9 mm or 44 Special?

Status
Not open for further replies.
I have a few 9mm, but I'm considering buying a 44 special (Charter Arms Bulldog)
What your opinion as a defensive round?
HUGE tradeoffs trading 9mm out of a semi for 44sp out of a Bulldog.

My Bulldogs have chopped barrels so they’re extra bad, but if you want to match typical 9mm muzzle energy with your 44s, you might be surprised how much it murders your hand.

You also might be surprised at the chainsaw blade of a grip that Charter Arms puts right at the web of your hand.

Get ready to be wiping blood off your grips at the end of every four-cylinder “.range session”

And get ready to finish emptying a whole cylinder at a target, and then wonder if the bullets are actually coming out of the gun

But when you’re rolling around in a parking lot with bottle fragments getting ground into your face, and it’s time to put a stop to the adventure, you might find out you’re glad to be running a one-inch long, cylinder-fed barrel.

Any semi guys run their drills with a 250-pound friend stomping them, for realism?
 
For everyday carry/ self-defense, how comfortable would you be with a 5-shot revolver against multiple armed assailants? I'm thinking here of 2-3 thugs with knives or handguns instead of just 1 thug.
 
The .44 Special is an excellent stopper. Very well thought of. It is the size of a 9mm expanded and all things being equal, bigger bullets tend to work better. It joins the ranks of the other big and heavies as the .45 Colt’s and .44-40 as an excellent manstopper.

However, a Charter Arms Bulldog is not the type of revolver I’d trust my life to. Look for a used S&W 696 for a truly dependable revolver. The Charter Arms is a cheapie and not meant to be fired regularly. I am of the opinion to maintain proficiency with a carry gun, it SHOULD be fired regularly. The Smith will last your lifetime and then some no matter how much it is fired even with stiff specials. Buffalo Bore makes some excellent and full power defensive loading that are not recommend in the Charter, but can be safely fired all day in the Smith.
 
Hockey,

I would try a Bulldog with the load I want to carry first.

I have a Bulldog and with some of the more powerful loads, it can be a painful experience. I know that everybody likes to say what a great, easy recoiling and powerful round the .44 Special, but they usually are referencing that with the S&W model 24 or a full size single action like the RUGER Blackhawk. In my model 24 and my .44 magnum, those cowboy loads that are still available, are like shooting .38 Special's in a S&W model 10 or 15. Pleasant and they make a bigger hole on "PAPER". The old "KEITH" style loads that made the .44 Special's reputation as a man or bear stopper might damage your Bulldog or your hand, maybe both. I have shot the 246 grain lead round nose (lrn) in my Bulldog and the recoil is not bad, but the round is weak and less effective, if not much less effective for self defense than a 9m.m. with a premium bullet or even my .38 Special loaded with the FEDERAL HST load. In fact, I would prefer just about any +P .38 Special hollow point for self defense over the 246 grain rnl .44 Special.
If you upgrade to more powerful and effective loads, your recoil goes up. I used to shoot WINCHESTER Silver Tips in my Bulldog, but think the CCI 200 grain jhp is a better choice. Still recoil is noticeable and this is a mild load. I tried a .44 Special 250 semi wadcutter load going about 900 fps once. Never fired that load again in the Bulldog.

When the Bulldog was introduced, the standard pressure .38 Special rnl bullet was still the round carried by most people carrying a snub nose .38. It was WEAK and the .44 was a general improvement. With the introduction of more effective +P loads in the .38 Special, you can do more or at least as much damage using a +P .38 Special without the heavy recoil.

I love shooting .44 Special ammo in my S&W model 24 and it should be fine in say a RUGER GP-100 or S&W 69, but I think the Bulldog is too light to effectively use ammo that is more powerful than the best .38 Special +P self defense ammo.

You may not be as recoil intolerant as I am, so you want to carry that ammo, ok, but try them out side by side with a compact 9m.m. like the GLOCK 26 or SPRINGFIELD ARMORY XD9 Sub Compact (my choice) and see which works better. I know which one works better for me.

JIm
 
Last edited:
One of my friends shot my Bulldog and thought it stung a bit, but the recoil seems moderate to me. I'm thinking felt recoil is very subjective, linked to hand size and shape and various other things.

As several others have mentioned, 44 special, 45acp, and "normal" 45colt all feel about the same to me if shot from similar handguns. IIRC, they usually have similar-sized bullets and similar velocities.

It's okay for people to carry what they're most comfortable with. I'm more comfortable with a revolver, but that's just me.
 
With a 44 Special, a much greater chance of achieving that elusive one shot stop. And with a revolver no problem with it going out of battery if you have to press it against your enemy's belly.
 
The Charter is a great gun for what its intended to do, think of it a compact lightweight 5 shot .45 ACP. Nothing wrong with a good compact 9mm either. Sounds like the dilemma is revolver of semi-auto more than .44 vs. 9mm. Evaluate your needs, carry style, comfort level then decide on what gun fits your lifestyle the best. I have no problem with 5 rounds, I have carried revolvers for years. I do also carry a Kahr CM9, 7 shot 9, nice to have a quick reload. But as calibers go, I love the .44 and better when contact is made INMHO

As an afterthought most .44 Special rounds marketed today are low pressure, relative light bullets for the caliber. I don't think too many are shooting Keith loads in their Bulldog more than 1 cylinder a year full. I do load the 255 Keith SWC lightly for the my Bulldog. Still a bit of a thump but bigger at the other end.
 
Last edited:
I'm late to the game, but Hockey7711 it looks like decision made in post #6.
It's as good a decision as most others. Shoot it (either one), practice with it (either one), use it (either one). Only other alternative is ... both o_O

-jb, belt and suspenders
 
In my world, bigger is better. Some guys like a 9mm, personally it's probably one of the last cartridges is consider for carry. It's just not my cup of tea. I do like some puny cartridges but 9x19 just isn't one of them.
 
I have both, and carry both. I rotate weekly. 9mm Shield is loaded with HST 124 and my Rossi 720 is loaded with Underwood 200 Wadcutters. I know if I do my part in a "need to use situation", the gun, caliber and bullets will do theirs. I never feel under gunned with either.
 
Don't know if you are under a 10 round limit, I'll use that in my answer.
44 special and 38 special are okay defensive rounds but are typically 5-6 round capacity which I'll call capacity deficient.
Why? I'll explain. On average it takes two hits to incapacitate a single attacker.
Police average about 50% hits with "duty" size pistols, under stress of life & death we shall generously assign the same hit ratio.
It is possible that 4 rounds could be fired to score two hits (and hopefully incapacitate) a single attacker.
What if there are two attackers? Rhetorical question. It could happen. Not enough ammo.
Using the possible 10 round limit mentioned in line 1, a Glock 26 or 9mm 1911 would be preferred over 44 special.

Disclaimer: Implied (understood) but not stated was that the 9mm can be shot just as quick & accurate as the revolver.
 
Why would anyone want to shoot Keith loads in a Bulldog Pug for self-defense? That's just silly.

Wadcutters in a .44 Special are the way to go it seems to me. No need to drive them at a 1000fps because they don't have to expand and even at 750fps they're going to penetrate well enough. I loaded up some 215gr button nose bullets from Matts for just this purpose. They'll let all the air out of any human attacker I may need to shoot.

If you're in the woods where you might have to go at it with a large hog, bear, etc why would you be doing this with a pocket pistol? Carry something more suited to the task.

All of this said though - for my personal circumstances - I carry a nine. I really like the 44, but cannot conceal one the way I can a 9, at least until my circumstances change anyway.

My dad used to carry a Bulldog Pug in 44 back in the day (the original company). Loaded with 240gr factory loads it was a handful, but could be managed. He was carrying pretty sizable bank deposits back then, but felt like he could handle the business with that Bulldog.
 
I wouldn’t trust my life to a Charter Arms product, especially one chambered for a cartridge with much recoil. I have had nothing but negative experiences with CA products.
 
I wouldn’t trust my life to a Charter Arms product, especially one chambered for a cartridge with much recoil. I have had nothing but negative experiences with CA products.
Something is seriously wrong in Connecticut.

They had an ad up for a QC manager a couple months ago, so maybe things will change. They’ll need to make QC a VP level gig if they want to keep existing as a company, I believe.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top