.44 mag accuracy

[steelworker]

 Hello all.  I'm pretty new to contenders.  I bought a 14" .44 mag with iron sights.  If I do my part, what kind of accuracy can I expect at 50 yards?  100 yards?  I reload for my .44 Handi Rifle and get very nice groups at 100 yards.  What size groups do you get?  Please include your best load info if you don't mind.  Thanks!!

[Flash]

If you use a scope on your Contender, you can expect excelent groups with your 44 barrel. I've used 2400 and had great success with cast and jacketed. At 100 yards, a 4" group is quite possible or even better with practice. At 50 yards, your shots will touch. This will also depend on how you rest your gun, how clean your barrel is and how uniform and consistent your reloading is.

[okie44]

Need to be consistent with whatever type rest your using, grip dragging on table etc, will effect groups. Most contenders I've had would shoot better than i can hold, ya miss can't blame the gun. If it's one off the older frames you can adjust trigger down to whatever your comfortable with. Shoot it a lot, have fun!

[SHOOTALL]

 I shot a super 14 on IMHSA matches for about 3 years . At 50 yards bullets would touch most of the time and at 100 would open a bit . The load is over max so I won't print as we were ask not to in another topic.I will say the max load in the Hornady reloading manual will work well BUT WORK UP TO IT . I will say a Reddind profile crimp was used and all cases were trimmed to same length. When going for group its often to use a aiming point other than where the group will land. When shooting IMHSA I always used the leg (chicken/turkey)or front leg (pig/ram) body junction as an aiming point and adjusted to hit in middle of criter. This is the best way I found to use iron sights on a target, though not pratical on a hunting gun. At 200 yards a 3inch group is not unheard of. There was one shooter who hit every turkey in the head (10) with a 44 mag in a 10 inch contender . That's about a 2 inch circle at 150 yards . His sighter told him to keep shooting , he did not aim at the head.

[Iowa Fox]

My contender barrels are both super 16 and my Encore which gets shot the most is a 12", all factory barrels. They all shoot exceptionally well. My 12" will keep all shots in a 1 1/2 circle (often better) at 50 yards from a rest with open sights. I can hit clay birds on the 100 yard burm with almost every shot from a rest.
 
My load for all is 9 grains of unique under a lyman 429421 sized to 431. Its a very mild load that shoots well. Practice is the most important thing and this load is mild so it will let you do plenty of that. Iron sights will shoot very well in a 44 mag. Figuring on the high side my cost per round is about a nickle to reload since I cast my own bullets. I can shoot a lot without breaking the bank or my wrist. Practice practice practice and keep hand written notes.

[muslmutt]

My 44 mag has a 4X scope and currently produces 1.5" 5 shot groups at 100 yards with 296 and 240 gr XTPs. I am not sure I can shoot much better than that with a 4X scope on a pistol. I am thinking about trying a more powerful scope just to see what happens.   

[okie44]

Pretty good shooting mutt, I'm pretty long armed and found the Weaver 21/2x8 to have good eye relief.