My step son came over to borrow the pickup truck, and as is my habit, I went under the front seat and took out the Super Blackhawk that resides under there. I'll loan my truck but not my revolver. If something happens to the truck, I'll be okay, but if something happens to that revolver, I'll be upset and aggravated.
Good thing I took the revolver out. I found some rust on the backstrap and as I was checking it prior to cleaning it, there was no ammo in it. I remember that I let someone shoot it and I never reloaded it. So, I went to the ammo shelf and found that I am nearly out of .loaded .44 ammo of any stripe. Just Damn! It's time to get out the bags of brass and load some .44 ammo.
I have just exactly two loads for that pistol. My .44 Special load, which is good for about 95% of the shooting I do with that revolver, is what I call my Skeeter load. First proposed by the late Skeeter Skelton, it's 7.5 grains of Unique under a 240 grain cast bullet. That load runs out at about 970 fps, considerably more snappy than the anemic .44 Special factory fodder. I really like that load a lot and I believe that if more .44 Special folks used it, they wouldn't feel the need to use magnums. There is a whole lot to like about a 240 grain cast bullet traveling at 970 fps.
The second load for that revolver is a standard .44 magnum load, proposed by both Skeeter and Elmer Keith. I use 19.0 grains of 2400 under that same 240 grain cast bullet. That gives me 1350 fps and knocks the living hell out of anything I've shot with it. Both of those loads are lit with with Winchester Large Pistol primers. I've never seen a need for magnum primers in any handgun. 2400 lights up just fine with a standard primer.
Good that you 'caught' the rust, and the fact that it was empty...
ReplyDeleteYeah, an empty gun is like a dull knife...not worth a Tinker's Dam, as my paw used to say.
ReplyDeleteBTW, if you're looking for decent defense loads for the 44 Special, they ARE around. Try CCI's offering, which shoves a 200-gr Speer Gold Dot out of my snubby Bulldog barrel at 1004 fps, giving a M/E of 448 #/ft, very respectable. Since you would get maybe 150 fps more speed from the longer Blackhawk barrel, you're right up there around 500 #/ft M/E, and definitely into the "one-shot-stop" regime.
All those good numbers, good expansion to. 700+", and no-legal-questions factory ammo. $30 for a box of all that goodness is hard to beat, Pawpaw.
Thanks, Rivrdog, but I can't imagine that I would ever have a need for SD ammo in that revolver. It's a hunting gun, a woods-cruising gun. If I ever had to use it to repel goblins, I'd just have to work the problem of using reloads.
ReplyDeleteMy carry guns all have factory ammo, but my woods guns, not so much.