.44 Magnum for law enforcement

.44 Magnum use in law enforcement

  • 1

    Votes: 8 8.4%

  • 2

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 5

    Votes: 7 7.4%

  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 7

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • 8

    Votes: 12 12.6%

  • 9

    Votes: 7 7.4%

  • 10

    Votes: 59 62.1%
  • Total voters
    95
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ATN082268

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On a scale of 1 to 10, from 1 being underpowered to 10 being overpowered, how does the .44 Magnum do regarding power in general law enforcement use, assuming 240-300 grain hollow point loads and a 6 inch barrel?
 
Over powered and far too much recoil.
For you younger guys this has all been seen with the 41 mag. When the 41wasintroduced it had a full load, 1500 fps and a lesser load 1100 for Police .Most Police departments apparently never heard of the Police load .The full load was far too much recoil and power excessive especially in urban areas.
The real answer is to get Cops better training which Chiefs don't seem to understand !!!
To directly answer the question a 44cal, 240 gr at 1000 fps will do a fine job !!:)
 
I carried a 4" nickel Model 29 for years as a deputy sheriff. The old 210 grain Silvertip was about perfect for a magnum load and penetrated to the same depth, in water-filled containers, as the 45 ACP 230 grain Federal Hydrashok from a 5" 1911.
 
Aside from Harry Callahan jumping into this and a few of the old timers, I think you will be hard pressed to find to many law enforcement agencies that has used anything more than a .357 in a revolver and a 10mm in an auto as an issued firearm. If you have ever carried and shot a .44mag an explanation of why it is not used in a LE role is not needed. If you haven't, go shoot one, again an explanation will not be needed.
 
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A gun belt gets heavy. It is loaded with a pair or two of handcuffs, a radio, ammo retloads, taser, pepper spray, gloves and maybe more. The 44 mag is heavy, harsh in recoil, over pentrates, and slower into action due to weight. There are much lighter options out there with a lot higher and faster loads. A .44 Special reduces a few of the cons but a .45 ACP equals the Special more or less and has higher cap. and faster reloads. In my law enforcement career, we went from heavy revolvers, to heavy semi-autos to the lighter Glock like options and also to smaller and lighter radios. IMHO, LIGHTER RULES! If I were patrolling in a very rural area where big bears are common, then the Mag's weight could be overlooked.
 
I have zero experience in law enforcement but I do own a pair of 44 mag chambered wheelguns... I can easily see why these would not be a good choice for LE work... All of the above stated reasons. Heavy, slow to action, limited capacity, very difficult to put several rapid succession shots on target (unless you are JM;)). The 44mag cartridge was designed/intended for sporting and big game hunting from the get-go.

I can also see why over penetration to the point that pass-throughs could endanger innocent bystanders in a crowded area is a legitimate concern too.

Yeah you can slow them down by running 44spl but now your 40 S&W is on par ballistically speaking, so at that point the 40 S&W becomes the clear winner due to the platforms it comes in.
 
Ok - I voted #1 - underpowered.

Let me explain why.

Federal Hydra-Shok makes a wonderful .44 Rem Mag offering.

It's a 240 grain JHP @ 1100 fps.

From my decades of shooting the "big" .44, this is the ideal weight and velocity to nail down anything at 50 yards or under.

It's also a very controllable round - much easier on the shooter's body and hearing than a 125 grain .357 magnum.

It's 100% my "Go to round" of choice for the .44 mag for everything.
I duplicate the round with handloads using 17.5 grains of 2400 under a Hornady 240 grain LHP

That's me though----my main job in a gunfight is to get away to someplace safe ASAP.
With a M29 S&W. loaded with 6 rounds and another 6 rounds in a speed loader, I'm packing a total of 12 rounds & 8,904 pound feet of energy.

Next up - a Glock M17 with +p+ 124 grain JHP @ 1400 fps, with one up the spout and one extra magazine.

That's 35 total rounds @ 16,275 foot pounds of energy - - nearly three times the "firepower" and twice the energy.
 
.44 special is a FAR better LEO cartridge... in 1920! Really, using a revolver for Law Enforcement use today is just asking for the officer to be killed. No police officers use revolvers anymore, and haven't around here for nearly 20 years.
 
No police officers use revolvers anymore...
Click to expand...

Not true. Saw one carrying what looked like a 4" S&W Model 66 just a couple of weeks ago. I've seen others. Senior officers here in Houston (HPD) were "grandfathered" in when they started forbidding revolvers for the new recruits.
 
Too big, too heavy, too slow, and not enough capacity. I want my pistol to jump into my hand and deliver as many fast and accurate shots as needed. For this 9mm, 40, or 45 will do nicely.
 
We already have serious debates on whether police should continue to carry firearms at all, and some folks think City Councils will eagerly shell out millions of bucks to give the police weapons that WE (the "gun nuts") call super powered! Get real, folks.

Jim
 
Just shot my Mountain Revolver (S&W) 4 inch .44 today with 240gr handloads and a 'sedate' 1000 fps.

Whoa.. So you want full house .44 Mags for cops?

No sonny, no.

Now I can see a 3 inch round butt .44 mag (at least it can take that pressure level) made out of titanium and stainless steel, weighing 30 oz, using 240 gr. SWCHP at 900 fps with flash suppressant powers. That would make a real good man stopper.

But full house .44s? No. No way.

Deaf
 
this has all been seen with the 41 mag. When the 41wasintroduced it had a full load, 1500 fps and a lesser load 1100 for Police .Most Police departments apparently never heard of the Police load .The full load was far too much recoil and power excessive especially in urban areas.
Click to expand...

Back in the early 50s several of the gun writers with police experience advocated that the "perfect" police round would be a ".41 Special", a 210gr-ish bullet doing 950fps-ish. Or a little hotter. And, they were essentially, right.

HOWEVER, what we GOT was the .41 Magnum. And, Remington (the only ammo maker at the time) focused on the magnum load, and did not produce any real quantity of the "police" load, until well after virtually all interested police agencies had finished their testing (with magnum ammo) and found the .41 Mag unsuitable.

Note how popular the .40 S&W has been for police work, decades later, delivering essentially the same level of performance the old gun writers advocated.

The .44 Mag is simply TOO MUCH GUN for general police work, particularly since a police gun has to be usable by ALL the different people who do police work, from small hands to large.
 
San Antonio issued the 41 mag for a bit and ditched it.

With no offense, it's a silly proposition. You have a gun which is heavy to carry, high recoil, the downsides of shooting a DA revolver, too big for smaller folks, slower to reload and limited capacity in today's world.

Could you win a fight with it? Sure - could an officer with a Walker Colt win some hypothetical fight, sure.

But the options are much better for a duty weapon.
 
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