Here's an update to my 445 adventures...

I've been shooting the 445 SSK barrel with some success in terms of accuracy and have, since starting this conversation, acquired a couple of 44 mag barrels to compare - an SSK 18", though I wasn't convinced that I'd like the shorter length and an EABCO 24", which I like the look and feel of but really is too long for the cartridge.

As I worked with the 44 mag barrels and continued to shoot the 445 (especially working with the slower powders), a few facts emerged: 1) 44 mag in an 18" barrel with a linear compensator screwed on the end of it is more appealing than I thought it would be, in terms of looks and handling. 2) 44 mag in a longer barrel is nice to shoot but velocity isn't better and actually seems to suffer a little with some loads. 3) 445 in a 20" barrel isn't particularly fun to shoot and isn't as efficient as I'd like in burning slow powder consistently. 4) I definitely don't need all 3 barrels. My plan was to figure out the best 44 barrel and hang on the 445 SSK. The 44 Mag SSK was starting to show signs of being the right choice for the 44 Mag chambering but I still really liked the look and feel of the longer EABCO barrel. I started thinking about the 2 or 3 successful 44 Mag to 445 conversions that I'd done on Contender pistol barrels and a different plan emerged.

I wondered if it might be cool to keep the 44 Mag SSK, sell off the 445 SSK and convert the EABCO to 445 Supermag. I talked to Troy at Bullberry to see what it might cost to have him do the work. He doesn't do rechambers anymore but it turned out that he had a spare reamer that he never used and was willing to let me borrow it to do the work. Long story short (maybe too late for that), I recently completed the task of reaming out the EABCO barrel for 445 and have been able to do a little testing on it. Early indications point to a successful outcome.

The new chamber on the EABCO is perfect. The throat is a little longer than the SSK 445 chamber but it seems to be useful in seating bullets out a little for increased case capacity for slow powder and a possible slight decrease in peak pressures. I haven't done a lot of accuracy testing yet but I've seen MOA potential in some 50 yard 2-shot groups. The longer barrel is very appealing to me on a couple of levels and I definitely like the feel of it, especially when it comes to handling the fairly sharp recoil of the 240 grain XTPs at 2000+ fps velocities.

As a follow-up to the original question of this thread, I tried a few 44 mag loads in the new 445 chamber - it seems to have a more tapered leade type throat that's a little more long-jump friendly for the shorter cases. The results were pretty under-whelming...nowhere near the accuracy that I can get out of the dedicated 44 Mag chamber. No need to bother with it, though it is sort of handy to carry one barrel for some plinking sessions and have some light loads to play with and save the shoulder a little punishment. :)

I'm happy with the way things have turned out and as soon as I do a little more accuracy testing to confirm that everything is as good as it seems to be I'll be selling off my SSK 445 barrel. It's shown itself to be quite accurate and is just at the point of being well broken-in so somebody's going to get a nice, proven barrel out of it. :)