Sam86,

This is an excerpt from an article by John Taffin of Sixgunner...

"For years the standard heavy load with the .44 Magnum has been a 250 grain hard cast Keith bullet over 22.0 grains of #2400. Elmer Keith designed this bullet back in the 1920's for use in his .44 Special at 1200 feet per second and it made the transition to the .44 Magnum admirably well. Keith always decried the use of gas checks on sixguns but I have found that gas-checked .44 bullets normally shoot better than plain-based bullets. No better gas-checked bullet has been found that that designed by Ray Thompson for Lyman nearly forty years ago. Lyman catalogs it as #431244GC and it is a 255 grain semi-wadcutter bullet with two shallow grease grooves as well as a gas check.

This bullet shoots superbly with the `standard' #2400 load of 22.0 grains for 1480 feet per second; 25.0 grains of WW296 or H110 or 24.0 grains of H4227 for 1400 feet per second; or 21.5 grains of AA#9 for a slightly milder shooting 1365 feet per second. All of these loads will do less than one-inch at 25 yards with a good sixgun in good hands backed up by good eyes."