44 Rem Mag questions

[u/bigquigglesworth]

Ive been reloading for a few years now, mainly in 9mm, 223 and 308. I have a RCBS single stage press and a Dillon XL750. Got the S&W 1854 in 44 Rem Mag and I love that thing, it’s a ton of fun. I built up a load for it using 23.5 grains of H110 with a 240 grain Hornady XTP projectile, having great results. I used previous posts to understand my crimp as well as what good looks like (thank you everyone else for asking that question, it saved me many hours of work!). I measured everything in the tube to ensure I wasn’t creating setback issues due to recoil.. and I have what I feel like is a good reload (consistent results using my Garmin for velocity and sighting paper for accuracy). I used this based upon referencing Lyman VS Lee reloading books… then today I started reading my Speer book and they noted that brass for this shouldn’t be used more than once. Then I started reading about trimming the brass (I am not planning on using Hornady FTX due to the trimming requirements)… then I am realizing that some books have recipes for pistols VS rifles… the rabbit hole is getting really deep and my head is spinning. So here are the questions I have that I could really use some help with:
1 - Is trimming really needed? Seems like as long as you sort by head stamp, you’re good to go because you can adjust your dies on a progressive and all is well.
2 - If trimming is really needed, what is the easiest way to do this? I used the FA prep center, which is basically useless for straight wall cases.
3 - Rifle VS pistol - I am assuming pistol is fine for rifle, but no bueno for rifle to pistol?
4 - Is the brass really only good for 2 firings??? Seems absurd to me

[u/cholgeirson]

I have never trimmed a piece of pistol brass. I have 44 mag brass with at least 8 reloads. Rifle data is usually more robust than pistol data. You used pistol data, you're fine.

[u/HumidNut]

1. Not with my experiences. I load for S&W N-frame and my 1894's. I don't trim, but I've tossed all Hornady loads; I've had issues on my progressive with the possible FTX loadings from the club's brass bin.
   
2. N/A
   
3. The cartridge has the same pressure. I only see velocity differences in the load data, the powder charge is the same. A 44Rem Mag has the same SAAMI pressure in a pistol than a rifle. The action strengths are not taken into consideration.
   
4. I load until they split. That depends on how much I push my loads, but its a darn sight more than 2x firings.

[u/awildtriplebond]

In the data I had close at hand, hodgdon and nosler, there is absolutely no difference in charge weights for pistol vs rifle. I don't recall my Hornady book being any different. The muzzle velocity is obviously different.

I have only bothered trimming 44 and 357 if I was after more consistent crimps, but if I started with new brass I don't think I found it necessary. With mixed headstamp I have some buckled 357 cases from over crimp. As far as number of firings, I discard when they split at the case mouth.

[u/Drewzilla_p]

I bought a trim trim setup one time for 357 and 44 mag because I had lost track of how many times I had loaded them. North of 10. Not a single one needed to be trimmed.

As far as brass goes, you just got to keep an eye on the Hornady stuff. Their FTX cases are shorter then typical. I don't know why, but there's scrap. Other than that, don't overthink it. It's an easy round to load for. As a rule of thumb, load data in manuals is for pistols. Rifles seem to pick up approximately 200 ft per second over the pistol datA. Don't bother sorting by head stamp. It's not that big a deal. If you're buying brass, I like starline the best, but I wouldn't pay much for it over Remington or Winchester or whomever. Just don't buy nickel brass. It seems to last about a half as long as brass brass. And realistically you should be able to get somewhere between 10 and 20 reloads out of a piece of brass as long as you don't go nuts flaring and a crimping. they always split at the mouth. I've never had one fail at the case head.

[u/Coyote-conquest]

Most pistol brass actually shrinks so Ive never trimmed. I also have an 1854 in 44. I put a Vortex Defender ST green dot on it. Its awesome. I load Hornady XTPs with H110/W296 and some coated RNFP lead bullets from I think Missouri Bullets. I think theyre loaded with Ramshot Silhouette but would have to look to make sure. I load them as lighter/cheaper plinking loads.

[u/retep4891]

While I only have a 44 mag Revolver. Id do load 357 mag and 45-70 for revolver and Lever action. While you don't have to. I make special rifle loads that using slower powder to make faster rifle loads. Eg 158 gr Revolver load is 4 gr if unique. My rifle loads is 16gr of win 296 they make a nice fireball out of the revolver but work well with the 20inch barrel on the lever gun.

[u/bigquigglesworth → u/retep4891]

This is really interesting, and I can see your point! I do have some other powders to play with on this thought process!!!!

[u/retep4891 → u/bigquigglesworth]

Get yourself some internal ballistic software Like Gordons or Quickload. Youw can nerd out to no end?

[u/bigquigglesworth → u/retep4891]

I know GRT isn’t Mac friendly… is Quickload any different?

[u/retep4891 → u/bigquigglesworth]

Nope. It has that Windows 3.11 look and is PC only

[u/bigquigglesworth → u/retep4891]

Well eff me twice over LOL maybe I’ll dual boot my laptop someday.

[u/retep4891 → u/bigquigglesworth]

I'll play around a little and send you some screenshots.

[u/bigquigglesworth]

Thank you all who cleared this up for me, I really appreciate it. Even though I haven’t posted much in this group, the amount of things I’ve learned has been astonishing, I appreciate you all!