Why do you love/hate the .44 magnum?

.44 Mag---meh

Don't love it, don't hate it. Shot it, owned, it, am honestly indifferent to it. Tried it, didn't do much for me. Think I still have a set of dies, but unlikely to ever use them.

Love?
--I do love my .45LC. That ashcan-sized case is a natural for handloaders, and I take advantage of it.
--I love my .41 Mag. Maybe the red-headed stepchild aspect, maybe its rarity...maybe because, again, I am a handloader and the .41 is well suited to handloading.
--I love my .357 Mag(s). Probably because that was my first serious revolver cartridge. Again, if you are a handloader...perhaps more options than any other cartridge.
 
It's funny how recoil changes a person. I've never worried a whole lot about it, but never sought it out either. Now, I keep hearing people ask me "doesn't that hurt?" Well, not really...

I never did like my .243. I used to have broken blood vessels after shooting it for a few boxes. As long as I have a pad, I'll shoot nearly anything else all day long. No, I've never fired a belted magnum, and no, it ain't gonna happen.


I have only fired a .44 a few times. It was slightly loaded down, I think. The recoil wasn't so much an issue as the entire thing, the blast, the noise, the rattling of the lights at the range, the rush of flame and clouds of incandescent smoke... Just don't go in for the big bang. I just fired my .357 for the first time in many years. Nothing changed.
 
recoil buys you nothing. Not a bit 'fun'. Just hard on the wrists with useless noise and blast and can make one develop a flinch which can affect accuracy.
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I kind of enjoy the flash and drama and especially how the holes appear in paper where I want them. It's a means to an end.
 
The 41 mag police load was the intended normal load for the 41 mag revolver when it was first created. My understanding was that the load was not commonly available and police departments that tested the gun used the full magnum loading and found it to be difficult for an average officer to handle.

It's sort of water under the bridge at this point as I don't believe any police departments issue revolvers as a primary gun.

The only lower powered loading that I am aware of is one from GA Arms in what they called a cowboy load at 800 fps (210 gr semi-wadcutter) and a bit wimpy. I believe the police loading was around 950 fps.

I am fully aware that I can reload them to about 1000-1100 fps or so if I choose to.
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Ah yes--consulting my speer manual I see the police round around 1000fps mentioned and I forgot about that. I can hand load and fire a stout 41 mag cartridge that performs as well as a good 44 mag without as much recoil impact--at least for my comfort level. The 41 also has better trajectory performance than the 44--though at the distances I use either one it isn't a deciding factor for me. If only someone would produce a (reasonably-priced) 41 mag rifle/carbine I would be a much happier man!

I also firmly believe that if more people tried the 44 mag out of a good lever carbine--they wouldn't give 44 up after being disappointed with the 44 in a handgun. I LOVE shooting full-power 44 mag loads through my 16" rossi carbine.
 
I love the .44 magnum because, as Dirty Harry said in Magnum Force, I hit what I aim at. The .44 magnum can be soft loaded for fun shooting, loaded up to "special" specs for 2-legged critters (which is what Harry also claimed he fired) or loaded full house for decisively taking down any North American critter short of a grizzly. What's not to love about the gun that can handle such a range of duties? It's size and heft? Yup, ya almost gotta be a big man like me to like the heft of a .44.... fits me like a glove. And recoil? Depends on the load and the particular hand cannon. My 8 inch model 29s are sweet shooters, recoil is smooth and easy to roll with. But when ya get down into 4" barrels and shorter....
 
The most accurate handguns I've owned were .44 mag. They kick to hard for me now at 70. I would buy a 4" model 29 if the right deal came along, for .44 specials.
 
I've always wondered if there was something special about the .429 bore. So many other cartridges have special properties at certain weight, profiles, velocities, loading that just transcends what would ordinarily be expected.
 
I don't hate it, but it should step aside to the Improved .44 Mag - aka the .45 Colt, aka ".45 Long Colt". :) Yeah, I know, it post-dates the Colt, but not the high pressure .45 colt rounds and the guns that can handle them, which bests the .44 mag with equal pressures (or the same performance with less pressure). Not to mention more "standardized" bullet diameter, compatible with other popular big bores - .45 acp, .454 casull, .460 S&W mag.
 
Look at the history. The reason we have a .44 Mag is because Elmer started with the .45 and after blowing up a few seeking the load level he wanted, to went to the .44 Special to use for development.

It was simply a matter of what guns existed at the time, when he was working up loads. IF Elmer Keith had been able to use a Ruger Blackhawk .45 Colt, we'd probably have no .44 Magnum today.

I don't know the exact details of what happened, but the story told is that he took his load to Remington, and then told S&W about it. S&W supposedly said "we can wrap a gun around anything Remington makes", and the .44 Mag was born.

Ruger actually beat S&W, and got their .44Mag on the market before S&W did, by a little bit.

As to the .41, Remington used to make a 210gr LSWC at a listed 950fps. Not sure if they still do.

The .41 history is both tragic and ironic. Leading gun writers of the time felt the ideal police revolver (and remember the revolver was undisputed king at the time) felt that a 40-41 cal, 180-200gr bullet at 900-1000fps would be best. Giving adequate stopping power and light enough recoil for good control.

What they got was the .41 Mag. The police load would have been excellent, BUT, in another of Remington's "classic" blunders they concentrated on producing the magnum load ammunition FIRST (210JHP/JSP @ 1200fps), so when police agencies were actually interested in testing the .41, the only ammo commonly available was the magnum load.

Which was found to be unsatisfactory for police use. By the time quantities of the police load were available, the police were no longer interested.

The ironic thing is that if you compare the .41 police load to the .40 S&W, you find nearly identical size bullets at similar speed. And we all know how popular the .40 is.
 
I don't see much meat in that ^ argument (.45 Colt hot vs .44 Mag) because the .454/.460 S&W may indeed be the same diameter but you'll be ruining revolvers if you go ahead and run .45 Colt bullets to the full fury and capability of those chamberings. Add on top the fact that "hot" .45 Colt or "Ruger, TC, Freedom only" .45 Colt is not SAAMI sanctioned... what you are left with is a relationship that, between .44 Mag/hot .45 Colt that is awfully similar to comparing .41/.44 Magnum.

Or to put my thoughts in to different terms, I much prefer judging a cartridge on it's own merits and leaving OTHER cartridges out of the argument.

Just my take... on your take. ;)
 
here are a few VERY good reasons why the .45 colt was dismissed. First, the colt did not have solid heads, they were balloon heads. Next, by reducing bore diameter to .429 from .454 added a great deal of metal to the cylinder, and strengthened it very much. Pushing the .45 to magnum levels destroyed his guns during testing, so,seriously, they abandoned the colt because the current handguns in that caliber were in no way adequate for those charges. Even now, you have guns and ammo that aren't compatible. When duck casull developed his handgun, then the super powered ,45 was possible.

Btw, the story is that Smith was testing rounds at a range, and left some brass. An engineer who worked with ruger found it, turned it over to them, and they reverse engineered to create a Blackhawk capable of firing the cartridge.
 
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I believe that Bill Jordan was part of the team that created the .41. I believe that otherwise, he preferred a.357.
 
But this is what I'm saying - had we had modern metallurgy, we wouldn't have the .44 mag, which is NOW superfluous, since NOW we do have modern metallurgy, and always will from here on out.

I don't see much meat in that ^ argument (.45 Colt hot vs .44 Mag) because the .454/.460 S&W may indeed be the same diameter but you'll be ruining revolvers if you go ahead and run .45 Colt bullets to the full fury and capability of those chamberings
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But my only argument there is not that; but simply "using the same stock of bullets" for all, if you shoot 2 of the 3, or all 3 (and choose to run the same bullet) is more simple & convenient - no need to stock up on both .429s and .452s.

And if you're suggesting that running what Buffalo Bore and reloading manuals call ".45 Colt +P" or "Ruger only" loads will ruin revolvers, that would be incorrect. Not if you're using the correct revolvers. And certainly not any more so than the hot .44 mag would, in said correct revolvers.

I don't think you were saying that, but even if you didn't, just to be clear -- no one is suggesting running .45 Colt to .454 Casull or higher levels. .45 Colt +P is a definite pressure notch below .454 Casull, AND is still more powerful (by a smidge) than the hottest .44 mag IINM - which is why I say .44 mag is "superfluous" at this point in time.
 
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Actually, what I mean is that running .45 Colt slugs in a .454/.460 at the pressures those cartridges run at, will damage revolvers. Forcing cones, specifically, as the lightly jacketed (in comparison to the magnum bullets) will warp and fail at the extreme pressure which is far beyond their design scope.

It's why we have to use the XTP-Mag bullets for handloading those two cartridges. A bullet that works fine at 1,500 fps gets thrown around at over 2,000 and it will slam in to the barrel out of round from the fury of 60,000 psi behind it.

You end up with the same diameter of bullet... but two different classes of capable projectiles.

I think .45 Colt is fine and has a Hall of Fame kind of place in history, but what "hot Ruger/Freedom .45 Colt" does is the same thing that .38-44 or .38 Hi-V did before someone stopped, said "you know... fools and the uninformed will blow up guns with this stuff..." and the .357 Magnum was born.

.357 doesn't need that tiny bit of extra brass over .38. Doesn't need that space at all. It just really, really needs to -NOT- fit in a .38.

.45 Colt is still going to fit in a Colt from the 1800's... no matter what freaky load we have stuffed in it. And SAAMI thinks that is a bad idea because SAAMI knows that their end game is trying to keep the lowest common denominator from leaving blood stains on the industry we enjoy.
 
Buffalo Bore's hottest 44 mag and 45 Colt.

44 Mag 340Gr at 1478fps/M.E.1,648 ft.lbs.

45 Colt 325Gr at 1325fps/M.E.1,267 ft.lbs.

Both over standard pressure loads, commercially available.
I wouldn't want to shoot either of these!
 
But this is what I'm saying - had we had modern metallurgy, we wouldn't have the .44 mag, which is NOW superfluous, since NOW we do have modern metallurgy, and always will from here on out.
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I don't think it was metallurgy. it was the cylinder cuts for the .45 made for a thin spot whereas the .44 special had more steel in the same spot and was thus stronger for over pressured loads.

In the case of .454 they made it a 5 shot which gave them all the steel they would ever need by offsetting the cylinder cuts between bores, metallurgy notwithstanding.
 
I don't particularly like the 44 magnum, but some years ago I had a run in with a not so small black bear on a fishing trip, I decided that my .357 was not big enough had it been necessary to use it, the 44 is a little more cumbersome to lug around.

I don't shoot my 44 Redhawk very often, enough to be confident in my abilities with it, but I don't consider it fun to shoot. I shoot a full tilt (1500 fps) 240 grain GC SWC out of it almost exclusively.
 
Recoil, flinch, boom? Anyone wanna weigh in on the 45 WinMag?
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Some, NO, and Absolutely! :D

Recoil? sure. Basic physics. Significant?? Depends on the shooter. It absolutely isn't your daddy's .45ACP.

Flinch? Flinch is a shooter issue, NOT a cartridge issue.

Boom? OH yeah. Any round that ignites 20+gr of powder from a 6" or 8" barrel is going to have plenty of "boom".

IN THE RIGHT GUNS, the .44 Mag, .44AMP, .45 Colt, & .45WM can all launch a ~250gr bullet into the 1400fps range. This data can be found in the standard reloading manuals, so should be achievable by the ordinary reloader.

You CAN go beyond that, but, when you do, you are "off the map, laddie, and there be monsters here! ARRRRR!!!" :D

Similar results out of the muzzle means similar recoil. The only difference is in how the guns, and the shooter "feel" it.

With full house loads, my Auto Mag, Wildey, and LAR GRIZZLY are more pleasant to shoot (in my hands) than my S&W M29, OR my Ruger SuperBlackhawk or Blackhawk.

They are more pleasant to shoot because #1) the guns are HEAVIER, and #2) they have drastically different shaped grips.

If you put these rounds in an IDENTICAL gun (such as my T/C Contender) they are ALL equally uncomfortable at max load levels.

Personally, I have no interest in the uber heavy bullets (for caliber) that are so popular on the internet today. The only 300gr bullet I shoot out of a handgun is the light .45 RIFLE bullet from my .45-70 Contender.

Energy comes at a cost. The cost is recoil. For what I get, there is a limit to what I'm willing to pay. Clearly lots of people are willing to pay more for getting more, which is why there is a .454 Casull and a .460 S&W, etc.

For those who think the .44 Mag is now obsolescent because there are bigger and more powerful rounds on the market, show me one in the same size & weight packages as a .44Mag. (seriously, not a taunt, I am not well versed in what monster magnums are available).

I know there are "snub nose" (<4") monster mag guns out there. But what do you actually get? (power vs recoil?)

Buffalo Bore (and any others in the same class) have fantastic specs on paper. According to what I've heard, they pretty much do what is claimed, sometimes even a bit more. That is wonderful!

If that is what you want, open your wallet and blaze away! I don't shoot them, because I am CHEAP, and my handloads do everything I ever asked them to do.

Please, don't bother me with how my choices are surpassed by this, or that. Everything is "outperformed" in some way, by something else.

Understand, I'm not knocking your guns, or your loads. Trust me, I've heard it all before from the duty/self defense class gun guys about my magnum autopistols. Too big, too heavy, nobody needs, too much recoil, not enough rounds, and so forth.

They aren't comfortable with the niche I'm in, like I'm not comfortable with a higher level than where I already am. But, I don't tell them choices are inferior because there is something more powerful out there. Nor, do I think anyone should tell me the same.
 
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