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44mag to hot load?

2461 Views 14 Replies 13 Participants Last post by  JimboLLN, 
W
While going through my ammo stock and cleaning it up I noticed this. About 15 years ago I loaded 4 boxes of 44 Mag. 240gr cast SWC with 17gr Blue Dot. At the time my data said 18.5 was max, now Lyman list 15.5 as max. Did they make the powder hotter or the data more conservative or was the 18.5 a typo? :confused:
My question is what do I do with it ? I hate to have to pull all 200 rds. Any comment, other than don’t load more than you shoot, would be appreciated.
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TMan
I think SAAMI dropped the peak operating pressures for the .357/.44Magnum cartridges about that time. I still have a couple boxes of Speer Lawman from that era, and it's got way more "POW" than the current faxctory stuff from Winchester or Remington. I figure if I ever need to stop a train or something, I'll use it up. It's not fun.
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TMan
Wynn said:
Sorry I forgot to say that I plan on shooting them in the S&W mod 29 with a 8 3/8" brl that I loaded them for.
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Hmmm,

Mod 29's have gone through some changes over time, as earliest versions didn't hold up so well to a regular diet of hot loads, and many commercial loads. It kinda depends on how many you have loaded up. If you have a box of 50, it's not likely to be a problem (but could be), if you have 500rds, you might want to pull and reduce.
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