Would it be foolish to to pair a .44 spl only revolver with a .44 mag rifle?

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Jason_W

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The next gun on my to-buy list is a companion revolver for my Marlin 1894 in .44 mag. Having owned a .44 mag wheelgun in the past, I know that firing full power magnum rounds isn't what I'd personally call an enjoyable experience. .44 specials through a full sized revolver, are typically pretty pleasant.

I'm not really planning to hunt with the handgun (if bagging game with a rifle ever becomes too easy, I'll reassess) so I'm thinking that there's little reason to have the extra metal metal and bulk of a .44 mag revolver if I'm mostly going to fire specials through it. I'm in California, so most of my ammo will come from handloading shortly, making the decreased availability and increased cost of specials moot.

Still, I'd lose the ability to fire any .44 ammo I have from any .44 gun.
 
It makes perfect sense to me. You don't like shooting full power .44 magnums in a revolver, so the .44 Special does the trick, and unless I'm sorely mistaken, you can still shoot the Specials through the rifle.

Sam
 
Because you're going to be handloading, you could load down the .44 Mag to a level that is comfortable to shoot in a revolver.

Then you would have the interchangeability of any of your .44 cartridges in any of your .44 guns. The revolver will shoot the full boogie cartridges for your rifle, it just won't be particularly pleasant.
 
FWIW ...

I have a Marlin 1894 & S&W 629-1 3" that I purchased about 30 years ago.

I also own a pair of .44spl Bulldogs that I acquired much more recently.

If I were going to purchase a single pistol to go with my 1894, it would be one chambered for .44mag rather than one that could only handle the .44spl.

My 629 is much more fun & accurate to shoot .44spls out of than my Bulldogs. :)
 
Jason_W said:
...bulk of a .44 mag revolver
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The newish S&W Model 69 is an L-frame five shooter, not as bulky as the six shot .44's. I have no experience with it but have had quite a good experience with the L-frame in .357.
 
I don't see a problem. Rifle and pistol loads for the same cartridge are often quite different. In my case, I like 200 grain JHP in my SBH and 240 grain JHP in my Marlin.
 
I'd be cautious, some guns will probably chamber a magnum round even tho they are chambered for .44 Special. I would stick with the Magnum chambered gun. You can download .44 Mags if the recoil is too much for you.
 
Jason_W said:
companion revolver for my Marlin 1894
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Howdy

It depends on what you mean by 'companion revolver for my Marlin 1894'.

If you want to carry both of them in the field while hunting, I do not recommend carrying two different cartridges, one for the revolver and one for the rifle. That's just asking for a mixup to happen. There was a very good reason that Colt began chambering the SAA for 44-40 not long after Winchester introduced the cartridge. So a cowboy only had to buy one box of cartridges, and they would work in both his revolver and his rifle. True, if you buy a 44 Special revolver you will not be able to chamber a 44 Mag in it, at least you should not be able to, but you might run some 44 Specials into the magazine of your 44 Mag rifle and be surprised when they don't perform as you expect them to.

I completely sympathize with not wanting to carry the extra weight of a 44 Mag revolver. I only have two 44 Mag revolvers, but I have lots of 44 Special revolvers, and they are all lighter than a 44 Mag. But if you truly want the rifle and revolver to be companions, they will be chambered for the same cartridge.

Of course, if you are simply talking about informal shooting at the range, that's a different story. But you still would have two boxes of cartridges out on the bench at one time, and you could still plop some 44 Specials into your rifle. Not a problem of course, the rifle should cycle and shoot the 44 Specials fine, but it still might be a surprise.

Even if you load up light 44 Mag loads for a 44 Mag revolver, you will still have to be keeping track of what goes into which.

I know of what I speak, I am one of the only guys I know in CAS who shoots 45 Colts in his revolvers, and 44-40 in his rifles. I have quite a little system to keep me from shoving a 45 Colt into my rifle, because that would jam the whole thing up and I would have to take it apart to get the offending round out.

Yes, it happened to me. Only once so far, knock on wood.
 
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Driftwood Johnson said:
Howdy

It depends on what you mean by 'companion revolver for my Marlin 1894'.

If you want to carry both of them in the field while hunting, I do not recommend carrying two different cartridges, one for the revolver and one for the rifle. That's just asking for a mixup to happen. There was a very good reason that Colt began chambering the SAA for 44-40 not long after Winchester introduced the cartridge. So a cowboy only had to buy one box of cartridges, and they would work in both his revolver and his rifle. True, if you buy a 44 Special revolver you will not be able to chamber a 44 Mag in it, at least you should not be able to, but you might run some 44 Specials into the magazine of your 44 Mag rifle and be surprised when they don't perform as you expect them to.

I completely sympathize with not wanting to carry the extra weight of a 44 Mag revolver. I only have two 44 Mag revolvers, but I have lots of 44 Special revolvers, and they are all lighter than a 44 Mag. But if you truly want the rifle and revolver to be companions, they will be chambered for the same cartridge.

Of course, if you are simply talking about informal shooting at the range, that's a different story. But you still would have two boxes of cartridges out on the bench at one time, and you could still plop some 44 Specials into your rifle. Not a problem of course, the rifle should cycle and shoot the 44 Specials fine, but it still might be a surprise.

Even if you load up light 44 Mag loads for a 44 Mag revolver, you will still have to be keeping track of what goes into which.

I know of what I speak, I am one of the only guys I know in CAS who shoots 45 Colts in his revolvers, and 44-40 in his rifles. I have quite a little system to keep me from shoving a 45 Colt into my rifle, because that would jam the whole thing up and I would have to take it apart to get the offending round out.

Yes, it happened to me. Only once so far, knock on wood.
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More good points.

My other option is to treat my rifle like it's a .44 special. I'll mostly be using the pair for fun at the range, so why burn all that powder for nothing? On account of being a denizen of the great stucco sprawl of brown, dry sadness that is the Sacramento metro area, I honestly don't know when I'll be able to hunt next.
 
My companion pair is a 16" Stainless steel Rossi 92 carbine and a 5" 629-6.

They generally eat the same fodder depending what the task at hand is.

Light plinking is 200gr plated RN loaded in special brass.

Full power plinking is a 240gr SWC over a stout charge of 2400

Hunting is a 240gr XTP over 4227. This load is also the most accurate in both.

I generally only have one load on my person at any given time. And it gets shot it whichever I'm "feelin" at the moment. If I'm taking my fiancé to the range it'll probably be the special load, and she'll shoot either gun with that ammo. Depends on her mood. If I'm at deer camp, I'll put a handful of the XTP load in the pocket on my blaze oranges and carry on business as usual with whichever firearm I take afield.
 
I'm not worried about it - at all.

I routinely OC my S&W 329PD in .44 Mag all day every day and have for 6 years now. Since this is the scandium framed .44 Mag, it's a pretty simple equation:

.44 Specials = pussycat

.44 mags = pain. As in lots of pain. I'm a big guy, with big hands; it's painful after a couple dozen rounds or so.

I'll load up some .44 mag rounds for the M1894, using Magnus Bullets 250 grain hard casts. This will be my short range deer/coyote/bad guy load.

Carry the 250 grain Mags for the M1894 (probably just keep the mag full) and carry my usual . 44 Specials Hornadys for the 329PD.
 
I don't see a problem with pairing a .44 special revolver with a .44 magnum carbine. This time of year, I carry concealed a 3" Charter classic .44 special Bulldog loaded with Buffalo Bore 200 grain wadcutter anti-personnel loads, not a round that feeds in carbines. I often pair my Charter Bulldog with a 16" Puma R92 loaded with heavy .44 magnum 250 grain SWC's and head up the ridge for an outing. The .44 special is more than adequate as a belt gun cartridge and a carbine loaded with magnums works pretty darn well on critters.
 
The trick to 44spl is finding a gun to shoot it in. That in itself is enough to push me to 44mag simply for the variety of options and ability to find one that fits what you want. Couple that to the availability of spl vs mag ammo and brass and again I am pushed to light loaded mags. Looking at interchangeability, again, pushed to mags as some guns will not reliably feed the shorter spl. It's clear to see which direction I would go. SA would be a Super Blackhawk, DA would be a Mountain Gun.
 
Many good points, for sure. I give Driftwood a ditto though. I don't recommend two different cartridges either. (If it was mentioned already, I apologize...), Do you have any 4-legged critters you might have to be concerned about? A magnum round would certainly dispatch them quicker, (while your rifle is propped over there against the tree!). Like FTG, I carried the 329PD, very comfortable. In Alaska it was a Ruger .454 for the bigger bears, but, I don't know if you have anything like that to deal with. If you do, I'd stay magnum with magnum, IMHO.
 
If you have a stout load and a mild load in .44 magnum, and two serviceable .44 magnum guns, no disaster will follow if, by mistake, you shoot one load in place of the other.

To help you keep one handload straight from the other, .44 Mag cases are sold in both plain brass and nickel plated finishes.
 
Jason_W, if you are going to reload I'd get a 44 Magnum revolver for back up to the 44 Magnum rifle for hunting.

For hunting, you could just carry one loading and for a possible revolver shot, put up with the recoil.

Or, I load my 44 Magnum revolver rounds down where they are pleasant to shoot and I do not have to worry about cleaning out the carbon ring build up that might occur if I shoot 44 Special ammunition in the 44 Magnum chambered gun.

I agree with Driftwood Johnson about two cartridges but at least with having two 44 Magnum guns, you would only have one case and both could be fired in either the rifle or the revolver. There are any number of ways to differentiate the ammunition from each other. Different bullets, color marking, or load revolver rounds in speed loaders are a couple easy ways that come to mind.

If you are looking for something that is fun at the range, then get the 44 Special.

I do like 44 Special revolvers, I have a couple. There is something special about shooting 44 Special in a gun chambered for 44 Special.:)
 
I don't think it's a big deal. The safety is between your ears. If you like something only offered in 44spl then by all means buy it.

If it's only because you don't like 44 mag in handguns, since you will be reloading, you can down load 44 mag cases to 44spl velocities Or shoot 44 spl in your 44 mag revolver.

But to not buy a firearm because of a potential mixup in cartridges is ridiculous in my opinion. Nobody says you shouldn't own a 38 spl handgun if you own 357's. Or that you shouldn't own a 45 colt if you shoot 44 mag, etc etc. It's up to you to put the correct ammunition in your firearm.
 
Jason_W said:
The next gun on my to-buy list is a companion revolver for my Marlin 1894 in .44 mag. Having owned a .44 mag wheelgun in the past, I know that firing full power magnum rounds isn't what I'd personally call an enjoyable experience. .44 specials through a full sized revolver, are typically pretty pleasant.

I'm not really planning to hunt with the handgun (if bagging game with a rifle ever becomes too easy, I'll reassess) so I'm thinking that there's little reason to have the extra metal metal and bulk of a .44 mag revolver if I'm mostly going to fire specials through it. I'm in California, so most of my ammo will come from handloading shortly, making the decreased availability and increased cost of specials moot.

Still, I'd lose the ability to fire any .44 ammo I have from any .44 gun.
Click to expand...
If you are going to be reloading, problem solved. Just find a load that is magnum in its intensity but reasonable to shoot a couple cylinders full. That will still provide substantial performance in the rifle. One of my 44 Magnums is a Sauer Montana Marshal, which is SAA in its mechanics and style. I use a moderate loading of 9.5 grains of Unique with 240 gr Lazercast, to which I add a coating of alox. I have XTPs available for the Marlin, but could use the sticky sidearm round if necessary.

I should add that carrying the two together, for me, is only in theory, but I do have more than one revolver caliber rifle paired with a revolver that can share ammo.
 
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I don't see a problem, I do it all the time, quite often with .44Colt revolvers. I might even carry a .44Spl rifle and a .44Mag sixgun! I cannot fathom it being a problem to carry both . 44Spl and .44Mag ammo in the field. Even on the same cartridge belt. The two cartridges are two different lengths and .44Mag will not chamber in a .44Spl. :confused:

Nor is it an issue finding good .44Spl sixguns.

Nor has it ever been an issue to find .44Spl brass.
 
Only problem I see is if the rifle breaks and you're out of specials.
 
CraigC said:
I don't see a problem, I do it all the time, quite often with .44Colt revolvers. I might even carry a .44Spl rifle and a .44Mag sixgun! I cannot fathom it being a problem to carry both . 44Spl and .44Mag ammo in the field. Even on the same cartridge belt. The two cartridges are two different lengths and .44Mag will not chamber in a .44Spl. :confused:

Nor is it an issue finding good .44Spl sixguns.

Nor has it ever been an issue to find .44Spl brass.
Click to expand...

For a time I was interested in finding a .44 spl. levergun, but there's only one that I know of and it was way out of my price range.
 
Cimarron imports Uberti 1873's and 1866's in .44Spl.

IMG_7295b.jpg
 
wankerjake said:
I don't think it's a big deal. The safety is between your ears. If you like something only offered in 44spl then by all means buy it.

If it's only because you don't like 44 mag in handguns, since you will be reloading, you can down load 44 mag cases to 44spl velocities Or shoot 44 spl in your 44 mag revolver.

But to not buy a firearm because of a potential mixup in cartridges is ridiculous in my opinion. Nobody says you shouldn't own a 38 spl handgun if you own 357's. Or that you shouldn't own a 45 colt if you shoot 44 mag, etc etc. It's up to you to put the correct ammunition in your firearm.
Click to expand...
I agree with wankerjake, this is not a big deal! It would be nice to have the .44 Mag rifle for deer or other big game and the .44 Special for something smaller to put in the pot. Personally, I'd have no problem shooting deer with a .44 Special, so if you happen to get that real close shot do it with the handgun. Also, I like the fact that there's a ton of history associated with both calibers.
 
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