This is from Randy's website--

I received a Ruger S/A 44 magnum Hunter back about a year or more ago.... and had no real commercial control ammo for a baseline in testing the gun, testing my handloads, and normal mass produced commercial ammo in it... Randy came to the rescue with his very fine 310 grain 44 mag/Hammerheads.

Both the 330 grain and the 310 grain have .320 meplats. This ammo has taken nearly all the large game animals in North America from Texas thru Canada up thru Alaska. It is noted that on a frontal chest shot on a boar grizzly the 330 grain load and ‘SuperHardCast’ bullet penetrates all the way back to the hips. And with that broad flat meplat the damage must be extensive. The 330 gain 44s are for guns like Ruger’s Redhawk and such. The 310s are for the other guns listed right on the ammo’s yellow plastic boxes of 50. It is the pressure and the length of the loaded round in the 330 that precludes it from the smaller guns. Randy in his advertising states also that in rifles the 330 grainer is too long to cycle in the leverguns... generally true but I have a 92 (Legacy) and a Winchester 94 that will cycle them.... I have others that won’t...

Taking the Hunter and ½ a dozen different 44 magnum handloads, and five different commercial ammo types plus the Garrett Hammerheads to the range on a cool February day for testing, I came away shaking my head, I didn’t expect the kind of accuracy I got from the Garrett loads.

But first off with a new gun it needs to be broken in a bit.... I ran 50 or so of my rounds thru it, to set the Ruger open sights, and then another fifty or so to sight in the Simmons handgun scope, and to settle in the new gun. I started with a new Tasco scope but it couldn’t stand the pleasure of the recoil of my handloads.... this is unusual because I have Tasco scopes that date all the way back to the 1970s. And have never before had this kind of failure with them...

The Ruger S/A Hunter has a barrel rib that takes Ruger scope rings which came with the gun.... And this allows the quick removal of the scope to use the open sights... then returning the scope with no change in point of impact (poi). Simply using a penny to tighten and untighten the rings, because they are well designed.

After the 100 or so rounds, I figured the Ruger was settled in enough to start accuracy testing of loads... and I shot a 5 shot Garrett 310 grain control group off a handgun rest on the range bench. A gun rest called the Paco/Taffin gun rest.... at 25 yards +. Of course friend John Taffin calls it the Taffin/Paco gun rest. It is simply a tightly rolled up hunk of carpet... it tends to take the recoil of the gun with out the usual bounce you get from solid rests. At twenty five yards the five 310 grain Garrett Hammerheads went into one ragged hole 6/10ths of an inch. This was with the scope.... With apologies to Randy, I knew this was a fluke... so I fired another test group... swallowed hard and then another... and I had three ragged holes in the target.... None of the rest of the loads I fired that day could match the accuracy of those 310 grain Hammerheads.

Thinking it could be that the Ruger just liked the Garrett ammo, that happens with guns and ammo sometimes. You find one load that just performs like a show pony, in one certain gun. So I broke out my 5 inch S&W model 29, 44 magnum. This is an older nickeled version, it was a trade/gift from John Taffin. I usually keep this gun and it’s loads set for personal security, woods walking, and close range predator elimination. The normal load for this gun, Cast Perfection 280 grain hard cast bullets over 18 grains of 2400. A medium load with much power. Rarely do I put higher pressures than that thru this fine old S&W. But for testing verification, I put five 310 grain Garrett hammerheads thru it... bingo 3/4s of an inch at 25 yards. I broke out my Son’s 1892 44 magnum rifle... five rounds under an inch and a half at 75 yards. With that’s with my old eyes, and less than acceptable (for me), original open sites.

I have since tested the other 44 magnum load (330 grain) that Randy offers and have found them to be of the same quality as the 310s. I think everyone that owns and reveres the 44 magnum and hunts with it, should have two boxes of Garrett’s 44 magnums on his shelf. You have to see what a Hammerhead 310/44 mag will do when it punches through a feral pig or black bear, to believe it. They are designed for deer to elk in weight and power. The 330 grainers are designed for larger game like moose, the big bears, and such....

SHOOT

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