but i thought diffrent.

[gun runner]

you will never know till you try it. every answer has to start somewhere.

[muddober]

The gun will no doubt handle it but why would you want to do it? Guys see 300 grain bullets weights being used in 45 calibers like the 454 Casull and some hot 45 Colt loadings for Rugers or TC single shots and think "I will shoot 300 grainers in my 44". The problem with that thinking is a 44 only measures .429 and a 45 measures .454 meaning that the .429 bullet in 300 grain gets to be so long that it negatively affects amount of powder one can get in the case. All meaning that if one considers a 300 grain bullet to be the optimum bullet weight for the 45 then about a 270 grain is as heavy as one should consider in a 44. That being said there are 300 grain 44 loadings out there. In my view a good loading of a 240 to 250 grain 44 bullet can be driven to optimum velocities as to achieve maximum efficiency of the 44 mag.
Ron

[76Highboy]

Originally Posted by muddober

The gun will no doubt handle it but why would you want to do it? Guys see 300 grain bullets weights being used in 45 calibers like the 454 Casull and some hot 45 Colt loadings for Rugers or TC single shots and think "I will shoot 300 grainers in my 44". The problem with that thinking is a 44 only measures .429 and a 45 measures .454 meaning that the .429 bullet in 300 grain gets to be so long that it negatively affects amount of powder one can get in the case. All meaning that if one considers a 300 grain bullet to be the optimum bullet weight for the 45 then about a 270 grain is as heavy as one should consider in a 44. That being said there are 300 grain 44 loadings out there. In my view a good loading of a 240 to 250 grain 44 bullet can be driven to optimum velocities as to achieve maximum efficiency of the 44 mag.
Ron

I agree with that.

[Old Grump]

Short answer is case pressure is limited to 33,000 psi if I remember correctly. If the ammunition in question is not specifically labeled for a Ruger Super Redhawk then it has been made for all 44 magnum guns. Load it, hang on tight, shoot it and enjoy.

[al45lc]

I'm a heavy bullet advocate for hunting loads.
The Speer manual lists several loads for 300 gr bullets, Taurus revolvers are right up there in industry standards for the caliber chambered, I see no problem.

[Alaskashooter]

Thanks everyone for your advice in 300gr loads that will help me incase I run into a bear this salmon season on the river

[JLA]

Spot freakin on Muddobber. you took the words right outta my fingers.

A 270 gr hardcast at max pressure in that .44 will burn a hole clean thru the grizzliest of kodiaks. ANd that large frame Taurus will handle em all day. No need to stuff the 300+ grainers in your .44 mag. Those bullets are geared toward the .444 marlin.

[bntyhntr6975]

My Redhawk sure seems to like the 300g XTPs. But its a Ruger, so no worries. Keep in mind that it doesn't matter how big or mean a bullet you send out, you gotta be able to hit the target. If you can handle it, do it. If you aren't comfortable with a big heavy load, back it off a little. I don't think a dead bear is gonna care if it was a 240 or 300 that dropped it.

[carver]

http://www.lasc.us/fryxell44overweight.htm "These trends show that the simple mantra of "more bullet weight + more meplat" does not necessarily equate to deeper penetration. After all, the meplat is the brake that stops the bullet. Admittedly, this model really amounts to little more than an entertaining exercise in mathematics, but it serves to illustrate that penetration depth and wound channel diameter are inversely related (as one goes up, the other goes down) and that choice of a bullet design represents a compromise between these two performance metrics. Obviously, the reason for choosing heavier than normal bullets is to obtain greater than normal penetration, so one selection criterion would be to eliminate from consideration all bullets below the threshold of the "standard" .44 Magnum load. From the remaining bullets, a sensible second parameter would be the largest possible meplat for the greatest tissue crushing capability. Combining these two selection criteria focuses the discussion on those bullets with values in the 80s in the table above (the SSK’s, the Lyman 429649, LBT LFN and RCBS SWC). It is worth noting that all of these bullets have meplats that are 69-72% of the bullet diameter (recall that Elmer Keith settled on a meplat diameter of about 70% for his last 3 SWC's)".

[JLA]

yep. The Kieth style 245 gr SWC for the .44 mag is probably the single best bullet you can shoot from a .44 mag both at target velocities and at kodiak skull crusher velocities.

[Old Grump]

My normal load for everything from my Ruger Super Blackhawk is American Eagle JHP and JSP. I have a little of everything but mostly American and Mag Tech because it shoots as well as the others at less cost. I got my first rounds of 300 gr Double Tap from a man selling out his unused stock. I received it on a cold windy day and even though my old gun was sighted in for 100 yards with the 240 gr load for deer hunting I shot it at 25 yards as soon as it came off the UPS truck and it was at ambient temperature, ie below 20F.

I felt no appreciable difference in recoil and at 25 yards at least there was no appreciable difference in point of impact. I had never shot 44 mag 300 grains before but I wouldn't mind trying some more only in better conditions and with my sights adjusted to this range. This was shot as fast as I could reset the hammer and regain my sight picture because I was shooting into the sun in short sleeves and no hat and the wind was tearing me apart. I suspect it might have more impact on the target due to more mass but I wouldn't be afraid to use either bullet weight against anything short of an APC. My contention has always been shoot whatever you shoot best and this shoots to critical area just fine even though I wasn't set up for this short range shooting.



Like I said, load it up, hang on to the gun and enjoy.

[76Highboy]

Nice outfit Old Grump. I love pics like that. I have that same revolver.

[JLA]

I blew the ejector rod housing clean off a SBH just like that with a VERY HOT 240 gr. XTP load.

[76Highboy]

Originally Posted by JLA

I blew the ejector rod housing clean off a SBH just like that with a VERY HOT 240 gr. XTP load.

Ya, I've done that more than once. Kind of makes me chuckle when I think about it.

[JLA]

Thats the only weakness to those SA rugers. They are fine in .357 and .45 colt, but you stuff a good stout .44 mag and that ejector rod housing giving way is the big hot load warning sign.

I never shot hot loads fom mine, I always loaded 240 gr cast to 950 and was happy. But a good friend had a sweet load worked up for his 7.5" redhawk and wanted me to chrony a couple thru my 7.5" blackhawk, so i did. that damn 240 was runnin over 1500 from the 7.5" barrel and the first round blew the ejector rod housing screw right out. Spent an hour crawling around in the grass with a magnet lookin for it.

[76Highboy]

Originally Posted by JLA

Thats the only weakness to those SA rugers. They are fine in .357 and .45 colt, but you stuff a good stout .44 mag and that ejector rod housing giving way is the big hot load warning sign.

I never shot hot loads fom mine, I always loaded 240 gr cast to 950 and was happy. But a good friend had a sweet load worked up for his 7.5" redhawk and wanted me to chrony a couple thru my 7.5" blackhawk, so i did. that damn 240 was runnin over 1500 from the 7.5" barrel and the first round blew the ejector rod housing screw right out. Spent an hour crawling around in the grass with a magnet lookin for it.

I'm just laughing because that has always been my story. I rarely shoot much over 950-1000 fps. I was given some 300gr bullets when I was in my early twenties and I loaded them hot going against my fathers advice. So we went out shooting and after a couple of shots something was different about my SBH. All of a sudden I realized that my ejector housing was gone and my father was laughing. It was literally gone. Where it ended up landing was in the 2:00 position from where I was standing when I was shooting. Needless to say my father knew that was going to happen so he was ready and watched for it to go flying.

Then one time I bought new SBH 44 mag and just wanted to be Mr. Macho and went for the gusto with some more 300gr. and once again the ejector housing was out of there. Also, we were looking for the spring and while we were walking around I felt something wet on my right hand and I looked down and saw that the dragoon style grip had cut the inside of my middle finger right at the knuckle. It left a cool scar.

I also have a blackhawk 44spl (3 screw) that the ejector housing has been blown off too.

[Old Grump]

Went a wee bit over SAAMI spcs huh? I have had to have my Dan Wesson put back in order again 3 different times from shooting mostly .357 mag including some handloads that were unwise. I don't do that anymore. I have never done a thing to my Super Blackhawk. just shoot and clean, shoot and clean, and I do that a lot but all standard factory loads or lighter hand loads for target shooting. I just never felt the need to put any extra spice on that particular caliber.

[JLA]

there ist at all OG. The .44 mag loaded to max .44 spec levels is perfect for all handgunning IMO.

[ElmerFudd]

Originally Posted by muddober

The gun will no doubt handle it but why would you want to do it? Guys see 300 grain bullets weights being used in 45 calibers like the 454 Casull and some hot 45 Colt loadings for Rugers or TC single shots and think "I will shoot 300 grainers in my 44". The problem with that thinking is a 44 only measures .429 and a 45 measures .454 meaning that the .429 bullet in 300 grain gets to be so long that it negatively affects amount of powder one can get in the case. All meaning that if one considers a 300 grain bullet to be the optimum bullet weight for the 45 then about a 270 grain is as heavy as one should consider in a 44. That being said there are 300 grain 44 loadings out there. In my view a good loading of a 240 to 250 grain 44 bullet can be driven to optimum velocities as to achieve maximum efficiency of the 44 mag.
Ron

I joined here just to answer this post. The diameter of a case has nothing to do with it's capacity. I have been running 300-340 grain HC through 44 mags for over 10 years. Garrett arms has been around longer than that and goes to 330gr with no problem, and buffalo bore and few others go to 340 grain. The fact is that the 44 magnum case has enough capacity to push a 340 grain round to over 1400 fps. With no problem and no over pressure conditions. The hottest loadings for the 44 give 1600 FPE, the normal hot loadings give 1200-1300. Not sure why people think that 300 grainers are something to be avoided. They have become so common and present no problems at all. And critters will feel the difference between a 240 and a 300+ grain round. Lot more energy, more momentum and higher ability to break bone.