44 Magnum Name Confusion

B

Bucksnort1

New member
On the Handloads.com site, they show 44 magnum and 44 Remington magnum.

There are only three bullet weights listed for the 44 Remington Magnum and 20 bullet weights for the 44 magnum.

What is the difference between the 44 mag and 44 Rem mag?
 
I believe Remington developed the ammo for the first guns and they got to call the cartridge the "Remington 44 mag". As stated above, they are exactly the same cartridge.
 
Only Remington would use the full name, same as "Smith & Wesson" or "S&W" is omitted when stamping barrels on other brands of guns, e.g. "44 S&W Special Ctg." on my S&W 696 becomes "44 Special" on my Taurus 441. It seems to be a matter of taking credit rather than giving it.
 
Now the 45ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) is referred to as the 45 Auto. Thus no credit is given to Colt for its development.
 
No, but John Browning still gets credit for it, regardless of who he was working for at the time. The .45 ACP was developed for the m.1905 Colt Automatic Pistol. The military didn't care for some details of the design, and the 1911 resulted from design changes meant to satisfy them. After adopting the 1911 Service Pistol, the military designated the ammunition .45 Automatic Pistol Ball, or .45 Auto for short. That's, where the name change came from, AFAIK. They currently designate it: Cartridge, Caliber .45, Ball. Nobody has tried to fit that on a headstamp yet that I know of.
 
When I get confused about that sort of thing I dig out my reloading books and look at bullet diameter (and loads) that sorts it out .

Oddly a 44 is not 44 caliber, a 41 is amongst the other oddities of 38s, 357 etc.
 
When I get confused about that sort of thing I dig out my reloading books and look at bullet diameter (and loads) that sorts it out .
Click to expand...

I think the number defines the bore more than the bullet, which is typically .001 or more larger.
 
FWIW, those Colt-Browning rounds were originally called "Colt Automatic Pistol" or "CAP" and sometimes we see an old box or headstamp with those letters. I have a WRA round marked ".380 CAPH" for Colt Automatic Pistol Hammerless.

Jim
 
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