44 Special Ammo in a 44 Mag?

[Flanker]

Hi Folks, I'm getting a Marlin 44 Magnum and eventually I will start relaoding for it.
Until then I was thinking of using 44 Special ammo as it's much cheaper and quite adequate for my purposes. (£26.99/100 for Magtec compared to £41/100 for 44 Mag) at Peter Lawman. I believe the recoil is substantially less and I'm told it will penetrate most cardboard targets.
I've heard that there can be issues with lead fouling, but I assume these can be managed.
Any thoughts on this?

[Dougan]

Hi Flanker,

Marlin .44 - nice :mrgreen:

Putting .44 spec through a .44 mag chamber would leave a build up of stuff that would need removing (not too difficult) before .44 mags would fit properly - I was told that it takes thousands (less if hot loads) of rounds to make the markings permanent.

Something to bear in mind, is that some lever action rifles that are chambered for magnum don't cycle as well with specials...though Marlins are far more tolerant than Winchester.

As for recoil - If you reload, then you would load rounds for the distance you are shooting, regardless of the cases you are using - for example...I use .357 cases, but my 25 yrd rounds are less powerful than factory .38 specials....

For lever action shooting, I would recomend starting reloading asap - pistol calibers are simple and relitively cheep to load, and the savings on ammo would pay for the outlay (simple press and dies ect) quite quickly.

[Laurie]

+ 1 on Dougan's comments. Also, the cartridge is a natural for handloading in which case don't bother with .44 Special. It's very easy to get 240gn cast lead bullets to perform well at barely subsonic MVs (1,050 -1,100 fps) using the faster burning pistol powders and these give very light recoil. They also work out at a fraction of factory ammo costs so you get the expenditure on the reloading tools back quickly unless you only shoot a handful of rounds each year.

If you MUST use factory ammo, yes get .44 Special. 44 Mag is invariably loaded right up and is really pokey, while the Special as an earlier model which can conceivably be used in weak vintage firearms has a very low SAAMI maximum chamber pressure allowed by comparison producing soft loads.

[Sim G]

I'm going to say also, don't bother with Special factory ammo. You may also find it will not run in your Marlin, even though the claiber designation on the barrel says .44 Special/.44 Magnum.

The Marlin manual will tell you that using Special ammo will require it to be loaded to a length equal to Magnum loads because of the timing of the cartridge lifter. I dscovered this 10 years ago....... after I loaded a batch of Specials and they wouldn't run. I then read the manual! (What bloke doesn't?)

The residue ring of carbon, unburnt powder and lead has also been mentioned....

I'm loading with Special data in a magnum case. A 240gn cast RNFP bullet and 6.0gns of Unique. In my Marlin, this will shoot a ragged, one hole group at 25 yards and give 2 inches at 50. Robin128 uses the same load, to the same effect.

[Dougan]

I'm loading with Special data in a magnum case

That's the same tip you gave me months ago, when I changed powder :) - I'm just over the starting load...and it' s shooting nicely