Now that I have cast the 44 mag 240 grain bullets, what wax lube do you recommend using for the automag? I was going to melt it an do the pan pour method.
Anything, really - correct size is a little more important than hardness of the lube, but I usually ran Carnauba Red from lsstuff.com before I got into powdercoating. I would tend more to the softer lubes for magnum loads.
Greetings fellow AMP owners. I see the majority of the load data you all are generating is for W296 or H110. Has anyone tried 2400? I see some old data from the Hornady book as well as data from old AMP forums elsewhere. I plan to be testing some W296 loads and was wondering if any recent data for 2400 had been developed for the new stronger AutoMag. I'll be using Hornady 240 JHP, Starline brass and CCI 350 primers.
Thanks in advance for your input.
Jaay
Speer and Hornady both published data for 2400. With 240gr JHP Speer called for a range of 18.0 to 19.2, and Hornady ranged from 18.6 to 20.8 grains. Although I use 2400 for 44 Magnum and 44 Special I stick to 296/110 for the Auto Mag, mostly because everybody else does?
You have to try several powders to see what works best in your gun. Although 296/H110 is the default go to powder, there are many powders out there with similar burn rates. It is quite possible that a lesser used powder, will be the top performer in your Automag.
@gbertolet Yes, good point. I've been using 2400 in my .44 Rem for 40 yrs, so I figured it would be a good candidate for the .44 AMP.
Hi,
Does anyone make a case gauge for 44AMP. I have looked online and have not found one.
Thanks,
@green-giant I don’t know, I mean maybe Hornady or someone will or can, they publish their reloading data in the handbook and in the app. Be a nice addition to my reloading bench.
Just to be a little different and to introduce another possible load into the discussion. I have been using Blue Dot as a powder that has delivered some of my best ballistics with my S&W Mod 57. (And yes, I am aware of the warnings / cautions on using Blue Dot in cold weather)
Over the coming weeks, I'm going to be working up some carefully assembled Blue Dot loads with my Starline brass, CCI primers and Hornady XTP's.
Please let me know if anyone has also toyed around with Blue Dot as a propellant in their AMP's.
All the best,
Rory
Here is the 44 Auto Mag page from the Speer No. 9 reloading manual from back in the day. It features Blue Dot data. I love Blue Dot in 10mm and reportedly it is the ONLY powder that is suitable for the various Wildey gas-operated pistols. It’s somewhat of an unusual choice for 44 AMP, with H110/WW296 being the clear favorite and 2400 a distant second. Let us know what you find out! 👍
Be careful with the Blue Dot powder.
The accepted load for a 475 Wildey and 230 grain bullets is 23 grains of Blue Dot. Hand loaders using large pistol magnum primers have experienced case head separations. This happened to an acquaitance of mine and when he reported it to the Wildey Company they said it happens a lot. They said use only standard large pistol primers with Blue Dot.
I have never tried Blue Dot in an Auto Mag as Lee Jurras and George Nonte both found that the results were not good. That also was over 45 years ago also. Good luck.
Gentlemen, I think it's time to start making some brass. Does anyone have a lead on a reamer or even just the reamer specs? Cutting the brass down won't be any problem since I already do this for a couple of cases. I still have to address the neck tension on my once fired brass, the .429 bullets slip a bit. Any information will be appreciated.
Don’t waste time screwing around making brass. Just buy Starline brass. Or buy loaded SBR ammo which uses Starline brass, and save it. If Starline, Gunbroker etc don’t have brass inventory Auto Mag themselves probably do.
As for neck tension, if you are using old school Auto Mag dies (as opposed to modern RCBS carbide dies) you may find better neck tension by substituting a 308 Win sizer die.
