The 44 Special Resurgence !!

F

FreedomFighter1969

Moderator

Back about 20 yrs ago the 44 special cartridge was almost dead.
Only Remington and Winchester offered this round in the 246gr round/flat nose
bullet. These day's however, the grand 44 special as well as it's 45 cousin the 45 long colt have made a comeback ! You probably heard people on both sides of the fence give their opinion of this round. Who says it's underpowered, who says it's accurate. Well statistics prove that this round, even in the most standard 755 fps, generates 300 foot pounds of energy.
Combine that with the heavy 246 grain bullet and you have a reliable man stopper. To our avail though, there are a good bit of defensive loads for this round. At the top would be the Corbon 180 grn JHP, at 1350 fps and over 400 foot pounds of energy, this is right up there with medium load 357's and good 45 acp cartridges. Hornady offers the 44 special in their Custom line a 180 grain JHP at 1000 fps that hits with exactly 400 pounds of energy. Not bad I say, I would not be reluctant to carry my 44 loaded with any of these fine rounds! Even the Winchester Silver tip at 900 fps hits with 360 foot pounds of energy! This is 9mm +P territory only with a 200 grain bullet !
Now what would you rather carry ? I wonder if some folks after reading this will go out and trade their 9mm's in for 44Mag or Special's ? Just Kidding !
I do know that all you big bore fans have you brains churning right about now thinking of what 44 your going to try to get or pick out. Oh, did I mention that the 44 special is easy to shoot and accurate ? All of the loadings I mentioned can be put into groups less than three inches, with the Silvertips leading the pack. You can shoot this round with one hand even in a snubby!
Im so confident in this round I keep my Super Blackhawk loaded with the Hornady or the Silvertips in my home. All I could say is all you folks with a 44 magnum, try the 44 special in your gun . I promise you won't be dissapointed, I wasn't and neither was Elmer Keith !
 
As a .45 Colt devotee, I owe the Cowboy Action Shooters, Linebaugh, Seyfried et al for the resurgance of the .45 Colt. Ruger and some others comming out with new
.44 Special single actions should help you as well. Charter Arms my have been the biggest reason the caliber did not die off. For me, the .45 Colt makes the .44 Special a non-issue but I like the idea of big slow bullets and you can't go wrong with the .44 Special. So I say good for you.
 
I have a S&W 44 mag I shoot 44 spl most of the time . I still carry now and then my Charter arms 44 spl with the blazer Gold dots or the silver tips .
Nothing wrong with the 44.
 
I buy 44 spcl whenever I see it in my toy store, I have 4 boxes on hand and unfortunately this reduces my shooting time with it and I love that round. I hope you are right because I would love to see that caliber get to be a common sight on the shelf again. If it does my shelf will get full and I can shoot a lot more.
 
45 LC......

Yes JM I do agree that the 45LC is better than the 44 special especially if you hand load ! I have a friend who does it and pushes a 275 grain cast lead semi-wadcutter at 1100 fps ! Awesome I say ! Like a 454 casull light.
Even the standard 250 grain load bests the 44 special on account that the 45 is a true 45 and the 44 is actually a 43 in the special round. A 45LC is the next gun I want to buy, the Ruger RedHawk a matter of fact ! I love Ruger revolvers, they can handle heavy loads and lots of them ! If it wasn't so damn expensive, I'd have Hamilton Bowen make me a RedHawk in 50 special. That gun is capable of throwing a 425-450 grain bullet up to 1200 fps, if you want to take it that far. He really does nice work !
 
my 44 specials a 3" Smith 696 and a 4 5/8" Ruger Lipsey Blackhawk both definitly make my list of one gun for everything. a good ol cast 240 SWC at 950 to 1000 fps will handle about any problem that rears it's ugly head.
 
S&W 696 and a CA Bulldog Pug here...both fine shooters indeed!

Home duty for one, pocket duty the other.
 
I'd love to see a Ruger GP100 in 5 shot .44 Special. I'm surprised S&W does not currently make a medium size .44 Spc.
 
I like your thinking

As soon as my CCW license arrives, this is what I'll be making the Wally World tour with. The S&W M396 Night Guard.

I have a safe full of .45's, .357's, 9mm's, 40 S&W's, 10mm's and bought this new to carry.

Picture325Large.jpg
 
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The wife has two stainless Taurus 431's.......one for the nightstand and one for carry. The only issue with either was the cylinder latch working loose on one of them; a drop of Loctite solved the problem.
 
Yeah...
I have owned and sold an S&W 696, a 396 and a Taurus 431.
I just don't get the 5-shot .44 SPL. Thought I did at one point (when Gold Dots were $12.96/50, but that was a while ago). :rolleyes:

If I'm going to carry a 40-plus ounce revolver, it will be either .45 LC or .41 Mag.

And for the record, more often than not, if I am going to carry a 40+ ounce anything, it will probably be a 1911 of some sort.

YMMV, and all the best. :)
 
The 44Spl makes sense in DA wheelguns because of the fatter rim - better extraction reliability than a 45LC. Now that the 45LC has gone to solid-head cases this isn't as big a deal, but it IS still an issue where peak reliability is needed (CCW piece).

It makes sense in Colt SAA-sized hardware because of the thicker cylinder walls - one of the reasons Elmer Keith was so fond of it.

Like all the big-bores, it can do solid hitting even when loaded subsonic. The 357 beats it by at least some in both raw energy and stopping power, but not without going seriously supersonic with a resulting downside in noise, recoil, etc.

I suspect the best loads in 44Spl involve Speer's 200gr "flying ashtray" Gold Dot, doing about 1,000fps or a bit more. In a 4" or more barrel you can get there on the cheap with Blasers...they're loaded a bit too mild for my tastes in any shorter barrel.

With that said, if I ever convert my beloved NewVaq357 to big-bore, it'll be 45ACP of all things...with the stock cylinder hogged out and shaved back and shorter and an overthreaded barrel set back to match. This would allow fast loading out of standard 1911 mags or the like :) and would give almost as much performance as the 44Spl, while making the gun a lot lighter with 1/3rd or so of the cylinder gone. It would also let me get 4" worth of barrel in a gun the size of a 3.5" barrel overall length.

If I get the scratch together I'm going to set something like this up.
 
I like Federal's 200gr LSWCHP, but cannot find it anywhere..

Corbon DPX is like $50 for a box of 20..:rolleyes:

I remember when not too long ago a 20rd box of W-W Silvertips cost under $10..

Speer 200gr Gold Dot is another excellent option, as well as its Blazer counterpart available in 50rd boxes for the same price as 20rd brass-cased premium Gold Dots

Hornady .44 Special 180gr XTP tends to shoot a bit low and feels a bit underpowered



Dear Hornady,

Manufacture some 200-240gr FTX and XTP "self-defense" .44 Special ammo, please.

Thank you, Rampant Colt
 
Sorry Rampant but the letter should read IMHO

Dear Hornady,

Will you please load your nice soft swaged 240 gr lead SWC-HP in 44 special 7gr of unique works pretty well.

Thanks for your concideration Mavracer
 
I have a Smith 24-3 in .44 Special that I picked up a couple of years ago, and just recently got a 25-5 in .45 Long Colt.

Love them both.
 
If I'm going to carry a 40-plus ounce revolver, it will be either .45 LC or .41 Mag
Click to expand...

My Charter Arms Bull dog is like 19oz empty No where near 40 ounce and lighter than my steel frame J frames . recoil isn't a problem and carries nicely.
 
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