skeeter skelton and the 44 special

I met Skeeter in the late 1970s when I was stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson. I’d bought a used S&W M-28 and had Cylinder & Slide install a new .44 Spl 6 ½” target barrel on it and rechamber it to .44 Spl.
I wrote Skeeter and sent a pic of the gun. He was doing another of his articles for Shooting Times on the cartridge and wanted to see my revolver. I drove to his place in New Mexico and stayed overnight, talking guns with him. Several months later, my Smith and one of his Ruger single-actions were on the cover of Shooting Times.
Sadly, my gun was stolen in the late ‘80s and never recovered.
 
I don't have the biggest hands in the word... but I have absolutely no problems firing my N frames in double action.

I simply picked grips that were a WHOLE lot better than the S&W factory grips... which I really think were designed by a couple of factory techs on a drunken bender.
 
Japle said:
I met Skeeter in the late 1970s when I was stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson. I’d bought a used S&W M-28 and had Cylinder & Slide install a new .44 Spl 6 ½” target barrel on it and rechamber it to .44 Spl.
I wrote Skeeter and sent a pic of the gun. He was doing another of his articles for Shooting Times on the cartridge and wanted to see my revolver. I drove to his place in New Mexico and stayed overnight, talking guns with him. Several months later, my Smith and one of his Ruger single-actions were on the cover of Shooting Times.
Sadly, my gun was stolen in the late ‘80s and never recovered.
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What a great story, and what a shame it was stolen.
 
I had the theory that Smith&Wesson owned part of Pachmayr.
During the 70s and 80s the first thing you did, when you got your new Smith, was get rid of the Target grips, and install a set of Pachmayr.
 
One of the reasons the big bore DA revolver has diminished in popularity is the fact that the N-Frame revolver has a grip that is too large for many men to shoot double action fire readily. The grip of the K-Frame and L-Frame Smiths has proven to be more user friendly for serious double action shooting.
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Pretty much my experience as well...I have glove size "L" hands and find that with S&W Target grips, the reach to the trigger is just too much...especially so with the wide 'Target' trigger. In that regard, I've come to appreciate the 'Combat', smooth trigger on my M66 and M16 Smiths for either DA or SA work.

That said, I have a newer M69 and 629 which came fitted with the single piece, finger grooved, rubber grips that are a vast improvement for both modes of fire, in my hands. Too, I find them better for really heavy loads and seldom get middle finger, trigger guard rap with them.

Rod
 
Years ago lucked into a no-dash 624 with 6 1/2" barrel. Of late I have been shooting 7gr. of Unique with Lyman 429421. This load is comfortable and extremely accurate in the 624. My late 50's vintage Model 29 Smith makes a great 44 Special with this load. I have not done without a 44 Special for many years. Next batch of 44 Spl's will have the Unique load bumped up a half grain. I'm also make a run of hollow point bullets from a custom modified 429244 mold. That is a serious bullet.
 
The Skeeter loads in 44 Special: Give them a try. Powerful and accurate. Well, 44Magnum maybe will maybe won't. It will be no mystery at the time. Did very well in my ancient Model 29. Way less so in the SBH.
 
If you are going for the "Skeeter" load (240 or 250 cast over 7.5 gr Unique), be sure to work it up in your pistol. My 5 1/2" Blackhawk sends a 0.430 Hunter's Supply out at 936/9.3 Std fueled by 6.7 gr. Unique. Nice load, but I don't feed it to my Bulldog.
 
I bought my Bulldog early in 1976. I was in the Army and handloading in the barracks with minimal equipment. I had loaded 50 rounds of 180 grain JHP over 7.5 grains Unique. Halfway through the box the cylinder split down the side. The PX sent it back to Charter and it came back with a new cylinder, plus a new rubber grip, along with the original wood grips. I keep the loads pretty mild for that gun, carry factory Silvertips for defense.
 
Yep, the Bulldog should have a 'mild' load . Mine is 6.0g of Unique under 240g SWC. Skeeter load for my Ruger and Uberti revolvers.
 
buck460XVR said:
Me either. Kinda a good reason they were developed. Iffin the "specials" were that "special", odds are, there'd never been a magnum. That said, there is a "special" place for "specials". They work and work well within their parameters, even if those parameters are toned down from their magnum siblings. We as gun enthusiasts have attachments to particular calibers and platforms based on may things. It don't matter what they are and they don't have to appeal to anyone else but us. Whatever trips your trigger.
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Well they were named "Special/s" because they could "safely" be shot with black powder and/or smokeless powder.
 
The "Specials" were sort of the magnums of their day. The 38 Special was devised to overcome the perceived shortcomings of the 38 Long Colt. And allowed the older rounds to be used as practice rounds. The 44 Special was intended to be more efficient with smokeless powder.
 
I shoot .44 special a LOT for CAS. I just picked up my 6th and 7th Lipsey's/Ruger stainless 4 5/8" Vaqueros, plus three Italian models, and a couple 1866's. :)
 
SIGSHR said:
The "Specials" were sort of the magnums of their day. The 38 Special was devised to overcome the perceived shortcomings of the 38 Long Colt. And allowed the older rounds to be used as practice rounds. The 44 Special was intended to be more efficient with smokeless powder.
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Yeah the 44 Spl was intended to be more efficient with smokeless power, but it could still be loaded with black powder.
 
"More efficient." How so?
Late production (1939) .44 Russian smokeless had The Same ballistics as .44 Special, a 246 gr roundnose at 760 fps.
Things might have been different in 1907.
 
Jim Watson said:
"More efficient." How so?
Late production (1939) .44 Russian smokeless had The Same ballistics as .44 Special, a 246 gr roundnose at 760 fps.
Things might have been different in 1907.
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Well the efficiency has to with the "quickness" difference between smokeless powder and black powder.
 
The story always was that with the transition to smokeless powder, the early bulky, low-energy density smokeless powders wouldn't work all that well with many of the smaller black powder-era cartridges.

To remedy this, S&W designed the .44 Special to be a cartridge that would duplicate the .44 Russian's ballistics with smokeless powder, but to do so, they had to lengthen the case to get enough powder in it to match the ballistics.

A few years ago I read an interesting article (can't remember where, unfortunately) that pretty well demolished that claim.
 
rclark said:
Yep, the Bulldog should have a 'mild' load . Mine is 6.0g of Unique under 240g SWC. Skeeter load for my Ruger and Uberti revolvers.
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I went with 5.3 of unique under a 240gr SWC then moved up to 5.7. that's as much as I really could shoot quickly and accurately one handed in my bulldog. I tried some hot boutique loads and found myself "milking" my grip after each shot-that's not acceptable at all to me.
 
I tell people that Keith or Seyfried are my favorites, but I notice that whenever I am in the mood for "comfort reading", I most often turn to one of Skeeter's books.

At any rate, I guess I will take the .44 Special over anything else. I do not think it is as versatile as the .45 Colt, and I suppose an honest rating has to put the .45 ahead of the .44, but until they pass a law saying handgun cartridge picks have to be perfectly rational, I will stick with the .44 Special.

I have three guns chambered for it at the moment. One is an S&W "classic", 4" nickel with fixed sights. It is gorgeous, but I cannot get it to shoot very well. I usually stick to the Skeeter load in the Special, but this particular gun leads badly regardless of bullet alloy, speed, or diameter. Several different gas check designs cut down the leading, but still are not accurate, and it is about the same story with jacketed and plated bullets. So I mostly keep the gun around for looking at.

I also have a 5" blued 1950 Military. It also is not very accurate, in fact it is one of the least accurate handguns I have. I would happily trade it off or sell it except that it was given to me by a close friend. So it also is pretty much a display piece.

My "using" gun is a Ruger flattop Bisley from Lipsey's. After an action tune and firelapping it is screamingly accurate with anything I put through it. I switch between two loads: the Skeeter load, with Keith bullets (any mold will do but my brass NOE mold is a favorite), and an "original" load of 6 grains Unique with a 246 grain RNL. The latter is essentially useless but is a quiet, no-recoil plinking load that is just fine for woods loafing and pinecone hunting.
 
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