Finally shot my 44 mag today

[OneShot]

I finally got to shoot my new (to me) 29-2 , 44mag today!

I had never shot a 44 before today and was expecting a really bad recoil from some of what I have read here and other places. I was pleasantly suprised by how shootable the gun was. It's a 6" barreled model and is quite heavy which might have helped in that dept. I went through a whole box of shells with no difficulties at all. This gun sure is accurate.

I guess I'll finally have to get into reloading as I'm going to want to shoot it more and it's just too expensive to keep buying ammo.

How harsh is the recoil on the lighter versions of the 44 mag.? Is it a lot worse then mine? I'd really like to have a shorter barreled version .--Oneshot

 

[444]

We keep reading that recoil is subjective. Ok, maybe so. To me, the recoil of a normal sized .44 Mag is not worth talking about. Yeah, it recoils, so what. It doesn't injure you or anything. I found the .454 to be in a totally different league, it will hurt you if you don't watch what you are doing.

There was a time when people considered the .357 to be a monster caliber. I believe that Wesson went all over North America and took every big game animal he could think of with the .357. Now we don't consider the .357 to be adequate for whitetail deer. When the .44 Mag came out, we thought it was a howitzer. Ridiculous in power and recoil. Only the biggest and most experienced shooters need apply. Now a .454 is considered middle of the road in comparison to calibers like the .475 and .500 Linebaugh.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I guess I'll finally have to get into reloading as I'm going to want to shoot it more and it's just too expensive to keep buying ammo.

If you like the accuracy with factory loads, wait until you work up the ideal light target load for your .44 magnum. It can be an uncannily accurate revolver.

 

[coldshot03/04]

For recoil try the PMC 240 grain SWC with Gas Check cartridge. Whew!!!

I have the Taurus M44 44mag with the 6in ported barrel. With the Winchester Silver Tips the gun was quite tame but when I switched to the 240gr PMC. Whew!! Flame Thrower comes to mind. Awesome round.

 

[Legionnaire]

coldshot, sounds fun! I'll have to try some through my 4" M44!

 

[coldshot03/04]

 

[kalibear45]

they do make 300gr bullets for the .44mag but I wouldn't shoot it out of yours. Suppose to have more recoil

 

[OneShot]

A Picture of the offending beast. Thanks for the replies guys--Oneshot

 

[digex]

I had never shot a 44 before today and was expecting a really bad recoil from some of what I have read here and other places. I was pleasantly suprised by how shootable the gun was.

I had the same experience with my Taurus 454. I was really nervous the first time I fired it, but found it to be very shootable.Recoil is definitely a subjective thing, and I've found that it's best to draw your own conclusions rather than believing what others say in this department.

 

[ExMachina]

Hey OneShot, that's a nice looking pistol! Congrats

-Dave

 

[glockten]

they do make 300gr bullets for the .44mag but I wouldn't shoot it out of yours

I've shot the Hornady 300gr. XTP-JHP in my 6.5" 29 Classic. Recoil is not excessive. Buffalo Bore and Cor-Bon also load a 300 in .44 Magnum, but I haven't tried them. Their published MV is 1300 fps, compared to 1150 for the Hornady.

 

[uglygun]

One of the more stiff recoiling factory rounds I have yet to fire are those UMC 180grn truncated cone loads at like 1600fps or whatever it is they claim for them.


I did around 100 rounds of those in a day only to come home later that day to spend a little time on the computer. For some reason whenever I tried to move my mouse cursor I noticed the that the cursor was jiggling slightly on the screen, it took me awhile to realise that my wrist was shaking ever so slightly from the workout it had received earlier in the day.



My normal blasting load is a jacketed 240grain soft point at more modest velocities, around 1000-1100fps and it's quite tolerable. But those 180grain UMC loads have quite a bit of snap to them out of my 4 inch barreled model 29.


I wonder how "fun" the new 329s would be with it?