You should probably go with the 45 and offer your Special brass for sale here. (Thinking that I should shoot my Bisley Flattop more often).
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Just received a call from the gunsmith at Wyoming Gun Company advising me that they have finished the action work on my Ruger Blackhawk 5 1/2" Bisley .44 Special that I picked up a couple of months ago, and it is shipping back to my FFL here in AZ tomorrow.
I have some new and once-fired Starline brass loaded with Oregon Trail 240 gr. SWC's over 7.0 and 7.5 grains of Alliant Unique powder awaiting. Looking forward to accuracy and chronograph testing.
Attachment 117694
Cost was a big reason I got out of .44 Special so finding that brass was a pleasant surprise.
Attachment 117696
If I find enough Colt brass in this bucket, I'm fairly certain I'll end up with both. This afternoon I found 50-100 .45 AutoRim cases I traded into 10-15 years ago so that helps but I also found the 2 bags of .44 Russian (200 cases total) I bought late last year which pushes me towards the .44 first.
My 5.5 inch Bisley seems to have a quick barrel on it. Pardon my scribbles but this is what I got a few days ago.
Load was with Matt's Bullets 255gr coated bullets in Starline brass and CCI standard large pistol primers.
Attachment 117697
Forgot I had some with a 240gr Missouri bullet company coated bullet with 7.5 gr of Unique.
1-1033 fps
2-999 fps
3-1057 fps
4-1029 fps
Average - 1030 fps
S. D.- 23.7 fps
E. S.- 58 fps.
These were random plinkers I wasent planning on testing when I had the Lab Radar set up, I think a few of those had older Remington primers in them. Would explain the variations in velocity.
I have a 4 5/8 as well, I'm waiting on a bullet shipment to test the same loads in it and a 4 inch S&W model 29-10
What primers are y’all using for the Skeeter load? I don’t think I have any LPP on hand…😱