Shooting 44spc in 44mag barrel

[tc scout]

I was told by a TC factory rep recently not to shoot 44 specials in my 14 in 44 mag barrel. He stated, "shoot only what is marked on the barrel".Are they just being cautious or is there a "real problem"with this. I shot specials all the time in my super redhawk, it even stated in the manual by ruger that this was OK.Your thoughts please.

[KN]

Won't hurt a thing. But why? TC barrels are notorious for having long throats and specials would probably be less accurate because of this. If you hand load just tone them down. If not I can see why you might want to.   KN

[rickyp]

When ever you shoot a shorter round in a chamber such s a 38 special in the 357 mad, 44 special in a 44 mag, 45 colt out of a 454, and a 454 out of a 460 You must make sure you clean the chamber before chambering the longer round you will get a build up of powder and lead/copper where the shorter round stopped. it can cause a rise in chamber pressures. and if you shoot enough shorter rounds in the chamber you can get  flame etched ring in the chamber  and it will shorten case life of the longer case as well as make it harder to extract. I know this for a fact I had a 357 mag contender barrel that this happened to.

[tc scout]

Thanks Guys, i didn't plan on a steady diet of 44 specials or reloading them, i just  have a couple of boxs i wanted to burn up and the contender is the only 44 mag i have now. Figured i would use them for prelim sighting in at short range. In the future it would be strictly 44 mag reloads and some factory ammo i still have left.                     Thanks again, Ken

[blhof]

I use 38's and 357 mags in my 357 max all the time, but I also spend a lot of extra time scrubbing the cylinders in my DW and the chamber in my Contender barrel when I'm through.  If you mix them at the range; you will have problems with the buildup making longer cases stick.  I shoot the max first then finish with the light stuff.