Browning B92 Ammo help

[haddon1]

Hello everyone - I have a Browning B92 in 44 mag and my question is if anyone has shot Hornady 240 gr ammo through their b92 44 and how did it shoot? Thanks Bob

[OldWin]

I have one of these and use the 240XTP with great results. I load it on top of 22gr of IMR4227 and use the same load for handguns.

[Hobie]

Your gun is not everyone else's. Try the ammo and find out. Generally, though, the XTP bullet is a good one and Hornady's ammo is pretty darn good.

[M. M. Wright]

I really like the performance of the XTP (Extreme Terminal Performance) on game. I use the 44 cal 200 grain bullet in my 50 cal muzzle loader. 1640 at 10 feet and the bullet has always mushroomed perfectly for the ones I've been able to recover.

[kevind6]

Checking the reloading records of my B92 I have a load listed for Hornady 240 gr bullets......so apparently I have shot them in the past. Unfortunately, I don't remember how they performed. Judging by the powder charge however, mine was a light load most likely intended for varmints and plinking. What is your intended use of the bullet??

[NewbieSC]

i know this is an old thread, but it's subject is very close to mine.

my dad passed away some time back and i have come into owning his Browning B-92. After reading the user's manual, i am still puzzled as to which exact ammunition (not sure exactly what to look for other than .44 Mag) to use with the gun. i noticed in the manual that it wants owners to select .44 Mag. ammo with: USE ONLY SOFT POINT BULLETS WITH A BROAD, FLAT NOSE. This is where i am getting lost (as you probably can tell, i am a newbie when it comes to guns). So someone who owns this model of rifle, please let me know the brand and exact type of ammunition to use with my recently acquired rifle. A brand/type that you have used with this make/model gun, please.

Thanks,
Newbie

[earlmck]

Hi Newbie, and welcome! That Browning in 44 mag is a very nice rifle.

Virtually all 44 mag ammunition will fill the requirements stated in Browning's manual: you will have trouble finding ammunition that isn't "flat-nosed, soft point". And the reason they are stipulating that requirement is that in the tubular magazine of your nice little lever gun, the cartridges sit "nose to base to nose to base" for however many you have stuffed in there. So 6 generations of gun writers have told their readers that if a pointy bullet from the cartridge behind contacts the primer of the cartridge ahead you are in serious danger of detonating a cartridge in the magazine when you fire the rifle and it recoils. So the experts assume that a nice, broad flat-nose bullet will be safe in this situation, where a round-nose or pointy bullet would place you at risk.

I'm not one to believe in "assumptions of experts" so a couple of years ago I loaded up a 45 Colt with a bullet into which I had epoxied a firing pin. I couldn't make any primers detonate even with many repeated firings and so concluded this was some more hog-wash. But then I heard from muskeg, a fellow levergunner and forum member who had been seriously injured from just such a magazine detonation. And he was using a 44 mag with broad, flat-nosed bullets. Shows to go you -- sometimes the nasty stuff just hits the fan blades.

I am no expert on the Browning 44 mag, but I have a friend who has one which shoots like a house afire with 200 grain bullets, but throws 240 grain slugs into more of a "pattern" than a "group". I did a little on-line research for him and found that this happens with a few of those Brownings because some of them were apparently produced with a very slow twist barrel that doesn't handle the longer 44 caliber bullets. I believe, however, that these rifles are few in number and relatively rare to encounter. My friend handles the problem by sticking with 200 grain bullets.

[Pete44ru]

i know this is an old thread, but it's subject is very close to mine.

my dad passed away some time back and i have come into owning his Browning B-92. After reading the user's manual, i am still puzzled as to which exact ammunition (not sure exactly what to look for other than .44 Mag) to use with the gun. i noticed in the manual that it wants owners to select .44 Mag. ammo with: USE ONLY SOFT POINT BULLETS WITH A BROAD, FLAT NOSE. This is where i am getting lost (as you probably can tell, i am a newbie when it comes to guns). So someone who owns this model of rifle, please let me know the brand and exact type of ammunition to use with my recently acquired rifle. A brand/type that you have used with this make/model gun, please.

Thanks,
Newbie

Welcome, newbie !

Since I never reloaded for the .44, when I had .44 Mag's, including Browning B92's, I used the least expensive 240gr JSP's I could find - usually MagTech's. (YMMV)

FWIW, Both of the B92's I had shot pretty much the same with just about whatever I put through them.

The only ammo I never tried was plain lead boolits.


.

[Malamute]

....I did a little on-line research for him and found ....some of them were apparently produced with a very slow twist barrel that doesn't handle the longer 44 caliber bullets. I believe, however, that these rifles are few in number and relatively rare to encounter....

I didnt know there was any difference in twist rates for Browning 92's. Virtually all older 44 rifles had slower twist rates than seems prefered today, and I beleive the Browning has the standard rate for the day. What did you find in your research? I may be mistaken(or more propely termed ignorant ). The only difference I've heard of is that some had largish groove diameters.

[Old Savage]

Mine will shoot clover leafs with Winchester factory white box 240s at about 1840. Have to look at home. As an aside am now at a scintillating X-ray seminar now. Drove by the "Lone Ranger rock" in Simi Valley to get here. Have go up there sometime but it is by a condo complex now. Time marches on.

[earlmck]

What did you find in your research?

My "research" was not extensive: all I found was a few complaints from other folks about their Browning not stabilizing a normal 240 grain bullet and some notes on the slow twist one of those folks had found with his rifle. My friend's rifle has something like a 1:32" twist as I recall, though I didn't get a good measure on twist rate since it is real hard to measure when the barrel isn't long enough to get one complete turn of the cleaning rod for measuring twist... And I did see where some folks noted an oversized bore, but at the time I didn't think that would result in 240 grainers shooting so poorly while the shorter 200's shot fine, so I didn't slug the bore (yeah, I should have done it anyway). Yes, I am now thinking it might be that a thin-jacketed 200 grain bullet "slugged up" in an oversized barrel and shot fine while a thicker jacketed 240 grainer failed to "slug up" in said bore and so didn't do well.

Seems like even that slow 32" twist should stabilize a 240 grain slug: I might ask friend Butch if he wants me to "play" a little more with that rifle .

[Malamute]

I think 1-38 was standard for a long time. Looking in the charts in loading manuals, the Ruger 44 carbines and No 3's as well as Marlins, Winchester 94s, and Remington 788s all used that twist rate. The 1-38 was also used in the earlier 444 Marlins for a long time, as most available bullets were the same as the 44 mag. I dont know why they decided on that rate, since most 44 handguns used a faster rate, but it seemed pretty standard for a long time.

[NewbieSC]

Thanks Earlmck and Peter44, guess i know that it doesn't much matter the type of .44 Mag. ammo to get, except for the charge (200g v 240g). Now to find them in stock in local stores.

Thanks!