.44 Magnum vs ?

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dgludwig

New member
I'm curious as to if there is (or ever was) a .44/.45 caliber factory cartridge that is/was the ballistic equivalent (in terms of velocity, energy, bullet weight, etc.) of the .44 Magnum when fired from a rifle/carbine with a barrel length of 18" or so. Any candidates you might suggest?
 
If you mean a cartridge designed to be fired from a pistol, that's a tough question. Taking it literally, however, the obvious is the 45-70 and the several less common cartridges like 45-90. Straight walled factory cartridges.
 
What about the 445 super magnum?

BULLET LOAD MV 10" MV 8" MV 6"
BRP 295 KEITH* 29.0 GR. H110 1447 1443 1376
30.0 GR. H110 1512 1502 1477
31.0 GR. H110 1608 1572 1498
32.0 GR. H110 1635 1607 1527
32.0 GR. WW680 1397 1344 1336
33.0 GR. WW680 1435 1406 1405
34.0 GR. WW680 1554 1496 1442
35.0 GR. WW680 1568 1541 1514
36.0 GR. WW680 1612 1550 1538

I do believe the days of this offered in a factory offering we're pretty limited. I think both Dan Wesson and Thompson contender offered guns. I sure most reloaded, though not all.
 
Some reloading books list loads for vintage .45/70 and then list loads for modern rifles that are rather hot .
 
A few niche companies provide high performance stuff

Buffalo Bore comes to mind. You have to be VERY careful about what gun you choose to shoot them from though.
 
If you mean a cartridge designed to be fired from a pistol, that's a tough question.
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Either a rifle or a handgun. And the focus of my question has to do with equivalency; that is, ballistically about the same. I would think that the .45-70 and .444 Marlin cartridges are significantly more powerful and that most factory-loaded .45 Colt offerings are significantly less powerful. But the .445 Super Magnum and the .460 Rowland are interesting comparatives. I'm not acquainted with either cartridge and I wonder how close they come to the .44 Magnum when used in a rifle-length barrel. Are the bullet weights of either of these two in the same category as the .44 Magnum?
I have found all responses to my question interesting and worth thinking about but my theory is that the .44 Magnum chambered in a rifle is a fairly unique proposition in terms of its ballistic performance. The .41 Magnum might come the closest but I don't know if it was ever chambered in a rifle/carbine.
 
Don't forget the ballistic twin, 44 auto mag. Same velocity different case. It was chambered in autoloading handguns, not sure if anyone chambered a rifle in it. It would however be ideal for a semi auto, mag fed rifle, or bolt action.

Where you thinking lever, bolt, pump?
 
Good point, big al hunter that I never considered. Actually, I've been giving some thought to the Ruger Model 77/44 bolt-action rifle as being an ideal "truck gun" and foul weather rifle. I like the idea of a quickly loaded/unloaded rotary magazine when compared to a relatively slow loading/unloading lever-action rifle's tubular magazine.
 
I've never studied the ballistics, but what about the .45 Win Mag? It was considerably spicier than the .45 ACP, as I recall.

The next in line that I remember was the .454 Casull... quite a bit more powerful than a .44 Mag...

Since then? Lots of them. Most of them are based on a .454 size bullet. Or, go big, with the .500 S&W.

edit: The good old .30 M1 carbine was rechambered in the .45 Win Mag for a while. I think it was fairly successful. I imagine it kicked a bit.
 
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I just did a quick google of the win mag, and wikipedia stated that it could "easily" exceed the ballistics of the .44 Mag. It was chambered in a few different handguns, Grizzly, Wildey, TC Contender... but I don't know of any "factory" carbines. Just the conversion of the M1 Carbine.

edit:.... I'll bet you could get an upper for an AR type rifle chambered for the .45 Win Mag.... now THAT might raise some eyebrows at the range. I know there have been some similar large bore uppers made for it...
 
The .41 Magnum might come the closest but I don't know if it was ever chambered in a rifle/carbine.
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Marlin has made at least a few .41 Magnum lever action rifles. A LGS had one in stock for a while a few years back. I also seem to remember an outfit converting M1 Carbines to .45 Win Mag several years ago. If you want to go way back, the .45 Mars Long could hit low-end .44 Magnum ballistics (220gr bullet at 1200fps) but I don't know that it was ever chambered in a rifle/carbine.
 
I also seem to remember an outfit converting M1 Carbines to .45 Win Mag several years ago.
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Now that's an interesting concept. But, boy does that sound complicated and hard to do. Reconfiguring the chamber, new barrel (I doubt there's enough meat left in the .30 cal. already slim carbine barrel to open the bore to .45 cal.), designing and constructing a different magazine, opening and reconforming the stock magazine well and getting the semi-auto action to perform with an entirely different recoil impulse seems at the very least uber-expensive if not entirely impractical (especially when you consider the fact that "several years ago", Ruger was producing a couple of different versions of a semi-auto carbine chambered in .44 Magnum, along with the Ruger Carbine chambered in 9mm Para and .40 S&W).
You've made me curious about this "outfit' and how it fared.
 
454 casull will do out a rifle what the run of the mill 44mag and 45 will do from a carbine. Werd question. The typical 44mag 240 gr can run from 1200fps to 1550fps in a 7 1/2 to 8" revolver. If you want a stout handgun buy a 460 and shoot ether 45colt or 454 in it. But T/C version if you want a carbine or long barreled handgun.
 
Look at 450 bushmaster and 458 socom if youre wanting 44 Mag type power in a semi auto platform.
Also if you're just looking for 44 Mag ish ballistics the old 38-55 is pretty close with 250gr bullets.
 
Wait, do you mean, (a) if the unknown one in question is fired from a rifle, as compared to a .44 rem mag fired from a handgun, or do you mean, (b) if the unknown one in question is fired from a rifle, as compared to a .44 rem mag as fired from a rifle?
 
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