baffled on 44 mag maximum load for green dot

[jwest]

OK - haven't read every word but you have to use something that will make gas for the piston.

IMR-4227 will work.
H110 is even better and will make a bigger boom too.

[bubbapug1]

Ran the test today with some Ramshot Tru-Blue and 240 grain JHP's.

The gun worked flawlessly from 12.8 grains to 13.3 grains. Even at the 13.3 grains, which is 2% over max, the recoil was very mild, and there was no muzzle flash. I also tried some magtech factory loads, 220 grain...they worked great too but with a lot more recoil and a LOT more flash! I kind of love the flash!!

Thanks fellas for getting me lined up. I bought some H110 to test too...maybe I will find my ummph and flash with that powder.

I will get chrony values on these loads to verify performance in a few weeks.

[GeoffLinder]

You may have to try some even slower powders to get the full oomph out of your reloads. I'll bet the powder was fully burned before the bullet was even very far down the barrel. You need to find a powder that is slow enough to be still burning when the bullet gets near the muzzle. That'll get you the flash and bang you are looking for

Don't forget to put some different bullet weights of factory ammo over the chrono too. This will give you some good comparison data points.

You will find the chrono very helpful in getting a handle on creating specific performance levels in your reloads.

One very important thing to remember, if you are at or over listed max load and you have not achieved the same velocity as published you should probably think twice before pushing on.

[sargenv]

Generally, if you want flash, you need to load a high nitro powder behind a lighter bullet.. the lighter bullet usually doesn't have enough weight and resistance to fully consume the powder, hence the flash.. Blue Dot has always been known to be in the vicinity of high Nitro content.. another one I just thought of is Lil'gun.. it is similar to H110 but newer.. I made up some really nice loads for my 41 magnum.. 235 gr bullet at 1325 fps out of a 7.5" tubed Model 657. It's a tad snappy but still controllable. I'd suspect that your DE would like Lil'gun also.

[bubbapug1]

A chrony is really the only way to know what is happening to your loads! I also like to run strings on factory ammo in my 223 and witness the variable velocities. I used to think factory ammo would always be superiour to my own loads, but that simply is not true.

I do like the lighter recoil of the tru blue loads over the factory loads. If the chrony data comes back close on velocities I will stay with the tru blue. Tru blue also meters much better than red dot or a stock powder in my 550.

[bubbapug1]

I tried H110. What a crazy powder!! A lot of gas, lots of flame, and the gun worked but not that well at higher loads, it worked best at 23 grains, but not at all at 24 grains, and kind of at 23.5

I like the tru blue as it's less distracting noise and flame wise, but the gun prefers H110 I think.

I'm going to chrony all of the loads this weekend and post them in this thread.

Thanks again for the info.

[bubbapug1]

At 23.5 grains the case didn't pull back from the chamber wall before the gun woudl try to cycle, and extraction was an issue. You could see major imprints of the extractor ont he rim where it had clawed away at the rim, but finally slipped off, leaving the case in the chamber. Repeated firings as the max load would I think lead to extractor failure, not to mention messed up cases.

I am now using 23 grains of H110 with a 240 grain Montana gold soft point jacketed bullet.. This set up seems to work best for me and my Desert Eagle VII.

[bubbapug1]

The problem wasn't the loads, it was a weak extractor spring. I put in the new plastic extractor spring (blob) and the DE now eats anything as long as its 200 grain or more....green dot, red dot, 2400, H110, AA#9, True Blue...90% loads, 80% loads, 100% loads....I like the H110 and Win 296 for the loud bang and flames, but for accuracy and less recoil AA #9 and true blue are the way to go.