I am going to load up some light loads for my .44 mag super blackhawk for my severely recoil averse wife to shoot. It will be used for nothing more than killing milk jugs, but I will try to work up the power over time to get her acclimated to something with a little more authority. I have 180gr Sierra jacketed bullets and Unique, Blue Dot, Accurate No. 5, and Accurate No. 9. I have decided on using Unique powder (unless someone reccommends the Blue Dot), but was wondering how light of a load I can use with it while getting reliability and some accuracy out of it? Any experiences?

Thanks and God Bless,
Ryan

I have not used the Accurate powders, but looking at them I think Unique and AA#5 might be the best choices. Blue dot is a poor choice for reduced loads in my experience, and might be the most likely to stick a bullet in the bore..

Unique is predictable over a very wide range, and a mid-power .44Spcl charge in a .44Magnum case should be usable. The .44Spcl data from Hornady for their 180's looks like 6.5gr of Unique, or 8.5gr of AA#5 should get 'em going at about 750fps.

Another option I know will work is 5-6gr of Trail Boss and a 200gr Cowboy bullet from Hornady. My daughters can handle them easily, and recoil is in the .38 Special range, noise even less. When the light is good, you can see them in the air on the way to the target. No kidding.

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I like the traiboss for plinkers because you can pretty much fill the case and still have a low power plinker load. The only thing I don't care for is it leaves a funny soot on the case that the tumbler will not touch.

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I use 6.0grns of Trail Boss behind a 215grn semi wad cutter (will be switching over to 200grn RNFP when the supply is depleted) for my 44 mag "plinker" loads in my Vaquero, I don't recall any "funny soot" on my cases?
Also run the 6.0grns of TB behind 200grn RNFP in the 45 Colt, don't know if it the pistol? (Taurus Gaucho) or the bigger DIA of the bullet? but the 45 has noticably LESS recoil than the 44 Mag?

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Don't forget Bullseye. 4.5-5 grains of Bullseye and that 180 grain pill would be pretty easy on girlie hands.

RJ

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The big danger with going real light is double loading with a fast pistol powder. If you load 7.5 gr of Unique, you'll get about 800-850 fps, and case fill will be over 50% to the base of the bullet, so a double charge would not allow you to seat a bullet without detecting the overfill.

Sounds great. Thanks for the help. I was thinking in the 6gr range, so I will work between 6.5 and 7.5gr.

With extra-light loads, you're safer going with a lead bullet vs using a jacketed bullet.

The lead bullet will be less likely to stick in the barrel. Use 44 special cases for your extra-light loads if you have them. The smaller case will have less air space for the powder to move around in the case.

I use 10.0 grains of Unique and the Lee 200 grain RNFP bullet for my 44 magnum plinkers. Same bullet with 6.5 grains of Unique or 5.5 grains of Bullseye for my .44 special plinkers.