Ruger GP100 in 44 spl.

Ruger doesn't have the .44 Special double/single action
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Oh, yes they do have .44Spec Single Actions :) . Have three of 'em. One is a Sheriff New Vaquero (which I've considered for CC). And two are .44Spec Flattops (medium frame which is perfect for the .44Spec) which are a Ruger cataloged item. One is a Bisley and the other regular plow handle. Yep they sure do... And very fine revolvers too :) .

They just don't have a DA revolver in .44 Special which the GP-100 may be a candidate. I would like a revolver the form factor of the Bulldog though to be 'really' tempting.

Not trying to side track the thread but here is one of them:

RugerBH44SpecNo5BasePinInstalled_zpsf37edf24.jpg


Ruger Website : Ruger Website .44Spec

And here is article by Ross Seyfried on the Bisley : .44 Spec Bisley

And more here at Gun Blast .44 Special Flattop
 
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<<<Elmer Keith figured out 80yrs ago that the .44Spl with his loads was a much better killer than any .357Mag load. It ain't all about paper ballistics.>>>

80 years ago, huh? That was before Glocks came out, wasn't it? Uh yep... that was a looong time ago.
 
engineering

I'm inclined to think its a design issue. Can't put enough metal around the chambers in the "k" or smaller frame to ensure strength and long life. That and the fact that Ruger is obsessed now more than ever with profit and seemingly will not produce a firearm unless it meets a price point that they can yield a heavy profit on.

But....design wise, if somebody would produce an upgraded .44 spl down the lines of the Charter Bulldog, I believe they would sell. Consider that .44 spl Blackhawks have seen production runs recently....so the cartridge has a following and is not dead yet. Smith's .44/5 shot was to dang heavy, built on the L-frame. Andthe N-frames were bigger still. And the Charters I've had would not hold up to a lot of shooting. Never had a Taurus, but suspect same.

I think the market is there, but the engineering would require new cylinder dimensions and too much retooling to sell at a sufficient profit.
 
Elmer Keith figured out 80yrs ago that the .44Spl with his loads was a much better killer than any .357Mag load. It ain't all about paper ballistics.
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That may be, but Elmer's loads were 44 Magnums in a short case. SAAMI spec 44 Special is something else.
 
Elmer's loads were 44 Magnums in a short case. SAAMI spec 44 Special is something else.
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Well, not 'quite' .44 Magnum loads. The Keith load only gets to the 'very' bottom edge of .44Mag loads at 1200fps for 240-260g bullet. This is a perfectly safe load in the Ruger SA .44Spec Flattop (in mine anyway).... However, I like the Skeeter load (7.5g Unique/Universal under 240g SWC or Keith bullet) myself for almost 100% of my .44Spec shooting.
 
Ruger doesn't have the .44 Special double/single action
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Oh, yes they do have .44Spec Single Actions . Have three of 'em.
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I believed it common to refer to guns that could be fired EITHER double or single action as "double/single action". I did not and did not intend to refer to single action only revolvers. I am quite aware of what Ruger offers.

Nice gunporn though.
 
I believed it common to refer to guns that could be fired EITHER double or single action as "double/single action
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Nope, revolvers come in three basic flavors.

Single Action

Double Action

and Double Action Only (DAO)
 
So is the GP100 for the .357mag/.38spl, but many people prefer it since it can handle the hottest .44mag /.357 out there. There's a reason why "Ruger only" loads exist. I had some nasty Corbon 45Colt +P Loads I wouldn't dare put in anything other than the Redhawk/Super Redhawk and I believe they had the "Ruger only" right on the box. Overbuilt, but people still love them.
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I'll just quote this particular thing to cover the same rhetoric. I don't see any reason that the 44 Spec couldn't be chambered in the GP100 for exactly the above reason. Rugers are famous for being overbuilt and wicked tough, so much that some companies make specific loads for it. The GP is over built for .357 so there shouldn't be any reason you couldn't "normal build" one that will handle .44 Spec, and that only.

I have a 5.5 inch blue Redhawk in .44 Mag, but I didn't buy it to shoot Specials in. I bought it for Magnums. I prefer revolvers to be cartridge-specific and correspondingly sized. I want a GP in .44 Special because it is well sized for it and I'll leave the magnums to the guns they were built for.
 
Exhuming the post

Just wanted to say, isn't it nice that you all finally got what you wished for, GP100's, 3" and 5", one from Ruger and one from Ruger/Lipsey's. Life is good.
 
I would say that if you now adjust your wish list ruminations to a 44 Magnum version, you will find out how far the limits of the design have been pushed. The .44 Special pressure levels are quite different than maximum 44 Magnum.
Like the Smith 696, time will tell how long Ruger sticks with the model that pushes the platform to its practical limits.
 
Just wanted to say, isn't it nice that you all finally got what you wished for, GP100's, 3" and 5", one from Ruger and one from Ruger/Lipsey's. Life is good.
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I like both of mine!


That may be, but Elmer's loads were 44 Magnums in a short case. SAAMI spec 44 Special is something else.
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You do realize that the 44 magnum is 250fps faster and 10kpsi higher than Keith's Special load?


And what do all those nay-sayers have to say now?
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Silent, as usual.


So is the GP100 for the .357mag/.38spl
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No it isn't. The GP and L frame are perfectly suited to the 357 cartridge.


Elmer Keith wasn't shooting people, he was shooting much larger animals that required much deeper penetration. "Stopping power" generally refers to people. And when it comes to the ability to stop a person, there's not a whole lot of difference between the common handgun calibers.
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Deer are very different from people in many different ways. But that doesn't really matter; we're only talking about people here. And my whole point is that the .44 Spl doesn't have "far more stopping power" against people than the .357 Mag does.

Remember, "stopping power" isn't about velocity, energy, penetration, wounding potential, or any of that; it's simply about results. And studies of handgun shootings show that there's very little difference between the common handgun calibers in terms of actual results.
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Wow, get a clue! I prefer experience to studies.

Elmer Keith was not a handgun hunter. He used handguns on targets of opportunity and most the animals he shot with handguns were deer sized. If a cartridge is more likely to put down a deer quicker it will do the same with humans.
 
jackmoser said:
I prefer experience over flawed studies. Studies tend to have an agenda. I don't.
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So you're saying that you've shot thousands of people with various handgun rounds and you've meticulously documented the results? Impressive.

There is a preponderance of data collected by many different groups over many decades showing that there is not a large difference between the standard defensive handgun calibers when it comes to stopping a human threat. But obviously all that data is wrong, since you claim to have more experience in that subject.
 
This thread is about a firearm and a cartridge, not self defense.

I have experience with a lot of handgun bullets meeting flesh. I draw my own conclusions based on experience and the credible experience of others. You have studies based on third and fourth hand information that draw conclusions for you and were formulated with an agenda. You're obviously heavily invested in one or the other or you wouldn't be arguing. Sorry but experience trumps theory every time and Elmer Keith did figure out much of this decades ago. It's been proven time and again. It's why we, those of us who routinely arrange meetings between handgun bullets and living tissue, don't do much hunting with 357s.

I suggest you get out and do much the same, rather than relying on others to do all your thinking for you. :cool:
 
jackmoser65 said:
This thread is about a firearm and a cartridge, not self defense.
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Agreed. But my comment that you quoted (a comment I made over three years ago) was a direct response to others' comments regarding the self-defense use of the .44 Special.

jackmoser65 said:
Sorry but experience trumps theory every time
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Subjective experience of one person is vastly inferior to objectively collected data from many people's experiences.

These aren't theories I'm discussing, this is data collected from many, many real-world shootings. (Also, you should look up the scientific definition of "theory", it probably doesn't mean what you think it means.)

jackmoser65 said:
and Elmer Keith did figure out much of this decades ago
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And Elmer Keith was shooting large and relatively tough animals, not smaller and relatively weak humans.

jackmoser65 said:
I suggest you get out and do much the same, rather than relying on others to do all your thinking for you.
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Once I find myself involved in thousands of gunfights, I'll rely more on my own experience. Until then, I'll rely on data collected from other people's experiences.
 
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