44 Mag Info

[Beermster1]

I recently purchased a Marlin Lever action rifle 44 mag and was not sure if I can use the same loading data for my rifle and my sons 44 mag pistol ?? Thanks for your help

[Kurgan]

Yes.

[Pauliedad]

Some books (Hornady I think) shows data in both the pistol and rifle sections and as expected, the rifle data is slightly more stout and may even have more (slower) powders listed.
I just load to pistol specs so there's no confusion and those run great out of my Rossi.

[PSLguy]

Sure you can. The velocities will just be higher due to the longer barrel. I load my .44 mag at the very low end of the Lyman charts. Some guys like cowboy action guys go even lower.

[stilly]

Yeah you can. I just shot some H-110 23.5gr with 240gr pills outta my rossi ranch hand and they shot very nice. The gun jumped out of my hands, but they shot.

Go for it, but maybe make some with red dot...

[hambam105]

My 1978 Speer Reloading Manual does, I think.

The manual probably shows more variety of stick powders that you could use for the rifle. I never paid much attention to it because I didn't have a .44 rifle, and I wouldn't assemble .44 magnum cartridges that exceeded safe pressures for pistol use.

For what it's worth;
After firing thousands of .44s with 240 grain bullets, I never saw any practical difference between a 240 grain bullet going 1,000 foot per second, verses one 240 grain pill going 1,100 or even 1,200 fps. I definitely felt the difference in recoil, but as for terminal ballistics, it just wasn't necessary. Not in anything I ever shot in the past 30 years anyhow. Important; Dropping any velocity below 1,000 fps had big affect.

When I anticipated needing more power than 240 grains at 1,000 fps could deliver I brought along Mr. 12 gauge slug and our other friend Mr. 30 cal rifle.

[RR.44]

Lyman book has different data for rifle and handgun loads, iirc the rifle loads use slower powders as was mentioned before. My favorite load for the .44 is 27 GRS of W296 under a 200gr Hornady XTP.

[Kurgan]

I know some manuals do list separate rifle and pistol loads. Speer does IIRC. FWIW, I don't see the need for rifle specific loads, especially since I can switch ammo between the two when I load to pistol specifications.