44 Russian

581 Views
Last Post 07 November 2017

CBA Member

delmarskid posted this 07 November 2017

Does anyone besides me like to shoot the 44 Russian? It seems like such a nice mild mannered cartridge. It's accurate, has decent ballistics, and it's kind of cute too. I really like it in the Charter Bulldog. Last thing I tried was a 180 full wad cutter in the Bulldog using 45 acp data. It's not easy to come up with loads for some of these old timers. Most times I drop light end 44 special loads 10% and go up from there until the cases drop out clean. I don't have any ground shaking revelations or insights. I just like the cartridge and thought I'd post about it. I wish I had a chrono-graph so that I could do side by side comparisons in all three of the 44's using the same charges to see how much empty case space affected performance. The Russian is a pretty efficient cartridge. the books say they used to get almost 900 fps with the black powder loading's of it's day.

Attached Files

3 Comments

Order By: Standard | Newest | Votes

CBA Member

RicinYakima posted this 07 November 2017

The only one I have left is a four inch old model double action S&W. While I have had several over the years, I almost always loaded FFF black (755 f/s) with mild compression. Three point five grains of Red Dot will get the same velocity and these are with the traditional 246 grain RN Lyman bullet, 40/1. My cases are all balloon head pre-war so am very conservative except with black.

Attached Files

CBA Member

BigMan54 posted this 07 November 2017

I load for this too. I use either the old LYMAN #429251 cast of 20/1 at 255grs with 3.5grs Bullseye or #429478 cast 20/1 at 215grs with 4.2grs Bullseye. I now use Starline brass rather than cut down .44spl brass. Even though I got rid if my ancient S&W #3 RUSSIAN years ago I still shoot the same Russian loads in my #3 RUSSIAN replica that's chambered for .44spl.

Long time Caster/Reloader, Getting back into it after almost 10yrs. Life Member NRA 40+yrs, Life S.A.S.S. #375. Does this mean a description of me as a fumble-fingered knuckle-draggin' baboon. I also drool in my sleep. I firmly believe that true happiness is a warm gun. Did I mention how much I HATE auto-correct on this blasted tablet.

Attached Files