I stumbled upon a 1970's Ruger carbine in 44 Remington magnum that seems like it would be a handy 100 yard carbine and am wondering about a suitable load. Between pistol and rifle, there are *lots* of wildly different loads -- mostly for jacketed bullets.
44 Special cartridges I had printed clover leafs at 25 yards. Very encouraging but it wouldn't cycle the action.
I have lots of 180gr cast HP bullets on hand and need a recommendation that's suitable for this carbine's autoloading action.
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Never shot cast in mine . Have heard it's not a great idea but have not personally tried it.
Grumpy Old Man With A Gun......Do Not Touch .
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Not a Ruger autoloader but I load my Marlin 94 with 19.5 grains of #9 using a 260 gr. bullet with good results. How it would do with a 180 gr. bullet I have no idea but something around 21 grs to start might be worth a try. If you have trouble with the gas port you could run a powder coating test.
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Ruger carbine worked OK with old school factory 240 lead SWC. Use a 240-grain flatnosed bullet of similar shape to the factory softpoint such as Accurate 43-240F. Start at 20 grains of 4227 or 24 grains of 4198 and increase only if needed to cycle reliably.
73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia
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I have a bag-o-parts project 44 Carbine that I am planning ... honest ... to assemble one day ... anyway, I have been following all the Ruger 44 Carbine stuff on the internet and notice that
about half the reports say that cast bullets lead up their gas pistons ... and half say cast works just fine, or at least with little maintenance ...
any real life input here with cast in the Ruger 44 carbine ?? I have a zillion cast loads through my M1 Carbine Cal. 30 ... also short stroke piston ... with no problem ... I have never had to disassemble the gas block for malfunction.
ken
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Thanks, Ed.
Hoping to stick to the pistol powders on-hand, I saw recommendations (IIRC) from 10 gr W231 to 27 gr W296 and thought the port pressures for those must be wildly different -- they weren't thinking about autoloaders.
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The original .44 Mag factory loads were soft swaged lead and gaschecked. With the slower powders port pressure should be very adequate. The charges of 4227 and 4198 I listed are start loads generating a bit over 20,000 psi. There is no issue increasing these charges to get reliable function up to full case capacity at zero airspace with no compression.
73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia
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Those old original Ruger 44 semi-auto's had slow twists...32" as I recall. Best used with cast bullets of 240 gr or less that are GC'd. Lyman's 429215 and Lee's C429-240-SWC are both excellent performers. Best accuracy across the functionable velocity range will be with the GC'd bullets. However, reasonably accurate lower end velocity loads can be had with PB'd cast using the powders (or of similar burn rate) ED suggests that will function the action.
LMG
Concealment is not cover.........
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(I thought I had already replied to this but the post seems to have disappeared.)
I had a WHS open rear sight for this but I swapped-on an aperture from a 10-22 sight. I also have a Redfield see-under mount for a 1” tube that you’re welcome to add to your parts bag.
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I have an older ruger .44 carbine with the magazine tube. I shot about 30 rounds of cast bullets through it recently. They were 250gr. gc. cast from a 20 to1 mix. They fed and worked the action just fine. Accuracy was ok with 2 and 1/2 inch groups at 50 yards. I still have a lot of herco 2400 powder so used that to load them. What was strange was that I had trouble with feeding and jams with .44 factory jacketed ammo. Maybe cartridge lenght had something to do with it? I will run a bore scope to check the gas port for problems and report back. 
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These are the only rounds I've run through it. Ignoring the first round - the outlier - I thought it looks promising.
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What was strange was that I had trouble with feeding and jams with .44 factory jacketed ammo. Maybe cartridge lenght had something to do with it? I will run a bore scope to check the gas port for problems and report back.
Is that cast bullet the Lyman 429640H? Nice bullet. Real nice bullet.
With rifle in hand, I confidently go forth into the darkness.
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Thanks, the bullet mold is made by MP molds. I am up north fishing. When I get home I will post the mold number.
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That mold is called the 432 hammer. In hindsight I should have bought the 2 cavity version. The 4 cavity gives you a good workout. I ran the borescope down the Ruger and after 30 gas check cast loads, there might be a bit of smeared lead on the gas port. I don't think it is too much to worry about.

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If you have Blue Dot on hand, give it a try. I Shot IHMSA with a Blackhawk. Totally different but near starting loads would knock down the 200 yard rams. RCBS 240 Bullet.
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