Loads
Bullet casting is normally touted as a great way to do a lot of shooting for the least amount of money, and it is, however that’s not the number one advantage, which is being able to custom-tailor bullet diameters to fit each particular sixgun. There’s a lot of variation found in the chamber throats of both .45 Colt and .44 Special sixguns. Best accuracy is normally achieved from bullets, which match the chamber throats of each sixgun. I keep a set of 250 pin gauges, round cylindrical rods in increments of .001″ from .250″ to .500″, for this task. The .45 New Frontier gave me a uniform reading of .455″ for all six chambers. I keep a generous supply of reloads on-hand with both .452″ and .454″ diameter bullets, so for the most part, I chose the latter. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find the smaller bullets also shot well, as did factory ammunition.
Most of the Colt 3rd Generation .44 Specials I have encountered have been in the .433″ category, while earlier guns from the 2nd Generation run were normally tighter. This latest .44 Special has chamber throats which measure a uniform .429″. Reloads were used with both .429″ and .430″ cast bullets and results show this is the most accurate Colt Single Action I have ever encountered in 55 years of shooting sixguns. Several loads were under 1” for five shots at 20 yards with one of my favorites, the RCBS Keith bullet #44-250 dropped from a mold I had set up to do hollowpoints over 17.5 grains of H4227. This placed five shots in an astounding .5″! I cannot (normally) shoot this well!
My everyday standard working load for the .44 Special consists of 7.5 grains of Unique or Universal under a 250-gr. Keith bullet. No matter which Keith bullet I chose (H&G, Lyman, NEI, or RCBS) results were excellent, with most coming in at 1″ or less for five shots at 20 yards. Muzzle velocity is normally around 950 fps for these loads.
Switching to Hornady or Speer 240 JHPs lowers the muzzle velocity to around 880 fps, but accuracy is even better, with loads hovering at 7/8″. When I get behind on my casting I shoot a lot of Oregon Trail Laser Cast 240 SWCs. These bevel-based bullets over 6.0 grains of Unique clock out at 830 fps and also group under 1″. I don’t think we can ask much more than this from any single-action sixgun.